Senator Joe Lieberman’s decision to run as an Independent sets up a lively campaign season for Connecticut voters. In the first General Election poll since Ned Lamont defeated Lieberman in Tuesday’s primary, the incumbent is hanging on to a five percentage point lead. Lieberman earns support from 46% of Connecticut voters while Lamont is the choice of 41% (see crosstabs).
A month ago, the candidates were tied at 40% each.
Republican Alan Schlesinger earns just 6% of the vote, down from 13% a month ago.
57% of the state's voters view Lieberman as politically moderate while 51% see Lamont as liberal.
Half (52%) of Lamont voters believe Bush should be impeached and removed from office. Just 15% of Lieberman voters share that view.
Overall, 55% of Connecticut voters trust Lieberman more than Lamont when it comes to the War on Terror. Thirty-one percent (31%) trust Lamont.
Thirty-one percent (31%) have a Very Favorable opinion of Lieberman, 18% Very Unfavorable.
For Lamont, the numbers are 19% Very Favorable, 23% Very Unfavorable.
Lieberman still attracts 35% of votes from Democrats. Lamont will have to find a way to trim that number without alienating unaffiliated voters. Lieberman is viewed at least somewhat favorably by 65% of unaffiliated voters compared to 49% for Lamont.
The lefties are already starting to panic, as evidenced by Jonathan Chait's column in the Los Angeles Times, entitled Give It Up, Joe - Sore loser Lieberman is fighting for his job, not the good of his party. Chait couldn't even make it to the first paragraph before he pulled out the "sore loser" slam.
THE LONGER Sen. Joe Lieberman's reelection campaign in Connecticut goes on, the harder it gets to detect any rationale for his candidacy that's persuasive to anybody who isn't Joe Lieberman.
When he announced earlier this summer that he would run as an independent if he lost the Democratic primary, his stated reason was that turnout was likely to be tiny. Instead, turnout was heavy. But Lieberman says he's running as an independent anyway.
Lieberman says his antiwar opponent, Ned Lamont, relied on the support of Al Sharpton, demagogic bloggers and other unsavory characters. This is perfectly true. But Lieberman is just as happy to accept the good wishes of odious figures such as Sean Hannity and Karl Rove.
Can you feel the love? By the way, the "heavy" turnout Chait describes is better defined by Michael Barone:
Sen. Joseph Lieberman's narrow defeat in Connecticut's Democratic primary on Tuesday tells us something important about his party. Mr. Lieberman, who is running in November as an independent, can argue plausibly that his loss represented the judgment of only a sliver of the electorate: Connecticut, where most major-party nominations are decided by party conventions, has a tradition of low participation in primaries, and less than one-sixth of the registered voters took the trouble to cast their ballots in this contest. The winner, Ned Lamont, thus got the votes of less than one-tenth of Connecticut voters.Not so heavy, afterall.
What Lieberman has to do now to maintain the "Joementum" is stay focused on the important stuff, such as national defense, and also keep reminding folks that as a three-term incumbent he has a significant amount of seniority in the Senate which means he gets better committee assignments and can have more influence on all matters that relate to Connecticut. Newby One-Note Lamont would enter the Senate with nothing, and in fact might well have few friends even in the Dem caucus after getting Lieberman tossed out. Granted, most of the Dems are lining up to endorse Lamont right now, but I don't think many of them really have their heart in it. The fact that several have come out and endorsed Lieberman's independent campaign is very telling, and a problem sign for Lamont.
As stated previously, I think Lamont's out-of-town "friends" are going to be very troublesome for his campaign. This will be fun to watch.
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