Mark Davis, WTHN TV's chief political correspondent, reports Ned Lamont says he is on schedule to formally announce his primary challenge to Senator Joe Lieberman by the middle of March:
Lamont told me today there is no more doubt about his running.
"Yeah, we're a go, Mark, we've been traveling all over the state, talked to hundreds of people, thousands have come to our website and they're really encouraging us to do it, and I want to do it," says Lamont.
Tuesday Davis reported Senator Lieberman says he's ready for Lamont's primary challenge:
Lieberman told me today that he now looks forward to the primary so he can show democrats how many other issues they agree on.
"This is an important dialog that's going to go on and part of it is going to answer the question about what kind of democratic party do we want to have and also what kind of politics do we want to have."
And Lieberman says that should include people who support him on most of the other issues he's been involved with, even if they disagree with him strongly on the war.
He also told me today that a primary is a good thing and that he shouldn't be given a pass to being re-elected.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll, released on February 16, finds Senator Lieberman retains the 63 percent approval, found by Quinnipiac's January 11 poll. Connecticut voters say Lieberman deserves to be reelected 63 to 26 percent.
There is nothing in this Quinnipiac poll to encourage those liberal-anti-war Democrats unhappy with Senator Lieberman's position on the war. While Lieberman continues to be more popular with Republicans, than Democrats, he still enjoys a job approval rating of nearly 2-1 among Democrats.
Regarding Lamont's primary challenge the poll results can be summarized as Ned who?
Lieberman defeats Lamont 68 to 13 percent. Worse, when asked whether they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Lamont 94 percent of Democrats said hadn't heard enough about him?
Lamont acknowledges Lieberman can raise a lot of money, but Lamont says he will spend what-ever he has to, of his own money to get a campaign started. But according to the Hartford Courant, under the "millionaire's amendment" to the federal campaign reform act of 2002, Lamont spends more than $514,000 of his own money Lieberman's donors would be able to triple their maximum contributions from $2,100 to $6,300.
In a written declaration filed this month, Lamont notified the FEC he does not intend to spend above the $257,000 threshold, but the Lamont campaign intends to amend that declaration.
The left side of the blogosphere in Connecticut has been all abuzz about Lamont for the last couple of months. But that support isn't nearly enough to overcome the advantages of an incumbent Senator who is still backed by the Democratic establishment. Lamont's challenge is indeed an uphill one.
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