Sen. [tag]Joe Lieberman[\/tag] has been in a tough spot for a while now. He’s committed himself to running in the Democratic primary against [tag]Ned Lamont[\/tag], but he’s repeatedly said he’d consider running as an independent if Lamont beats him the Aug. 8 [tag]primary[\/tag].<\/p>\n
But that’s not as easy as it sounds. Given the deadline for an independent candidate’s petition signatures, [tag]Lieberman[\/tag] would have to collect 7,500 signatures<\/a> literally over night, immediately after a humiliating primary defeat. It’s created an awkward dynamic: Lieberman would have to start collecting signatures before the primary, just in case, but that would further annoy Connecticut Democrats who aren’t thrilled with him anyway.<\/p>\n What to do? Start the process the day before<\/a> a major national holiday.<\/p>\n Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is to announce today he will petition for a place on the November ballot as an “independent Democrat,” giving him a chance to stay alive politically should he lose an Aug. 8 primary for the Democratic nomination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, Lieberman is committed to being the Democratic nominee, but his commitment to the party will disappear if actual Democrats have the temerity to vote for someone else.<\/p>\n Primary voters tend to be the most loyal, active members of both parties. As a rule, they have made a sincere commitment to the party, and more often than not, like candidates who feel the same way. If many [tag]Connecticut[\/tag] [tag]Democrats[\/tag] are concerned that Lieberman’s values and priorities have strayed too far<\/a> from the party’s mainstream, how does Lieberman suppose these people will react to word that he’s already begun taking steps to give up on the party altogether? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sen. [tag]Joe Lieberman[\/tag] has been in a tough spot for a while now. He’s committed himself to running in the Democratic primary against [tag]Ned Lamont[\/tag], but he’s repeatedly said he’d consider running as an independent if Lamont beats him the Aug. 8 [tag]primary[\/tag]. But that’s not as easy as it sounds. Given the deadline for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}