Worried Democrats are pouring resources into a seemingly deadlocked United States Senate race in Connecticut — a race that began on almost no one’s list of elections that could decide control of the chamber.

But the contest, between Linda E. McMahon and Representative Christopher S. Murphy, has become a high-stakes and high-dollar brawl increasingly focused not on policy issues but on personal ones, with both candidates fending off embarrassing lines of inquiry.

Ms. McMahon, a Republican and former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, hurriedly announced on Thursday night she would pay off individual former creditors after The Day of New London unearthed details of her 1976 bankruptcy, which has become part of a campaign theme of overcoming hard times. The court filing showed that she and her husband, Vince, walked away from almost $1 million in debt to 26 creditors, much of which was never repaid. (The debts were discharged in the bankruptcy, so she has no legal obligation to repay them.)

Mr. Murphy, a Democrat largely unknown outside of his Congressional district in northwestern Connecticut, has been on the defensive for most of the race, most recently for a continuing string of disclosures about his personal finances. The most damaging have been about a 2007 foreclosure action for missing mortgage payments on a house in Cheshire and a 2003 lawsuit for nonpayment of rent on an apartment in Southington.