Wooing women voters

>>> a poll commissioned by the conservative-leaning u.s. chamber of commerce shows linda mcmahon with a lead over democratic congressman murphy in the battle for connecticut's senate seat but that is within the margin of error. yesterday, the two squared off for the first time in a sometimes testy debate.

>> linda has a plan on the website but as we have learned a good part of that is just lifted word from word, paragraph by paragraph, from right wing republican sites in washington.

>> shame on you. you have just accused of me plagarizing my plan. it's beneath a congressman who's sitting today in congress or anyone running for the united states senate . you know very well that my plan is my own.

>> back with me to talk about the impact of women candidate this is election season, correspondent kelly wall wills and l ea goldman. good to see both of you back. thanks so much.

>> good to be here.

>> here's like the $6 million question and you think we might not be asking it in 2012 but we are. linda mcmahon was tough in that debate. is there a fine line for a woman candidate getting tough?

>> oh, absolutely. right? because we all know that. we see it even in the work world. a tough woman could be considered a name i won't say on your show. in 2010 , last time linda mcmahon ran, a 60% unfavorable rating. right? turned that around. 30-point higher favorables than unfavorables. how did she do that? a softer image. she's having these coffees around the state living rooms and kitchens and women connecting with her in a way. woman to woman . it seems to be working.

>> and this strategy, obviously, isn't coincidental. she lost women by 19 points in the last race.

>> she knows how important the women voters are and got slaughtered in the last campaign on the world wrestling entertainment branding and how anti-woman it seems and the image --

>> and the violence.

>> it's there for everyone to see. she's now playing the, look, i know the issues you are going through as a mom, as the breadwinner or as the person who handles the household finances. i've been through a bankruptcy and switching the narrative to be less about the content and more look what i've done. i know how to budget. i know how tough times are. i went through a bankruptcy. all those finer points.

>> she is among six republican women running for the senate compared to 12 democratic women . in the house, 116 women on the democratic side. 47 republicans. is there a good explain for that?

>> studies have shown that democratic women do better with women voters and often they're on the issues of health care , on economy, on issues of choice. but again, it is not always the case and so i think what you will be seeing certainly in the linda mcmahon race is see even senator gillibrand of new york, raising money for democratic candidates but she said, chris, i want more women in the senate period. because women work across party lines to get things done and having more women of both parties is a good thing and may be resonating with women across the country.

>> a recent study showed that women have just about the same success rank running for congress as men have. and yet, even with these numbers, far fewer women are running, obviously, than men. and it does beg the question why.

>> right. there's barriers to entry and there's certain bah pa parallels for women ceos and fundamental problems here, for example. it's not a well paying field. women can't afford to go in to. it's also difficult to unseat an incumbent. women , they're averse to -- it's not a pleasant business, the business of running for officer. it expensive. it's not, you know, it's not the most appealing profession right now. and the fact of the matter is that politicians have low favorability ratings. this is not a stellar period for, you know, higher office. and, you know, so why aren't women running to it? frankly, a lot of men aren't also.

>> studies shown women more likely to look at the negative campaigning than men as a reason not to get involved and when women run against men, men are more of the attention on the issues and women are getting it three times the coverage on issues like appearance or different things and hillary clinton and sarah palin can talk about the way portrayed in the media in that matter, as well.

>> i had a women that does recruiting for women candidates sag women look at the intransigents in the congress and do i want to give up the life and maybe not be able to accomplish very much. i'd love for you to come back before the election and we'll continue the conversation. a lot more women candidates to talk about.

>> love it.

>> kelly wallace and lea goldman, thank you both.

>> thank you.

>> thank you.

>>> today's tweet of the day with a picture of nbc as we gear up for mitt romney 's speech in about half an hour at the virginia military institute , he writes, romney may be coming later but otherwise the routine continues at vmi. today is laundry