Lamont Wins 52-48

Ned Lamont has defeated Joe Lieberman 52-48 in the Connecticut Democratic primary. Unfortunately, this narrow defeat has caused Lieberman to proceed with bid to win re-election as an independent. Lamont needed to crush Lieberman to finish him off for good, but it didn't happen.

I haven't seen the turnout for this primary, but it was likely higher than I had anticipated, thus the closer result than I had expected. I'm sure the national press coverage had a lot to do with this.

If polling in this race results from the primary remain the same, obviously Lieberman will win in the general election. The republicans simply are not fielding a candidate strong enough to draw enough Lieberman votes for Lamont to win.

It is possible that Lamont could consolidate power among Democrats who are turned off by Lieberman's independent run, but it will be difficult. He may also pick up some voters who simply vote straight ticket Democratic.

Now, three 2008 presidential hopefuls, Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards have already thrown their support behind Lamont. They really didn't have a choice, they are just trying to keep their heads down as Lamont supporters around the country are needed for their own higher ambitions. However, I don't know how much pull any of these three will have on the people of Connecticut.

I've also heard that Christopher Dodd will try to get Lieberman not to run, and yes, I know he considers himself a 2008 hopeful, but I do not. I doubt that will happen, but he does have the ability to sway some voters to Lamont should he choose publicly support him, how much I don't know.