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."
Both pro- and anti-Lieberman Democrats last night said that the senator's primary defeat, which hinged on the perception that he was too close to the Bush administration, foretold an historic anti-Republican wave this November. "This ought to give Republicans nightmares," said a top Democratic strategist last night. "When the wave hits, the ground shifts, and the environment is radically transformed."
The Connecticut primary had attracted national attention and became a central battleground in the fight for the future of the Democratic Party. Moderates who argue that the party can't win elections if it's perceived as weak on national security backed Lieberman, while liberals who say the party should heed its antiwar base supported Lamont. "August 9 is going to be whole new day," Lamont said in a recent interview with U.S. News. "People are going to see that Democrats win when we're bold and clear. We're going to take away a lot of the ambiguity."
Lieberman, 64, criticized Democrats late last year for what he said was their failure to accept that President Bush would be the country's commanderinchief for three more years. "In matters of war," he said, "we undermine the president's credibility at our nation's peril."
Only in the waning days of the campaign did Lieberman forcefully make the case that he had in fact been critical of President Bush's conduct of the war. "I did not suggest that the president or anyone else, including me, should be immune from criticism," Lieberman said in a speech Sunday night.
"I was part of the antiwar movement in the late 1960s," he added. "I don't need to be lectured by Ned Lamont about the place of dissent in our democracy."
Lieberman drew criticism, even from allies, for appearing to dismiss the seriousness of Lamont's challenge until relatively late in the campaign. It wasn't until mid-July that polls indicated that Lamont had inched ahead in the race. A few days later, Lieberman staged a rally in Waterbury that featured Bill Clinton.
Lamont, 52, a graduate of Harvard and Yale School of Management, made millions by starting his own telecommunications company but has no experience in elected office besides having served as a Greenwich selectman. Two months after he entered the race in March, a Quinnipiac University poll showed that he was trailing Lieberman by 46 points. But with the help of his fortune and left-wing blogs, Lamont capitalized on dissatisfaction with Iraq. Polls showed that the war was the No. 1 reason that Connecticut Democrats supported Lamont.
In another sign of its national implications, Republicans were also watching yesterday's race closely. "It's sad for the country if Lieberman loses," said a top Republican strategist earlier in the day Tuesday. "But as the Democratic Party moves to the left, it gives us a chance to move to the center. To the extent this race defines the Democratic Party, it defines us, too."