Regardless of the outcome tonight, the Connecticut Democratic Party is planning a at 11 AM ET:
Whether U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman defeats his challenger Ned LamontTuesday, Connecticut Democrats plan to present a unified frontWednesday when they unveil the party's ticket for the November election. The party has scheduled an 11 a.m. news conference in Hartford.Nancy DiNardo, the party chairwoman, has supported Lieberman, but saidif Lamont, a political newcomer, wins the primary, she will have toback him in the general election.
Let's just hope Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd makes the right move and backs whoever wins tonight. If he doesn't, then he can kiss his Democratic presidential hopes good-bye.
It's about one hour before the polls are scheduled to close in Connecticut. Here is the latest:
The Lieberman Campaign web site is , as it has been reported all day by . As expected, his campaign is blaming Ned Lamont. The cable networks have been covering this all day long, and it's getting rather one-sided. But the truth is that maybe Lieberman should blame his cheap web site service called . He pays only $15 a month for it, which allows -- so obviously it's going to crash on election day! This is just yet another opportunity for Joe Lieberman to blame Ned Lamont for his bad campaigning, and legitimize running as an independent after he loses today. The blog agrees.
Fox News has been helping campaign for Lieberman all day long. At one point, read, "Have the Democrats forgotten the lessons of 9/11?" Above the caption it featured a split screen: one half showing Ned Lamont and the other half a live shot from the Middle East.
According to , right after the polls close the smaller towns will report first, with the larger cities following a few hours later.
As is reporting, Chris Matthews has just received word from a source that Lieberman definitely not not bow out of the race, and therefore will run as an independent.
There is still no word who is winning. But the Connecticut that turnout could be as high as 55% -- more than two times that of normal primaries. More news as it breaks.
Up in Connecticut, the polls are scheduled to close at 8 PM ET. So if you haven't voted yet, get over there quick because you have less than three hours left! Make sure your friends, family, teachers and nearby small business owners do the same!
This site will bring you complete election coverage once the polls close.
Bust out the chips and dip later today, because the Connecticut Senate race between incumbent Joe Lieberman and challenger Ned Lamont will be close and might not be decided until the late hours. A new just released shows Lamont's lead trimmed slightly, but he still leads 51% to 45%. Last week it was 54% to 41%.
The obvious indication that Lieberman bottomed out last week and is now surging was due in large part to his sudden flip-flop on Donald Rumsfeld. Late last week, Joe Lieberman played a game of follow the leader. Following Hillary Clinton's , Lieberman echoed that opinion. This is a sharp contrast with Lieberman's rhetoric up to this point. Last Thanksgiving, after a visit to Iraq, , "Overall, I came back encouraged." That was just 10 months after being by President Bush at the 2005 State of the Union Address.
Will this last minute reversal -- or as Ariana Huffington calls it, a -- end up working? It will all come down to the ground game. In that regard, Ned Lamont has a huge advantage in manpower. He is particularly strong among young voters, while Lieberman is popular among seniors. However, keep in mind that seniors traditionally show up at the polls more consistently than any other demographic. Young voters, my age group, are the least consistent. It will truly come down to whether young people go to the polls and have their votes counted accurately (Gee, Lieberman could really use Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell about now!).
Strangely, as points out, even though this has been a very divisive race between the two sides, it has brought in a ton of cash for Democrats in the state, especially those who are running for the U.S. House.
Even if you are a steadfast Lieberman supporter or a progressive Ned Lamont believer (like I am), you still have to admit that this is a great moment for Democratic Party politics. Let's hope that this enthusiasm on both sides is just an appetizer in terms of how revved up we will be this November! --------------------------------------------------- Other sites blogging about this race: , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Just a reminder about tomorrow. The Blue State will have full coverage of the Lieberman-Lamont Democratic primary election in Connecticut. From the second that the polls close to the second we have a winner, you can visit this site for in-depth perspective, breaking news and the latest numbers as they come in.
