Lamont wins, but Lieberman vows to keep fighting as an independent
Joe Lieberman, the three-term U.S. senator whose support for the Iraq war has provoked fury in the base of his own Democratic Party, lost his primary race yesterday to Ned Lamont, a multimillionaire and fierce war opponent. Lieberman vowed to stay in the race and to run as an independent in November, saying he'll build a campaign that will include Republicans and independents. "If you are disappointed with the ugly tone of our politics," Lieberman said in his concession speech, "if you're fed up with the nasty partisanship in Washington, I ask for your help."
But Lamont said his victory marked a resounding defeat of the status quo in Washington and of the Bush administration's foreign policy. "Stay the course-it's not a winning strategy for Iraq," Lamont said during his victory speech, during which he was flanked by liberal figures like the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "And it's not a winning strategy for America." At one point in his speech, Lamont called for a pullout of 132,000 U.S. troops from what he called the "bloody civil war in Iraq" and said they deserve to return home to "a hero's welcome." The line inspired the crowd of Lamont supporters to begin chanting "Bring them home! Bring them home!"
While Lieberman is expected to face immense pressure from fellow Democrats to withdraw from the race, a campaign adviser said last night thatLieberman had already begun strategizing on how to win against Lamont in a general election matchup by appealing to voters outside the Democratic Party. Republican Senate nominee Alan Schlesinger is seen to have virtually no chance of picking up serious support, even among Republicans. "Ned Lamont won no mandate," said Lieberman adviser Dan Gerstein. "He won the majority of the Democratic vote, 120,000 votes. That's less than 10 percent of the overall electorate."
Other Democrats said that the closeness of the race-unofficial returns had Lamont beating Lieberman by 51.8 percent o 48.3 percent, with 98 percent of precincts reporting-would make it easier for Lieberman to resist pressure to withdraw than had Lamont won in a landslide, as some polls last week had predicted.
But in an E-mail to supporters early this morning, Lamont urged his supporters to pressure Lieberman to withdraw by posting notes on Lamont's website. Lamont's supporters said the magnitude of their victory was unaffected by the closeness of the race. "The big message here is that voters wanted a change," said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org Political Action. "Lamont was an underdog if there ever was one, and he just beat a three-term senator and vice presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. The Lieberman campaign spin is dead." Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that they "fully support" Lamont's candidacy. "Lieberman has been an effective Democratic senator for Connecticut and for America," they continued. "But the perception was that he was too close to George Bush, and this election was, in many respects, a referendum on the president more than anything else."
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