Joe Lieberman: A 'Sore Winner"?

As Senate debate winds down on the most important piece of legislation this year, one can be forgiven if it appears there is only one senator that matters: Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

“Lieberman Gets Ex-Party to Shift On Health Plan,” read a page 1 headline in yesterday’s New York Times. “Health bill’s prospects improve as Lieberman signals support,” blared a headline on the front page of today’s Washington Post.

Yet the fact that the high-flying Lieberman still has a Senate seat at all is a tribute to the generosity of Connecticut election laws, which enabled him to run for reelection as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic primary earlier in the year.

In most of the country, that would have been impossible. According to Richard Winger, the publisher of the monthly newsletter, Ballot Access News, Connecticut is one of only three states – the others being New York and Vermont – that have laws permitting Lieberman to do what he did. The rest of the country would basically have required him to pick one and only one route to reelection.

As it was, Lieberman’s loss to anti-Iraq war candidate Ned Lamont in the 2006 Democratic Senate primary was statistically close (52%-to-48% Lamont) but geographically sweeping (Lamont swept seven of Connecticut’s eight counties).

But the absence of a “sore loser” law allowed Lieberman to quickly file for the general election as an independent. With no Republican of note on the fall ballot, the landscape strongly favored the incumbent. And he was reelected with the votes of 70% of Republicans, a modest majority of independents (54%), and only one-third of Democrats.

Since then, Lieberman has been a thorn in the side of his old party. He vociferously supported Republican John McCain for president in 2008, even making a featured speech on McCain’s behalf at last year’s Republican convention. And in the health care debate, he has gone his own way, leveraging the considerable power that he has as a swing vote to demand major changes in the legislation.

In the process, Lieberman has left the distinct impression that he relishes the discomfort his actions have caused his old party - which just nine years ago honored him with its nomination for vice president.

Comments

[Sagar Sane]

What do you see on the landscape in terms of the 2010 Gubernatorial election and the 2012 Senate election in CT?

Do you think Blumenthal or Rell will get into the 2012 Senate race? Could we have a 3 way contest?

What do you make of Rell's decision not to run again for Gov?

Thanks,
Sagar