In Connecticut Senate Race, McMahon Fights for Female Votes HARTFORD - If Linda E. McMahon is elected to the United States Senate from Connecticut, her victory will be due in large part to women like Dorothy Martin-Neville. Dr. Martin-Neville said she voted for Richard Blumenthal in Ms. McMahon's unsuccessful Senate race two years ago. She is a registered Democrat who says she will vote for President Obama, would rather see Democrats keep control of the Senate and has a brother who worked for Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts. But after meeting Ms. McMahon, the Republican nominee, at several of the approximately 200 all-female get-togethers Ms. McMahon has held across the state, she said she became an enthusiastic supporter. "I believe we need more women in politics," said Dr. Martin-Neville, a psychotherapist and motivational speaker. There are women in Washington who are working to create the common good, and we need more of them. I believe in Linda's approach to work across party lines and work for people, not the parties. In her 2010 race, the exit poll conducted by Edison Research showed that Ms. McMahon, the former professional wrestling executive, lost the women's vote by 19 percentage points, dooming a candidacy in which she spent $50 million of her own money. This time, she has focused relentlessly on female voters in a year when Democrats have tried to make the women's vote a trump card nationally. A Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday showed her tied with Representative Christopher S. Murphy, her Democratic opponent, and while she still does better among men, the poll showed Mr. Murphy with only a six-point advantage among women as they seek the Senate seat being vacated by Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent. And on the eve of their first debate Sunday, one of four this month, their entirely different approaches to courting women voters are at the heart of an election that has become a window onto the ways gender issues, explicitly and implicitly, can play out. Ms. McMahon has based her appeal on her record as a successful businesswoman and on a strikingly personal attempt to bond with women voters and, no doubt, to overcome the negative connotations many took last time from the wrestling company that created her fortune. She frequently refers to her Women for Linda network and has hosted gatherings of 35 or 40 women in living rooms across the state. Last month, she drew 519 supporters at a Women for Linda rally in Norwalk featuring former Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut and Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. She has run advertisements featuring a softer, kinder, more grandmotherly presence than the tough C.E.O. whose wrestling-industry background turned off women in 2010. They feature her reminiscing about how she met her husband in church, how she found out she was pregnant the day before graduating from college and how she overcame hard times, including a bankruptcy. "I'm a mom," she says in one campaign video as a piano plays gently in the background. I've been a working mom, I've been a stay-at-home mom. I'm a grandmother. And I believe that I bring to the table many skills, many attributes that others who are in this race don't have. Mr. Murphy, who has the support of women's groups like Naral and the National Organization for Women, is hammering at traditional Democratic support for abortion rights and access to contraception. He has focused on Ms. McMahon's support for the Blunt amendment, which would have allowed employers to refuse to cover contraception and other medical costs, and her commitment to overturning the Affordable Care Act. His speeches are full of dire warnings about the stakes for women on issues like federal financing for Planned Parenthood, control of the Supreme Court and protecting Roe v. Wade if a McMahon victory tips control of the Senate to the Republicans. Mr. Murphy frequently notes the violent, sometimes misogynistic content of her wrestling empire and her party's opposition to abortion. "She says that women shouldn't pay attention to her positions on the issues; they should just pay attention to her gender," Mr. Murphy said at an appearance last week. That's insulting. He added, "She's trying to pull one over on the people of this state." Of course, the race has been about more than gender. Ms. McMahon has pummeled Mr. Murphy on his failings in personal finance, including a 2007 foreclosure action for missing mortgage payments and a 2003 lawsuit for nonpayment of rent. And Democrats have jumped on a statement by Ms. McMahon that she would like to see provisions that they say could phase out Social Security. But women's issues have seldom been far from the surface. Ms. McMahon, showing an ability to withstand issues that have hurt Republicans elsewhere, said it was absurd for Mr. Murphy to attack her on women's issues. "Murphy calls me antiwomen, but, Chris, take a look," she says in a recent television ad. I am a woman, a pro-choice woman. It concludes, "I'm Linda McMahon, an independent-minded woman, and I approve this message." Her Web site, like much of her campaign material, is dominated by pictures of her with women: in a living room, at a luncheon meeting, on a factory floor. It features a female-friendly Pinterest site. Asked during her primary race to name a senator whom she most admires or hopes to emulate, Ms. McMahon picked the nation's most prominent female Democrat. "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent her life barreling through glass ceilings, only to be viciously attacked by her opponents," she said in an e-mail. But she has persevered and gone on to accomplish great things and serve our country admirably. We need more strong women in government. To many Democrats, Ms. McMahon's improved showing with women is more a product of shrewd marketing and seemingly limitless spending - more of her own money than anyone has spent to win a Senate seat - than anything meaningful. "This is a recrafting, a rebranding, a digitally enhanced makeover, but she's the same person," said Victoria Fennell, a Democratic Town Committee member from Hartford. When the dust settles, it will be the issues that matter, and he's the one with the right policies for women. On women's issues, as on others, Ms. McMahon often tends to avoid specifics. Some of her supporters say her history in business trumps social issues like abortion or contraception. "Social issues shouldn't even be part of the debate," said Jayme Stevenson, the first selectman of Darien and a McMahon supporter. We need to create jobs. Still, Ms. McMahon's ability to attract women, particularly women in business, has been a main reason polls show her tied in a race for a seat that had been assumed to be safely Democratic. "She's very genuine, and she's a role model for businesswomen across the state," said Maureen Boylan, who owns a corporate-events planning business. I think she represents the values of working women in Connecticut.