When Sen. Joseph Lieberman – who is involved in a fierce battle for re-election with anti-war candidate Ned Lamont – comes to Fairfield on Friday, political junkies and analysts throughout the country will turn their eyes to Fairfield.
But why?
Here’s a look at the questions students are likely to have, and The Mirror’s answers:
1. Why should I care more about him than any other senator?
Because Lieberman, a three-term incumbent Democrat and the party’s nominee for Vice President in 2000, lost the Democratic Primary for his senate seat to Lamont, and is now running for re-election as an independent. The race also includes little-known Republican Alan Schlesinger.
Senators are almost never defeated in primaries, but Lieberman became vulnerable because of his perceived closeness to President Bush and Republicans, and Lamont capitalized, scoring one of the biggest upsets in political history when he won 52 percent of the primary vote on Aug. 8.
2. How important to this race is the war in Iraq?
Incredibly important.
Lamont has gone out of his way recently to tell voters how he differs from Lieberman on domestic issues, but if it weren’t for the war, Lieberman would be gliding toward re-election, and Lamont would have likely never entered the race.
Lieberman has been by far the most outspoken supporter of the war in the Democratic Party, and one of the war’s most outspoken supporters in either party.
In July, he voted against two Democratic resolutions to begin the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and has said staying the course is of vital importance in the war on terror.
Lamont supports the immediate redeployment of at least some front-line troops, and is in favor of setting a timetable for the complete withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq.
3. What are the other issues the candidates talking about?
Although Lieberman is generally regarded as a fairly liberal senator on domestic and social issues, there are a few issues on which the two candidates offer different approaches, if not opposing ideas.
Here are a few:
• Lamont is in favor of extending full marriage rights to same sex couples, while Lieberman supports civil unions but falls short of calling for the legalization of gay marriage.
• Lieberman favors making it optional for catholic hospitals to offer the morning after pill to rape victims; Lamont thinks offering the pill should be mandatory.
• Lieberman voted against the nomination of Justice Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, but did not support a filibuster that could have potentially blocked his nomination. Lamont has said he would have supported a filibuster.
4. Who is supporting Lieberman?
The vast majority of Republican voters ; some but not all elected Republicans, and a select few Democratic politicians who have defied the party establishment and stuck with their long-time colleague.
The most noteworthy local endorsement Lieberman has is from U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays (R, 4th district), whose district includes Fairfield.
Former Republican Congressman Jack Kemp, the vice presidential nomination in the 1996 election, has announced he will come to Connecticut to campaign with Lieberman.
5. Who is supporting Lamont?
Contrary to its primary endorsement for Lieberman, the entire Democratic establishment. That includes the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and strangely, Sen. Christopher Dodd, the senior senator from Connecticut and a long-time friend and ally of Lieberman.
Every elected Democrat in Connecticut endorsed Lieberman in the primary but switched allegiances to Lamont after he won the primary.
Former Senator John Edwards, the party’s 2004 nominee for vice president, was in New Haven in July to stump for Lamont.
6. Who is supporting Schlesinger?
Amazingly, virtually no one. While he is the official endorsed candidate of the Republican Party in Connecticut, Schlesinger has been endorsed by neither the Republican National Committee nor the White House, a snubbing that almost never occurs in partisan politics.
In the latest Quinnipiac University Poll, Schlesinger was supported by only four percent of voters, a status normally reserved for little-known third party candidates whose candidacies make little to no difference in elections.
7. What will happen after the election?
It depends. Lieberman has promised to caucus with the Democrats if he wins, so the result of the election will have no impact on the balance of power between the two parties.
If Lieberman holds onto his lead in the polls, the biggest issue he will face will be mending fences with his fellow Democrats in Washington – an issue that, while personally difficult, is unlikely to significantly alter the political landscape in Washington.
But if Lamont wins – and his chances are realistic at the very least – his victory could have an impact on who the party nominates for president in 2008.
Prospective presidential candidates are already telling anyone who will listen that President Bush is wrong on the war. If Lamont wins, analysts say, his victory would send a message to Democrats that will be heard loud and clear throughout the country: support the war, and you won’t be elected.
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