Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman’s dying on Wednesday led to many retrospectives in regards to the 82-year-old’s high-profile place in nationwide elections, together with his history-making flip in 2000 as the primary Jewish individual on a significant celebration ticket, his doomed 2004 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, and his ardent assist for Republican John McCain in 2008.
However as is our wont at Each day Kos Elections, we’re carefully inspecting his profession in Nutmeg State politics, together with the triumphs and setbacks he incurred alongside the best way.
Lieberman, who already was nicknamed “Senator” whereas a scholar at Yale, bought his begin in politics by working part-time on former Gov. Abraham Ribicoff’s profitable Senate marketing campaign in 1962. Lieberman served as a summer season intern for Ribicoff the next 12 months, which was the identical 12 months he traveled to Mississippi to encourage Black residents to register to vote.
Round that point, as a university senior, Lieberman wrote his honors thesis on John Bailey, the highly effective state Democratic Celebration chief and Democratic Nationwide Committee chair who would function an early mentor. That assist would show essential in 1970 when Lieberman determined to run for a state Senate seat in New Haven though he knew he may must go up towards highly effective Democrat, state Senate Majority Chief Ed Marcus.
Marcus had launched a bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by incumbent Thomas Dodd, a Democrat who had been censured by his colleagues years earlier for allegedly misusing marketing campaign funds. (Dodd initially introduced he would retire however later determined to run as an unbiased.) Nonetheless, Marcus additionally made it clear he’d flip round and search reelection if he misplaced the nomination in August, an choice he had as a result of the legislative major was set to happen a month later.
Marcus made good on his phrase after he completed a distant third within the Senate major towards Joseph Duffy, a former United Church of Christ minister who earned nationwide consideration because of his opposition to the Vietnam Struggle. Lieberman likewise ran as an anti-war candidate towards Marcus, and he benefited from the efforts of scholars like Yale Regulation’s Invoice Clinton, who had labored on Duffy’s marketing campaign. (Zeke Miller, in a 2013 piece for BuzzFeed, known as Marcus “an advocate for scaled disengagement.”)
Lieberman’s bid additionally was aided by each institutional Democrats and younger individuals who had by no means been a part of the voters earlier than. The 28-year-old made use of his ties to Bailey and fundraising assist from Ribicoff, and he additionally took benefit of a brand new coverage that allowed Yale college students to participate in native elections for the primary time. Black voters additionally proved to be an necessary a part of his coalition in a seat that the Los Angeles Occasions characterised in 2000 as “equal elements Jewish, African American and Yalie.”
Lieberman narrowly received the first by about 240 votes, and he simply prevailed within the fall. (Marcus would later change into state celebration chair and a Lieberman buddy.) Native supporters like Clinton did not have an excellent election evening total, although, as Republican Rep. Lowell Weicker defeated Duffy 42-34 within the Senate race whereas Dodd took 24%.
As soon as he arrived within the legislature, although, Lieberman rapidly confirmed himself to be something however a liberal activist. “This vibrant younger university-backed, liberal candidate has the sharp edges rubbed off within the short while,” guide Morton Tenzer instructed the Washington Submit in 2000, “and will get alongside and goes alongside higher than just about anybody else.”
Lieberman, who turned majority chief following the 1974 elections, hoped to sometime sit within the governor’s workplace, and he tried to carry that dream nearer to actuality in 1978 by campaigning for lieutenant governor. Nonetheless, he determined to not proceed to the first after conference delegates favored William O’Neill. (O’Neill would ascend to the highest job on the finish of 1980 following the resignation of Gov. Ella Grasso, who died simply six weeks later from ovarian most cancers.)
Along with his gubernatorial goals apparently over, Lieberman set himself on a special path when he ran for the open third Congressional District in 1980. Lieberman, like virtually everybody else, believed he was in for a simple normal election on this longtime Democratic stronghold, however state Senate Minority Chief Lawrence DeNardis was decided to show the traditional knowledge mistaken.
Lieberman didn’t push again when his rival dubbed him a “tax-and-spend liberal,” a mistake the Democrat turned decided by no means to repeat in future campaigns. Lieberman additionally had the misfortune of operating in a horrible 12 months for his celebration: In line with analyst Kiernan Park-Egan, Republican Ronald Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter 51-39 within the third District whereas carrying Connecticut as a part of his 44-state landslide.
DeNardis, in the meantime, received 52-46, a outcome that appeared to mark the tip of Lieberman’s once-promising profession. “He was a multitude,” Rep. Toby Moffett would recount to the L.A. Occasions many years later, describing his breakfast with the just-defeated state senator just a few days after Election Day. “He was attempting to determine what occurred and what to do subsequent.” It did not assist that Lieberman’s first marriage was coming to an finish at the moment.
