Lieberman To Start Petition Drive
By MARK PAZNIOKAS
The Hartford Courant
July 3 2006, 12:45 PM EDT
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.
Lieberman, 64, a three-term senator whose outspoken support of the war in Iraq has brought months of grief and inspired a strong primary challenge from Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, intends to announce his decision this afternoon at the State Capitol.
Even should he lose in August -- and the most recent public poll shows him leading Lamont by 15-percentage points among likely primary voters -- Lieberman would retain his status as a registered Democrat, but his name would not appear on the ballot line with other Democrats.
Lieberman began making courtesy calls to leading Democrats late this morning.
Most other Democratic candidates already have said they would support the winner of the Aug. 8 primary.
For months, Lieberman has refused to rule out running as petitioning candidate should he lose the primary, though he said recently he would not withdraw from the primary under any circumstances.
Lieberman will need to gather 7,500 signatures to guarantee a ballot place, an effort likely to begin next week.
Lamont, 52, the founder of a cable-television company, has contributed $1.5 million of his own money to his campaign. Lamont also has raised hundreds of thousands of dollar in small donations, mostly over the Internet.
His candidacy has been widely supported by a network of local and national Web logs.
