{news} ( ACTION)"token challenge from young Green Party candidate Ralph Ferrucci, "

[Green Party-CT]

PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS ARTICLE IN THE NH AND HARTFORD ADVOCATE;
   
  "a token challenge from young Green Party candidate Ralph Ferrucci,"
  

  Taking Aim at Joe
Can a Greenwich millionaire unseat Lieberman? 
  by Meir Rinde - January 26, 2006 
                  MEIR RINDE PHOTO         Ned Lamont met with progressive Dems last week at Hartford´s La Paloma Sabanera. The left-wing realms of Connecticut´s blogosphere have been buzzing the last few weeks over Ned Lamont, a Greenwich Democrat and millionaire cable company owner who appears increasingly ready to run against Sen. Joseph Lieberman in a primary election. Lamont´s experience with political office is limited to an unsuccessful run for state Senate in 1990, but Lieberman´s strong support for the Iraq War is very unpopular with Democratic activists and they´re champing for a challenger. Lamont has called the war ¨an enormous foreign policy blunder.¨ Lieberman remains popular, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released two weeks ago. Connecticut voters approved of him 62 to 24 percent, and about the same percentage thought he should be reelected. Republicans in particular love him -- 75 percent said he should be reelected -- but his numbers were not as strong
 among Democrats, who favored his reelection 59 to 24 percent. And some in the ¨Dump Joe¨ faction are excited by another statistic from the poll: Asked whether the party should renominate Lieberman for a reelection run, only 52 percent of Democrats surveyed said yes, with 39 percent saying no.   Combine that figure with a tendency for primary voters to lean left and you´ve got a shadow of a possibility that Lamont or another challenger, like former governor Lowell P. Weicker, could best Lieberman for the nomination in the August primary. 
    
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  Lamont hasn´t even officially declared himself a candidate, but there are signs that Lieberman and his supporters consider him a real threat. For example, the top liberal blog Daily Kos claimed that Lieberman is ¨freaking out¨ and reaching out for support among Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C. While that may be wishful thinking, Lieberman also told the Republican-American he was prepared to run as an independent if he lost the primary.   And when Lamont had a meet-and-greet with progressives at a Hartford café last week, Mayor Eddie Perez took the trouble to show up and tell him not to run. ¨As mayor and an activist involved in progressive causes for decades, I cannot ask any of my fellow progressive Democrats to support Mr. Lamont against Sen. Lieberman,¨ Perez told the Hartford Courant .   Writers on the Connecticut Local Politics Blog came up with some reasons why Perez would bother to take notice of Lamont. The mayor is tight with the Democratic Leadership Council, the
 centrist organization whose members include Lieberman and Bill Clinton. Perez´s chief of staff is related to a Lieberman aide. And, probably most importantly, it benefits Hartford and the mayor personally if he has a good relationship with an influential senior senator. Perez, despite his progressive credentials, is an establishment politician who would not quixotically support a dark horse candidate.   That raises a practical question: even if Lamont decides to run and does draw interest among registered Democrats, could he get the support of the local Democratic Party activists who will attend the primary convention? Fairfield University politics professor John Orman said that to get on the primary ballot so voters have a chance to pick him over Lieberman, Lamont would first need to receive the support of 15 percent of the town committee members who are convention delegates.   Orman, who briefly ran against Lieberman last year until it was clear he had little support, said he´s
 only heard of two or three Democratic Town Committee chairs who have spoken up against Lieberman, out of some 200 town committees. The strong institutional resistance to challengers helps explain why Lieberman is in his 18th year as senator and will probably serve another six years. ¨In Connecticut, if you´re the type of person who has a career in politics and wants to move up the ladder, you´d be crazy to run against Joe Lieberman,¨ Orman said. ¨That would be the end of your political career.   ¨So it takes a party outsider or a maverick to pull off a huge political upset and get all the citizen action groups together and all the progressive groups and get people who are really upset with Joe,¨ Orman said. A millionaire like Lamont might be able to do it, Orman said, as could a celebrity on par with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But genuinely viable insider candidates like Attorney General Richard Blumenthal or state Rep. Rosa DeLauro won´t even try. 
    
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  Lieberman´s defenders, and even some Democrats who have qualms about the war, make another point: why are Democrats so eager to oust one of their own leading senators? Especially these days, with Republicans dominating all branches of the federal government, every Democratic vote in Congress is precious.   Maybe all those liberal activists who are so angry that President Bush once gave Lieberman a kiss on the cheek should instead focus their energy on helping Democrat Chris Murphy in his campaign against Republican Congresswoman Nancy Johnson, or Diane Farrell in what´s likely to be a close rematch with Congressman Chris Shays, the Lamont skeptics say.   Even Lieberman may need their help. In addition to a token challenge from young Green Party candidate Ralph Ferrucci, Joe could face a fight with maverick former governor Weicker, and the Hartford Courant has mentioned an unnamed millionaire Greenwich Republican who is supposedly considering running in the general election. Joe
 probably won´t end up losing to anyone come November, but it looks like he´s facing a tough year. He´ll surely take whatever help he can get.   
Tell us what you think. 
  
Email mrinde at hartfordadvocate.com 
  
Email editor at hartfordadvocate.com 
   
  editor at newhavenadvocate.com
   

  PLEASE RESPOND TO BOTH PAPERS AND MRINDE!!        


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      THE GREEN PARTY OF CONNECTICUT is the third largest political party in CT. The Greens are also the third largest political party in the US, with 220 Greens officeholders in 27 states. Over 80 countries in world have Green Parties. Wangari Maathai, the 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is Kenya's assistant minister for environment and an elected Green Party member.
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National Committee member from Connecticut: Tim McKee (860) 324-1684

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