Democracy for Vancouver

Joe,

Democracy worked today. I’m sure you will do the expedient thing and run as an Independent tomorrow. But the majority of us now are against the illegal occupation of Iraq. That is a fact that no amount of spin is going to change. By continuing to support the illegal occupation, you failed in your duty to represent the people of Connecticut. And those people let you know about that today.

The Hartford Courant

By JON LENDER, ELIZABETH HAMILTON And DAVID OWENS

August 8 2006, 11:49 PM EDT

U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman conceded defeat just after 11 p.m. in the bitter Connecticut primary that many considered a referendum on the war in Iraq.

But Lieberman pledged to continue his candidacy as an independent in the general election in November.

“Incidentally, we are gonna go,” Lieberman told supporters shortly after stepping to a podium at the Hartford Hilton Tuesday night. The line received loud applause.

Challenger Ned Lamont appears to have defeated Lieberman by about 10,000 votes, according to unofficial returns. With 98 percent of the precincts reporting, Lamont led Lieberman 51.8 percent to 48.2 percent. The vote tally was 144,005 to 134,026. Forty-two percent of registered Democrats voted in the hotly contested primary. Lamont entered the race because of Lieberman’s staunch support for the war and won the support of Democrats angry with the 18-year incumbent’s position.

One poll last week showed Lamont with a double-digit lead over Lieberman, but the margin in the primary was less than four points.

Lieberman told supporters that he’d called Lamont to congratulate him; then he took a few swipes at his rival.

“Of course I am disappointed by the results, but I am not discouraged,” Lieberman said..

“The old politics of partisan polarization won today,” Lieberman said. “For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand.”

“Tomorrow morning our campaign will file the necessary petitions … so that we can continue this campaign for a new politics of unity and purpose.”

Lieberman spokeswoman Marion Steinfels said that lawyer Daniel Papermaster will file the senator’s petitions for an independent run at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Secretary of the State’s office in Hartford. Lieberman will not be there, but will be “on the campaign trail” during the day. She did not say where or when he would surface.

Shortly after Lieberman conceded, Lamont spoke to supporters at his Meriden headquarters.

“They call Connecticut the land of steady habits,” Lamont said. “Today we voted for a big change.”

“People are going to look back and say the Bush years started to end in Connecticut,” said Avi Green, a Lamont volunteer from Boston. “The Republicans are going to look at tonight and realize there’s blood in the water.”

Earlier in the evening, as Connecticut’s smallest towns reported their results, Lamont led by as much as 10 percent. Lamont was strong in the state’s smaller towns, picking up lopsided wins in places like Mansfield, home to the University of Connecticut, Salisbury, Cornwall and Falls Village.

But the vote tallies were much closer in larger communities. Lieberman strongholds, such as the Naugatuck River valley in Western Connecticut, were also going heavily for Lieberman. The state’s larger cities were trending for the incumbent. Lieberman won Waterbury and Stamford and was barely leading in the state’s largest city, Bridgeport, where some precincts had not reported by 10:15 p.m. The senator, however, lost his hometown of New Haven 52 percent to 48 percent.

The high and wide spaces of the atrium in the Goodwin Hotel in Hartford, where Lieberman supporters gathered, were crammed with about 200 international, national and local news reporters milling about with a few dozen Lieberman supporters and operatives, amid bunches of red, white and blue balloons stretching on strings toward the towering columns and arches above them. More than 25 TV cameras on tripods, on three levels of risers, were all trained on a stage with a huge American flag hanging vertically as a background behind a lectern with a sign that said “Joe Lieberman Fighting for Connecticut.”

One of the news crews was from a Japanese TV network. Correspondent Yasushi Komatsu traveled with a cameraman and producer from the New York bureau of TV Asahi America Inc., because of the Lieberman-Lamont primary’s significance in Japan. “People in Japan are interested in the war in Iraq and how it is going to develop,” he said. “The result of the election could be interpreted to mean the American people are saying yes or no to what Bush is doing in Iraq.”

While waiting for real information to come in, the Goodwin was filled with a din of conversation and the strains of saxophone jazz. Lieberman and his family were in a private room, and the incumbent’s optimistic words of the morning — told to reporters after he voted with his wife and daughter at a New Haven school — seemed far away.

“I believe that we are going to win today, and I believe this in my heart and soul and head,” Lieberman told reporters. “I have seen a dramatic turnaround in the last week and it was reflected in the Quinnipiac Poll yesterday” that showed Lamont’s lead at 6 points, down from 13 last Thursday. “I believe there is going to be a great uprising in Connecticut today. There is going to be a big turnout in my opinion, and when it is all over I am going to be honored to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in this election.”

“I am just thinking and believing, and to a certain extend praying, for victory today,” he said.

His wife quickly added, however: “We are not going to jinx ourselves.”

Lieberman was asked how the primary election ordeal would change the way he represents his constituents, after voters delivered a strong message of disapproval.

He still was not ready to concede anything. “We’ll talk about that as we go forward,” he said. “I have always leveled with the people of Connecticut.”

Ten minutes before the polls closed Tuesday, primary Lamont’s supporters were predicting a “landslide” victory.

“You know how you feel something in your gut?” said Laura Gallo, the former deputy mayor of Meriden as she wrapped up phone calls at Lamont headquarters Tuesday night. “We’re going to win.”

Others, like former state Democratic party chairman George Jepsen, were relying on something slightly more reliable than gut instinct - he had word from people in the field that returns were coming in overwhelmingly for Lamont.

As the party began at the Sheraton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made his rounds in the press room talking up Lamont’s commitment to urban schools, universal health care and other progressive issues.

“I hope he can win. The nation needs a new direction, new priorities and the values that Lamont represents,” Jackson said. “He’s taking on a bigger Goliath than just Lieberman.”

With turnout a key factor in Tuesday’s primary, Sen. Joe Lieberman cancelled the final two campaign stops of the day in Waterbury and Southington – choosing instead to return to his Rocky Hill headquarters to call Democratic leaders and other allies around the state.

His family was with him at headquarters, aides said, making similar calls.

Lieberman said he was skipping the Southington and Waterbury stops because of low voter turnout at those polling sites. Others said he was anxious to get back to headquarters to get involved in the voter turn-out effort.

Election officials predicted 40 to 50 percent voter turnout in the primary – a figure considered high for a primary. At 6 p.m. West Hartford recorded 59 percent voter turnout.

The Associated Press contributed to this report Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant