Taking Aim at Joe: Can a Greenwich millionaire unseat Lieberman?

[Nutmegger]

The left-wing realms of Connecticut's blogosphere have been buzzing the last few weeks over Ned Lamont, a Greenwich Democrat and millionaire cable company owner who appears increasingly ready to run against U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman in a primary election. Lamont's experience with political office is limited to an unsuccessful run for state Senate in 1990, but Lieberman's strong support for the Iraq War is very unpopular with Democratic activists and they're champing for a challenger. Lamont has called the war "an enormous foreign policy blunder."

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some in the "Dump Joe" faction are excited by another statistic from the poll: Asked whether the party should renominate Lieberman for a reelection run, only 52 percent of Democrats surveyed said yes, with 39 percent saying no.

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And when Lamont had a meet-and-greet with progressives at a Hartford café last week, Mayor Eddie Perez took the trouble to show up and tell him not to run. "As mayor and an activist involved in progressive causes for decades, I cannot ask any of my fellow progressive Democrats to support Mr. Lamont against Sen. Lieberman," Perez told the Hartford Courant.

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on the Connecticut Local Politics Blog came up with some reasons why Perez would bother to take notice of Lamont. The mayor is tight with the Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist organization whose members include Lieberman and Bill Clinton. Perez's chief of staff is related to a Lieberman aide. And, probably most importantly, it benefits Hartford and the mayor personally if he has a good relationship with an influential senior senator. Perez, despite his progressive credentials, is an establishment politician who would not quixotically support a dark horse candidate.

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Orman, who briefly ran against Lieberman last year until it was clear he had little support, said he's only heard of two or three Democratic Town Committee chairs who have spoken up against Lieberman, out of some 200 town committees. The strong institutional resistance to challengers helps explain why Lieberman is in his 18th year as senator and will probably serve another six years. "In Connecticut, if you're the type of person who has a career in politics and wants to move up the ladder, you'd be crazy to run against Joe Lieberman," Orman said. "That would be the end of your political career.

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Even Lieberman may need their help. In addition to a token challenge from young Green Party candidate Ralph Ferrucci, Joe could face a fight with maverick former Gov. Weicker, and the Hartford Courant has mentioned an unnamed millionaire Greenwich Republican who is supposedly considering running in the general election. Joe probably won't end up losing to anyone come November, but it looks like he's facing a tough year. He'll surely take whatever help he can get.

Any guesses on the unmaned millionaire???

Full article (with picture): http://westchesterweekly.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:141178

[connecticut yankee]

1. Anybody but Joe

Well, practically anybody.