There was my little plug. Even though right now I say GO LAMONT, once the polls close it will be out of the bloggers' hands. So I will do my best to be as objective as possible during the vote counting process. Afterward, if the loser doesn't bow out, then I will definitely have something to say!
Here are links to the latest news on either candidate:
I don't want to make it seem like I am automatically proclaiming that Ned Lamont will definitely defeat Joe Lieberman on Tuesday. Of course, if you made me put money on it, I would forecast a Lamont landslide -- but that is as of this moment. Anything can happen between now and Tuesday. Both campaigns are invoking their own strategies over the next three days, and the fat lady has not even started clearing her throat.
With that said, I still would like to respond to an article in that analyzes what a Lamont victory would mean for the national political landscape:
Strategists say the Connecticut race has rattled the Democraticestablishment, which is virtually united behind the three-termincumbent's candidacy, and will force an uneasy accommodation with thenewest, volatile power center within the party.
"This sends amessage to all Democratic officeholders," said Robert L. Borosage ofthe liberal Campaign for America's Future. "You're going to have a muchtougher Democratic Party."
The phrase "volatile power center within the party" is a great analogy. The old power source, the Washington establishment, is evaporating fast. They know it, and don't know what to do. They are afraid that their safe-voting loyalist Joe Lieberman is about to go down. They are also afraid of the internet, the grassroots and about losing a say in what the Democratic message will be. The air is coming out of the balloon. The large amount of power is consolidated with a few Washington strategists with losing campaign records is nearing an end. Party politics is being restored to its democratic roots, and it's pissing those Washington strategists off.
It's such a great feeling to be part of something like this. Yes, I know that this site does not impact politics the way , or each do. But when around one-thousand visitors each day read my columns, I at least know that my work is having some impact. And next month when my site joins the , I will be linked up with those sites and my readership will grow more. So I am very excited about possibly joining those larger sites in the continuous effort to bring people politics back to the Democratic Party.
And that's what it's really about. I believe that we are at our best when we don't act like Republicans. We don't believe in consolidating power, we believe in empowering others. That's real democracy. It has nothing to do with being more liberal or more conservative. I support conservative Democrat James Webb, just as I do Russ Feingold. So ideology is not the issue. It's about showing a backbone -- and we can only show ours when citizens rally citizens.
Now you know why Lamont is do popular. The war is an important factor, don't get me wrong. But Democratic voters are sick and tired of the party being both rhetorically and decisively weak. Joe Lieberman is a perfect illustration of that weakness. He ceded the moral high ground to what will go down as the worst war cabinet in the history of this country. He is afraid. He stood up during Vietnam. Is this war really any better? Unlike , Joe Lieberman has the stubbornness to refuse to admit any mistakes on that major decision. How is Lieberman any bit more credible than the very Defense Secretary who he all of a sudden wants to step down?
When this race is over, the gates of the Democratic Party establishment will come tumbling down. Will our Democratic Senators and Representatives fight it, or will they welcome people powered political change that is based on transparency and accountability? It's up to them.
It looks like Joe Lieberman does not have enough faith in his ground campaign, and instead wants to shift his monetary effort towards last minute television spots this weekend. The spots will change the subject from Lieberman's support of the Iraq war and focus more on other matters. This morning the about Lieberman's last minute tactic:
But in the waning hours of the most closely watched Democraticprimary in the nation, Mr. Lieberman, a three-term incumbent, appearsto be ceding some tactical ground to his opponent in favor of runningnew advertisements emphasizing his message that voters should see himfor more than his vote to authorize the war in Iraq.
Peopleaffiliated with the campaign said it had dropped plans for afar-reaching — and expensive — get-out-the-vote effort that would haveadded as many as 4,000 new workers and volunteers to the campaign inits final days.