Nonetheless, as Kurt Stone would write in his e book “The Jews of Capitol Hill,” Lieberman turned decided to run for one thing in 1982—whilst he publicly acknowledged he wasn’t positive what. He in the end settled on the job of lawyer normal, which had traditionally been a part-time and little-noticed put up. It turned out to be the proper transfer: The Democrat all however locked down the nomination on the Democratic conference and scored a 58-41 victory within the normal election.
Lieberman turned the first full-time lawyer normal in state historical past and a outstanding power in state politics. In little time, politicos started speculating that his plans to change into governor have been again on observe. However many Democratic leaders within the state considered the brand new lawyer normal as each an consideration seeker and a risk to their affect. “They have been terrified he’d run for governor and wished him out of the state,” former state celebration chair John Droney instructed the L.A. Occasions in 2000.
However Lieberman, who secured reelection 65-35 in 1986, set his eyes on a special job two years later when he challenged Weicker’s bid for a fourth time period within the Senate. Weicker, who was one of many final liberal Republicans to serve within the higher chamber, spent a lot of the contest because the undisputed frontrunner. Nonetheless, Lieberman ran an aggressive marketing campaign that included adverts depicting the incumbent as a sleeping bear who dozed by means of votes.
The battle was maybe the final time a Democratic nominee ran to the proper of the Republican in a aggressive Senate race within the U.S. Lieberman had the assist of backing of outstanding conservatives just like the Nationwide Assessment founder William Buckley, a longtime buddy who additionally detested Weicker.
Whereas George H.W. Bush was poised to hold Connecticut that 12 months, the boos that greeted Weicker at a rally with the vp foreshadowed that top-of-the-ticket coattails wouldn’t save the senator. And positive sufficient, Lieberman prevailed in a 50-49 squeaker whilst Bush’s personal 52-47 victory made him the final Republican to take the state’s electoral votes. (That shut loss did not finish Weicker’s profession, although, as he received the governorship in 1990 underneath the banner of his “A Connecticut Celebration.”)
Lieberman made an early title for himself nationally as a crusader towards violence in video video games and proved to be widespread at dwelling, successful his subsequent two phrases with ease. Frustratingly for Democrats, although, the senator continued his 2000 reelection marketing campaign though a victory for the Gore-Lieberman ticket would have allowed GOP Gov. John Rowland to nominate a Republican substitute.
Lieberman’s ultimate race in 2006 proved to be his most fraught. The incumbent had infuriated Democrats throughout the nation along with his full-throated advocacy for the Iraq Struggle, which earned him a major problem from rich businessman Ned Lamont. Lamont, who had the assist of the burgeoning netroots motion, made full use of a photograph of George W. Bush showing to kiss the senator on the cheek. In a significant upset, he beat Lieberman by a 52-48 margin.
The incumbent, although, had already laid the groundwork to run as an unbiased even earlier than he misplaced the first, and he appeared on the overall election poll because the nominee of the brand new Connecticut for Lieberman celebration. But though Lieberman stated he’d stay within the Democratic caucus, he rapidly emerged because the de facto GOP nominee after Republicans realized he stood a much better probability of victory than their official candidate, former Derby Mayor Alan Schlesinger.
The senator would reveal in his 2021 e book that the Bush White Home and the Senate GOP’s official marketing campaign arm labored to verify conservative donors directed cash his method somewhat than to Schlesinger. Lieberman additionally claimed White Home strategist Karl Rove instructed him that the Bush workforce “will enable you to in any method we will.”
Lieberman nonetheless retained the assist of a substantial minority of Democrats and led within the polls from the start of the overall election. He by no means relinquished that benefit: Connecticut for Lieberman scored its first and solely victory when the incumbent beat Lamont 50-40, with Schlesinger taking simply 10%.
Lamont, like former Lieberman rivals O’Neill and Weicker, would go on to change into governor following his 2018 victory, however 2006 was the ultimate time Lieberman was on the poll. The senator engaged his celebration over again by backing McCain for president, a lot in order that GOP nominee severely thought of making him his operating mate earlier than deciding his base would not stand for it.
Lieberman additionally opposed together with a public choice within the Reasonably priced Care Act, a transfer that successfully vetoed the proposal, which was particularly widespread with liberals. With progressives decided to not repeat the errors of 2006 (Lamont went on trip after his major win, pondering he might induce Lieberman to drop out), the senator’s lengthy file of apostasies ensured he’d be the underdog if he ran once more in 2012.
However Lieberman’s many enemies to his left by no means bought the prospect. He introduced early that cycle that he would retire, and the seat as soon as once more had a full-fledged Democratic occupant after Rep. Chris Murphy received the competition to succeed him. Connecticut for Lieberman, in the meantime, was taken over by anti-Lieberman activists following the 2006 election and successfully shut down in 2013, the identical 12 months the senator left the higher chamber.