Disclosure: I worked for the Lamont campaign doing web design and production and some writing for the official blog (from 9/5/06 to 11/07/06).
Friday, August 18, 2006
Friday Afternoon Round-Up
- Gov. Rell (R) solidifies local and national Republican support for Joe Lieberman (R), says she also won't campaign for the nominal Republican in the race:
Governor Rell is appearing to distance herself from Alan Schlesinger, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Asked if she's backing Schlesinger in the three-way race, Rell would only say that Schlesinger is the party-endorsed candidate....
Rell would not commit to campaigning with Schlesinger, who hopes to benefit in November by being on the ballot with the popular governor. - Maura at MLN, highlighting an article by David Lightman in the Courant that states Democrats are starting to see Lieberman (R) as "political poison," emphasizes what will likely be the most meaningful effect of a Lieberman (R) candidacy if taken all the way to November - the fact that in order to even try to win, he will have to turn out massive numbers of Republican voters (remember, Joe (R) now gets 75% of the Republican vote, and needs to keep almost all of that support):
Every volunteer hour and every dollar that is donated to Joe Lieberman is going to be used in an effort to turn out Republicans for Joe, and every vote among Republicans that Joe needs to win is going to be a vote against Diane Farrell, Chris Murphy, Joe Courtney, John DeStefano, and all other down-ballot Democrats statewide.
The only way that Joe Lieberman can win is to kill the chances of every Democrat in Connecticut who is in a competitive race. - State Speaker of the House James Amman has trouble with 5th grade math, thinks that the 52% of the Democrats who turned out in record numbers to elect Ned Lamont (D) last Tuesday are "a fragment" of the party.
If the 63% of Democrats who supported Lamont (D) in the latest Q-Poll are just a "fragment" of the party, what does that make irrelevant, dead-ender Lieberman Party supporters like Amman? A splinter in the party's thumb? An annoying piece of gravel in the party's shoe? - Finally, don't miss this great article in the Litchfield County Times about the record turnout in the primary last week, focusing on small-town Cornwall's unreal showing for Ned, a town he won with 91% of the vote with a 73% turnout:
In all, 73 percent of registered Democrats in town showed up, and they seemed to want to punish U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman for his continued backing of the war in Iraq and support of President George W. Bush on that issue.
In results that were significantly more dramatic than elsewhere in Connecticut, Mr. Lieberman picked up just 24 votes, while his opponent, Greenwich millionaire Ned Lamont, captured 243 votes....
Cornwall Democratic Town Committee Chairman Stephen Senzer was pleased, but not shocked, by the results. "We've always had a high turnout in Cornwall for elections. To have that high turnout in a primary was pretty surprising. Many of us were very energized by this competition and some people did a lot of work to get out the vote," said Mr. Senzer....
"[Mr.] Lamont was overwhelming here. It was a ridiculous majority and that's due, I think, to a few people working very hard. It achieved two things. It got out a high voter turnout and gave [Mr.] Lamont a great majority. It was an exciting time," Mr. Senzer said.
posted by tparty at 2:23 PM 