“We haven’t closed the sale with ConnecticutDemocrats, and so we need to spend some resources to get our messageout on TV and radio and direct mail,†said Sean Smith, Mr. Lieberman’scampaign manager. “That said, we continue to have a robustget-out-the-vote operation.â€
By downsizing the large-scaleground operation, which analysts said could have added at least fivepercentage points to his support, the Lieberman campaign seemed to beindicating that Mr. Lamont’s lead had grown too wide to be overcome byphone calls and door-knocking alone.
The question is will the film editors be able to save him? On one side of the race you have all the hard-working volunteers on the Lamont campaign that are going house by house to ensure victory; and on the other side there are the television producers at the Lieberman headquarters that are trying to put together a fancy narrative.
Here is the latest campaign news from the state of Connecticut:
A new finds Joe Lieberman more popular among Republicans than Democrats nationwide. Lieberman gets a 46% favorable rating among Republican voters and leaners, and a 38% favorable rating among Democratic voters and leaners.
Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ) plans to endorse Ned Lamont if Lieberman loses Tuesday's primary. "I think he really has to take a look at what reality is," of Lieberman.
The will be good. Tomorrow on the ABC News Sunday talk-show "This Week," Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont will each make an appearance. On NBC's Meet the Press, Lieberman's campaign advisor Lanny David will debate Lamont supporter Jim Dean, who is also head of the PAC .
wrote an interesting piece about how close Lamont is to the progressive blogosphere. Consider me guilty then!
I find it amazing that Lieberman is spending all this money when he is more than ten points behind, as opposed to saving that money for his independent run. Could it be that Lieberman's run as an independent is just a bluff? It might just be.
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Ned Lamont supporters all over the country are filing into Connecticut as we speak. If I didn't have personal engagements going on, and if I had money to spend, then I would definitely head there to help out. Because all of us have so much going on in our lives, it is truly admirable that hundreds of volunteers nationwide who believe in Lamont's message are dropping everything and heading over there to secure Tuesday's victory. This is grassroots politics at its very finest.
The bloggers that have been there all this week have also done their share of good. Jane Hamsher of the blog , for example, took her writing on the road to Connecticut. If it weren't for her, Joe Lieberman would be getting away with some of the tactics that his campaign is using. She passed along the word after yesterday.
I am not trying to kiss tail here. But we do have to admit that if it weren't for the engaged effort by the blogosphere, Ned Lamont would have a much harder time getting his progressive message out.
Below is a video of Ned Lamont calling on supporters all around the country to join him in Connecticut this weekend for the big grassroots push to victory. If you are still considering it, I highly encourage you to take the chance and be part of grassroots history.
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Nice try Lieberman, but it's too little too late. On the ahead of Tuesday's U.S. Senate primary election in Connecticut with challenger Ned Lamont, Joe Lieberman is following the lead of Hillary Clinton by :
US Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT)called for the resignation of DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld on the Ed Schultz show, a nationallysyndicated radio program Friday, RAW STORY has learned.
Lieberman said that while whether or not Rumsfeld leaves his post is the decision of President Bush, he should resign.
This is the most disingenuous thing Lieberman has ever said. Had Ned Lamont not put together such a great campaign and been leading in the race, Lieberman today would be echoing Bush's support for Donald Rumsfeld.
How do I know that? Just a few weeks ago, for challenging the Defense Secretary:
Lieberman told Fox News that the calls for Rumsfeld's ouster are adistraction from the larger picture. "We're in the middle of a war —you wouldn't want to have the secretary of defense change unlessthere's really good reason for it and I don't see any good reason atthis time," Lieberman said....
And back on December 8, 2005, Lieberman was so buddy-buddy with Rumsfeld that they decided to have breakfast together at the Pentagon. As expected, Lieberman spoke to reporters and reiterated his support for the war. That move :
"I've talked to Senator Lieberman, and unfortunately he is at adifferent place on Iraq than the majority of the American people," Reidsaid yesterday.
So should we take Lieberman's call for Rumsfeld's resignation seriously? You bet we shouldn't. Why does Lieberman think we are so naive? Connecticut voters beware!
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