Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon now leads former Rep. Rob Simmons in the race for the Republican Senate nomination, according to a Quinnipiac University survey conducted March 9-15.

The poll found McMahon ahead 44 percent to 34 percent.

Simmons was ahead by 10 points in a similar poll in January.

But both Republicans continued to trail the top Democrat in the race, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Blumenthal leds McMahon, 61 percent to 28 percent, and held a similar advantage over Simmons, 62 percent to 26 percent. Blumenthal also led GOP businessman Peter Schiff, 64 percent to 21 percent.

“What explains Linda McMahon’s rise in the polls? Money,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz. “She is the only Senate candidate on TV right now.”

The survey polled 1,451 registered voters, including 387 Republicans. The general election poll had a margin of error of 2.6 points, while the GOP primary poll results had a margin of error of 5 points.

Long Shot Whitnum Going for Dodd’s Seat

Lee Whitnum, who is best-known for publicizing her early 1990s fling with a then-single Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), has filed to run for the Senate as a Democrat.

Whitnum ran for the Democratic nomination in the 4th district in 2008, losing to now-Rep. Jim Himes.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is the frontrunner for the Senate nomination.

Whitnum, a former teacher and novelist, is remembered in political circles for posting an online scrapbook of her relationship with Kerry from the early 1990s — after he divorced his first wife, but before he wed Teresa Heinz Kerry.