Where does one even begin this afternoon? First, the
Hartford Courant reports that there will indeed be a primary:
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman said today that he will not withdraw from the Aug. 8 Democratic primary , but he left open the possibility of running in November as a petitioning candidate if he loses the primary.
"I will be in the Democratic primary. I've been a Democrat all my life," he said this morning.
That's the good news, but Senator Lieberman qualified that statement...
"If the unexpected happened, do I want to keep open the option of taking my case as an independent Democrat to all the voters of Connecticut so that they can have the last word in November?" Lieberman said. That's an unanswered question, he said.
Well, it should unfortunately be a "answered question." In the past five days, Connecticut bloggers have gotten both Democratic gubernatorial candidates on-the-record stating their support for the Democratic nominee this November. In addition, they extracted the same pledge from the Democratic Secretary of State and two of the three top-tier U.S. House challengers inside the state: Chris Murphy (CT-5) and Joe Courtney (CT-2).
Sign the letter asking Senator Lieberman to support the nominee
Endorsements
The campaign is announcing a major endorsement at 2 PM today. It's a prominent local figure, so many of you may not know who it is, but it's HUGE. In other endorsement news, Al Gore refused to endorse Joe Lieberman this weekend.
HUNT: "Sir, We only have about 30 seconds left, let me switch subjects for one final question. You opposed the Iraq war in 2002, your running mate in 2000, Joe Lieberman, had a different view, he supported the war. He's running against an anti-war candidate now. Who are you for?"
GORE: "I am not involved. I typically do not get involved in Democratic primaries. Joe is my close friend, Joe & Hadassah are close to Tipper and me and it would be very difficult for me to ever oppose him. But I don't get involved in primaries typically. He's a great guy and he's right on a lot of other issues."
Lowell Weicker Endorses Ned Lamont
Yesterday afternoon/early evening former Governor and U.S. Senator Lowell Weicker endorsed Ned Lamont's U.S. Senate campaign.
Video 1: Ned Gives Pre-Interview With Press
Video 2: Governor Weicker Concludes His Remarks
We'll have full video from the event up on the blog later today.
The event was extremely well attended, the AP estimated about 150 people and who I am to argue? Most attendees mingled about for the first 30-45 minutes. There was a good amount of press at the event as well. The first two pictures are of the crowd... there was a tent set to the right of the stage so guests could avoid the heat (90+ degrees?), and the rest sat to the left side of the stage under the trees providing a bit of cover from the heat. As you can see, a lot of people...
Photo: Crowd Left
Photo: Crowd Right
First Selectman Phil Miller, and early endorser of Ned kicked off the festivities and introduced Lowell Weicker. The former Governor and U.S. Senator took the stage and talked about the fact that Senator Lieberman has literally transfored a serious debate about the war and other topics to a 30 second cartoon. It is kind of sad, and were I dispensing campaign advice, I'd tell the senator he was better off running his ads about how everyone disagrees with him on the war. Governor/U.S. Senator Weicker addressed the most important issue on his mind, and many others, the war: "I am not a Democratic activist. I am an anti-war activist. I am not some left-wing nut or liberal crazy. I am an American of common sense who can recognize failure and pigheadedness," he said.
Photo: Governor Weicker Addresses the Crowd
The former Governor introduced Emily Lamont, Ned's daughter, who spoke for about a minute and introduced her father. I should have video up of Emily's speech later on this evening. One thing is for sure, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and you could hear the passion and committment to public service in Emily's voice that was undoubtedly instilled in her at a very young age.
Ned took the stage to rousing applause from all sides of the event, television cameras scurried to find just the right angle, and reporters turned to a fresh page in the steno pad. Ned proceded to do what he does best, talk about the need for a fresh face and change in Washington, D.C. "If Senator Lieberman doesn't want to stand up to the Bush Adminstration, than I will." Ned spoke passionately about the war, universal health care and pre-school, energy independence and a number of other issues. When his speech was done, he took to a brief q&a with the audience. Although he undoubtedly hits on all cylinders at gatherings like this, you can tell her really enjoys the free exchange of ideas with his future constituents. It's something that won't stop after he is sworn into the U.S. Senate next January.
Photo: Ned Addresses the Crowd
More coming soon...keep checking in at the campaign blog
Tim