With Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd announcing that he won't run for reelection, it appears the torch is being passed to the state's Democratic Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal. Just how popular is Blumenthal? Public Policy Polling gives us perspective:

Blumenthal is unusually popular, especially in hyper partisan times when voters like few politicians. 59% have a favorable opinion of him to just 19% who see him negatively. It's no surprise that he's liked by 71% of Democrats and 60% of independents, but even Republicans view him favorably by a 37/35 margin. It doesn't take a lot of hands to count the number of Democratic politicians with positive numbers among GOP voters these days.

Blumenthal leads Rob Simmons 59-28, Linda McMahon 60-28, and Peter Schiff 63-23. It would take an epic collapse for him not to be Connecticut's next Senator.

The polling from PPP, which was in the field Monday and Tuesday night before Dodd's announcement, shows Blumenthal to be a significantly stronger candidate than Dodd, who trailed Rob Simmons 44 percent to 40 percent -- his 11th straight deficit against Simmons in a publicly released poll -- and tied with Linda McMahon at 43 percent. Democratic Congressman Chris Murphy similarly stands stronger against the GOP field despite being less widely known in the state, leading Simmons 42 percent to 35 percent and leading McMahon 43 percent to 36 percent.

So while it is tough to see Dodd leave the Senate after 30 years -- particularly after a year as productive as the last, when he played major roles in both healthcare reform and financial regulatory reform -- there is clear silver lining in the news: The Democrats are significantly more likely to hold onto his seat now.