Posted on 08/05/2006 10:55:07 AM PDT by Checkers
HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 3 -- Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, riding strong antiwar sentiment, has surged to a significant lead over embattled Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) heading into Tuesday's Senate primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released here Thursday.
The poll showed Lamont ahead of Lieberman by 54 percent to 41 percent, underscoring the challenger's clear advantage.
Facing a likely defeat, Lieberman has scrapped plans for a massive and costly get-out-the-vote operation on primary day, according to several Democratic sources. Instead, he will shift some of his resources into more television commercials designed to highlight his accomplishments for the state, in hopes of boosting his battered image.
The three-term incumbent and 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee announced earlier that he will run as an independent in November if he loses on Tuesday to Lamont, a millionaire Greenwich businessman with limited political experience. But a landslide loss to Lamont could complicate Lieberman's hopes of winning a fourth term in a three-way general election contest.
Many Democratic leaders have endorsed Lieberman in the primary, but most of them have said they will back whoever wins the nomination.
Lieberman, a leading centrist Democrat and one of the Senate's most prominent advocates of bipartisanship, seemed invincible until a few months ago. But he has suffered from his strong support for President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, in a state where opposition to the war and the president runs high. And he has alienated some voters, who complain that he has neglected his home state over the years.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Gee...no kidding.
When you lie down with dogs....
I would be curious to know what the people in Connecticut think of these poll results. Who are they polling? A lot of Yale college students who live out of state won't make a difference. I am always suspect of polls.
I would have trouble feeling Lieberman's pain, but I know republican voters are just as capable of throwing a good man off the train if he votes wrong on just one issue near and dear to them.
Absolutely amazing that the democrats would boot the man who only recently was #2 on their national ticket.
The Democrats are a totally changed, anti-war, pacificist, socialist bunch now.
I suspect there is a real possibility of a 3rd party on the moderate liberal side of the political spectrum that might actually bring about the demise of the Democratic Party.
Really? You ever heard of Lincoln Chaffee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Sphincter....
Assuming that Lieberman loses the primary, it will be interesting to see which prominent democrats support him as an independent.
best case scenario is Lieberman loses the primary Tuesday, the rats turn their back on him, then he wins the state election as an independent in November...
I actually respect the grass roots Democrats, nutroots and various moonbat activists for this.
Republicans should be doing the same thing. We've got lots of RINO's that need to go. I would love to see the right of center online community tied with conservative activist groups defeat some of our more worthless Republicans in the primaries.
Lets start with Hagel and Spectre next time they are up in the primaries.
They're not polling me, that's for sure.
...and then caucuses with the GOP thereby voting for a Republican for Senate Majority leader.
I hope he has the spine to tell them to fu*k-off!
Among the vagaries of polling are sample selection, question determination and the inclination to give questioners an opinion confirming the questioner's bias.
Thirteen percent sound like a lot but being off 1 voter in 7 would lead to an erroneous conclusion. In the meantime, there is not a "pool of public opinion" that the journalists are taping. The journalists are bringing to the foreground something that may or may not be in the background of most voters.
We will see.
How about a Republican coming up the middle to win on a Democrat vote split?
Poor Lieberman losing to a guy with an empty mind.
YIKES!!!! Lincoln Chaffee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Sphincter are not offensive to one-issue republicans, they are offensive to all republicans.
Lieberman couldn't have run a worse campaign if he tried. This is a closed primary: only Democrats can vote. They are accusing him of not being Democrat enough. So Lieberman send a flyer to Democrats in the mail that says he's their "Mule in the Senate" and he's working for them. Hello? A mule is half a donkey. This is just one minor example. Lieberman is scared of being heckled, so he doesn't preannounce campaign rallies and then no one shows up for them. Seriously, his ground game and his tactics have been astonishingly bad.
Next, people say that Lieberman being challenged is just like Chafee or Specter. Well, yes and no. I don't recall Chafee or Specter being a Veep candidate. I've never seen either of those guys as even remotely considered a leader of the Republicans.
Lieberman is liberal. He voted for the Iraq war, but other than that, there's not a lot of difference in the views of him and Lamont. Lamont has never worked in politics beyond local level in Greenwich, CT (population 60,000, and wealthy, albeit with some pockets of not so well to do).
Lamont is going to be far left, and since all his money comes from either his own deep pockets or from individual donors, he's going to stay that way if he gets elected. He'll be like Bernie Sanders or Feingold. And he's going to make the DailyKos moonbats really excited, expect them to launch all kinds of primary challenges against anyone who doesn't toe the party line completely.
There are advantages to Republicans if Lieberman wins on Tuesday, but there are as many advantages if Lamont wins on Tuesday and Lieberman goes Independent. (And if Lieberman doesn't go Indy, there are also advantages). And of course there are disadvantages. I'm not what scenario is best, to be honest.
Lieberman winning on Tuesday is going to drive the DailyKos people crazy. They will likely sit out November's election, since the RINO Gov is going to cruise to victory. That race is a lost cause for the Dems, and with Lieberman on the ticket, that won't be inspiring for them. This will help local Republican candidates.
Lamont winning and then Lieberman going Independent will suck a lot of money from other races, both locally and nationally. But it'll help turnout on election day for the Dems, although many of them won't be voting a straight ticket as they vote for Lieberman and the RINO Gov. A Lamont-Lieberman matchup will also use a lot of volunteers: the other Democrat campaigns are going to have a shortage of people working those campaigns.
And Lieberman losing and then not filing to run as an Indy has to hit the national party hard: the Veep candidate from six years ago gets tossed out.
So what's the best scenario for a Republican? I honestly don't know. (Well, if you really want to know, here it is: Lamont wins the primary. Then on October 25th, he flees the country to avoid prosecution for stock fraud. Then the Democrats won't have him around, but will have already spent a ton of money, and the volunteers will already have been used up, and few Dems would show up on primary day. So if you really want to root for something, root for that scenario. If that scenario sounds far-fetched, it is. But of course, in 2000, the Republican candidate turned out to be a pedophile, and in 2006, the Republican candidate has gotten kicked out of two casinos in NJ and one casino in CT and had to be chased down by two casinos in NJ to settle his $20,000 gambling debt. So in CT politics, anything is possible. Oh, and the Bridgeport mayor is an admitted user of cocaine, but the last Bridgeport mayor is in prison. And our ex-governor is out of Prison).
Isn't the electorate 45 % Independents and 25 % Republican? And isnt this a closed primary? And isnt the Republican a very weak candidate? I just don't see how Lieberman would lose a general election, given Lamont with momentum or not.
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