CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY: Dodd’s Dealmaking Skills Tested by Financial Crisis.

His diminished popularity in his home state will complicate his work as he seeks a sixth term in 2010. A Hartford Courant/University of Connecticut poll in October 2008 found 48 percent of residents disapproved and 42 percent approved of his performance, a dip Dodd said did not surprise him. “People are angry,” he told the newspaper. “This is the most difficult time economically in my political life.” . . .

Another negative for Dodd was the controversy over whether he received a sweetheart deal on two mortgages in 2003 from Countrywide Financial Corp., a lender. The Senate ethics committee said in June 2008 that it began an initial investigation into whether Dodd and North Dakota Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad got preferential treatment. Dodd said that even though he had been told he was put in a “VIP program,” he did not assume he would get any special favors.

He also promised to release the documents, but has never done so.