Caught Ned-Handed: AP says Lamont has faded

posted from the Ministry of Awful Puns The Full Lamonty, Oct 19th

The AP put out a dead-on assessment today of Ned’s struggles to broaden his appeal beyond his narrow anti-war base.

The story notes that two-plus months into the general election Ned is finally trying to shake his well-deserved image as “one-note Ned,” and talking about other issues. Of course, Ned neglects to mention that his plans steal liberally from proposals Joe Lieberman has already introduced or endorsed.

But the story makes clear that this is more than likely a case of too little too late.

Lamont, a cable TV executive whose only political experience is at the local level on two Greenwich boards, got off to a sluggish start after the primary.

He waited two weeks before releasing his first TV ad, giving Lieberman time to rebound.

"I'm not sure the (Lamont) group realized how much energy and how much get-up-and-go it takes," said Ted Cummings, the Democratic town committee chairman in Manchester, a Hartford suburb. "The primary was exhausting, but you've got to get up the next day and step it up and pour it on until the general election."

. . . "He was a national celebrity," Gary Rose, a politics professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, said of Lamont. "But after he won his primary, it seemed like he became the invisible man for a while. Something was lost there."

"His numbers seem to be frozen right now," said Doug Schwartz, Quinnipiac University Poll director. "He hasn't quite figured out what to do to broaden his appeal."

By contrast, the story points out how Joe Lieberman pivoted right away to deliver a clear and resonant message that cut across party lines.

After his loss, Lieberman quickly shifted the focus from his support of the war and onto Lamont's inexperience. Reaching out to Republicans and moderates, he ran ads stressing his ability to work with both parties to deliver for Connecticut. He highlighted what he did to help save the submarine base in Groton.

That helps explain why even the Democratic voters the AP talked to who were nominally supporting Lamont or even thinking about switching talked up the value of Lieberman’s experience and record of results.

"I hate giving up his strength for an untried unknown," said Laurel Kohl, a specialist in sustainable energy education at Eastern Connecticut State University and a lifelong Democrat who backed Lieberman in the primary

John Orazietti, the Derby Democratic town committee chairman, is officially backing Lamont. But his heart is with Lieberman, who he predicts will win because of his long-standing support for Connecticut's defense industries, a vital part of the state's economy.

"People want to put food on their tables," said Orazietti.

Then again, the AP suggested, the Lamont campaign’s many gaffes have had something to do with it.

He had to apologize after campaign manager Tom Swan called Waterbury a place "where the forces of slime meet the forces of evil." Two former elected officials from Waterbury have served prison time.

Lamont stumbled again when he criticized Lieberman's public scolding of former President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. It turns out Lamont wrote to the senator in 1998 praising the speech.

The campaign waded into controversy, too, after a black leader endorsed Lamont and accused Lieberman of lying about his civil rights activism, before backing off the charges. The Lieberman camp pounced on the episode as evidence of Lamont's negative campaigning.

The bottom line?

Some Democrats wonder if Lamont could become the next Dean, whose insurgent presidential primary campaign energized the party's left wing, but flamed out because he failed to win over more moderate voters.

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Posted on 10/19/2006 at 6:37 PM