Connecticut ping!
Story in #5
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Lieberman Concedes Defeat In Senate Race
11:22 PM EDT, August 8, 2006
By JON LENDER, ELIZABETH HAMILTON And DAVID OWENS, The Hartford Courant U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman conceded defeat just after 11 p.m. in the bitter Connecticut primary.
But Lieberman pledged to continue his candidacy as an independent in the general election in November.
"Incidentally, we are gonna go," Lieberman told supporters shortly after stepping to a podium at the Hartford Hilton Tuesday night.
Challenger Ned Lamont appears to have defeated Lieberman by more than 10,000 votes, according to unofficial vote returns. With 95 percent of the precincts reporting, Lamont led Lieberman 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent. The vote tally was 139,496 to 129,271. Forty two percent of registered Democrats voted in the hotly contested primary, which many considered a referendum on the Iraq war.
Lieberman told supports that he'd called Lamont to congratulate him; then he took a few swipes at his rival.
"Of course I am disappointed by the results, but I am not discouraged," Lieberman said..
"The old politics of partisan polarization won today," Lieberman said. "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand."
"Tomorrow morning our campaign will file the necessary petitions … so that we can continue this campaign for a new politics of unity and purpose."
Shortly after Lieberman conceded, Lamont spoke to supporters at his Meriden headquarters.
"They call Connecticut the land of steady habits," Lamont said. "Today we voted for a big change."
With more than 95 percent of the precincts reporting, Lamont, a Greenwich millionaire, was leading Lieberman by 3.8 points, with Lamont garnering 51.9 percent of the record primary turnout to Lieberman's 48.1 percent.
Earlier this evening, as Connecticut's smallest towns reported their results, Lamont led by as much as 10 percent. Lamont was strong in the state's smaller towns, picking up lopsided wins in places like Mansfield, home to the University of Connecticut, Salisbury, Cornwall and Falls Village.
But the vote tallies were much closer in larger communities. Lieberman strongholds, such as the Naugatuck River valley in Western Connecticut, were also going heavily for Lieberman. The state's larger cities were trending for the incumbent. Lieberman won Waterbury and Stamford and was barely leading in the state's largest city, Bridgeport, where some precincts had not reported by 10:15 p.m. The senator, however, lost his hometown of New Haven 52 percent to 48 percent.
The world is watching the hotly contested race, which many view as a referendum on the Iraq War and President Bush.
The high and wide spaces of the atrium in the Goodwin Hotel in Hartford, where Lieberman supporters gathered, were crammed with about 200 international, national and local news reporters milling about with a few dozen Lieberman supporters and operatives, amid bunches of red, white and blue balloons stretching on strings toward the towering columns and arches above them. More than 25 TV cameras on tripods, on three levels of risers, were all trained on a stage with a huge American flag hanging vertically as a background behind a lectern with a sign that said "Joe Lieberman Fighting for Connecticut."
One of the news crews was from a Japanese TV network. Correspondent Yasushi Komatsu traveled with a cameraman and producer from the New York bureau of TV Asahi America Inc., because of the Lieberman-Lamont primary's significance in Japan. "People in Japan are interested in the war in Iraq and how it is going to develop," he said. "The result of the election could be interpreted to mean the American people are saying yes or no to what Bush is doing in Iraq."
Since later afternoon, political insiders had been trading information about absentee ballot counts that they had picked up from towns and cities around the state -- and out of a half-dozen that had spread around by 7:30, Lieberman was shown leading Lamont in Waterbury but trailing in Hamden, next to his longtime hometown of New Haven, along with Trumbull and West Hartford, the home of many traditional Lieberman supporters.
Southington also fits that traditional Democratic mold, and a loss by Lieberman there would not bode well. When someone called a friend at the Goodwin from where the votes were counted, the unofficial total was 85 to 80, Lamont ahead. Not good.
While waiting for real information to come in, the Goodwin was filled with a din of conversation and the strains of saxophone jazz. Lieberman and his family were in a private room, and the incumbent's optimistic words of the morning -- told to reporters after he voted with his wife and daughter at a New Haven school -- seemed far away.
"I believe that we are going to win today, and I believe this in my heart and soul and head," Lieberman told reporters. "I have seen a dramatic turnaround in the last week and it was reflected in the Quinnipiac Poll yesterday" that showed Lamont's lead at 6 points, down from 13 last Thursday. "I believe there is going to be a great uprising in Connecticut today. There is going to be a big turnout in my opinion, and when it is all over I am going to be honored to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in this election."
Connecticut ping!
Story in #5
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
ping... this is going to get nteresting.
It was really a referendum on the viability of the democrat party...and they lost.
If things turn around in Baghdad, Joe could still win.
Translation: For the sake of me, my myself and I, I will use Connecticut law loopholes to continue my quest to stay in power.
Lmao to all the wiahful thinking from the msm/dnc about Lieberman never considering running third party and implying that would stain the party. Like that is possible.
A rat politician, by its nature, cannot possess integrity and honor. I wonder if the MSM is going to herald this as an courageous act of heroism and selfless devotion to the service of America.