Monday roundup

Here's some material to nibble on...

• Chris Matthews speaks truth to stupid.

• Daily Kos calls the CT-05 race a toss up.
  
  

  CT-05 (Lean D to Tossup): After an extremely expensive and bruising primary, Democrats probably wound up putting their best foot forward in the form of ex-state Rep. Elizabeth Esty, though it's hard to say how strong of a candidate she is, since State House Speaker Chris Donovan had a wide lead in the polls before his campaign was brought low by a fundraising scandal. Republicans also waged a high-priced and messy battle, but-in a rare move for the GOP-they wound up nominating the candidate who is unquestionably their strongest choice, state Sen. Andrew Roraback. Roraback's moderate profile will definitely aid him in this district, Connecticut's least-blue, though his fundraising has been a fraction of Esty's. Nevertheless, this one looks like it'll be a serious fight until the end.

  Personally, at this point, I would call this race a sightly lean R as opposed to a toss up. Between several unions which make up the larget membership of the AFL-CIO giving Esty a thumbs-down at the John Olsen rigged COPE meeting last week, her continued problem with a portion of the Democratic base, and coming out of the gate attempting to label her well-known moderate Republican challenger as someone who's lock and step with his party, I fear that Democratic candidate who gave me a good laugh by giving your truly the cold shoulder at yesterday's Danbury DTC picnic has quite a way to go in terms of running an effective general elections campaign. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much time to get her act together since everybody knows that the GOP attack ads on her record (which will undoubtedly place the one term State Rep. on the defensive) are just around the corner.

• Chris Murphy attempts to take the gloves off against Linda McMahon.

• Over the next several days, I'll be reaching out to Democratic candidates who are running for State Senate and House seats. If you have a candidate you would like to see profiled here, drop me a line on Twitter at @ctblogger or @Myleftnutmeg.

Now you'll have to excuse me, it's opening day at the U.S. Open and James Blake is set to play soon...