Katy bar the door, Lamont has jumped ahead in the polls. Today’s Quinnipiac Poll shows:
Anti-war Connecticut U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont has surged to a razor-thin 51 – 47 percent lead over incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman among likely Democratic primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Among its more important findings:
1. All voters say 56 – 31 percent that Lieberman deserves reelection, but likely Democratic primary voters split 46 – 45 percent on this question.
2. “Lamont is up, while Lieberman’s Democratic support is dropping. More Democrats have a favorable opinion of Lamont, who was largely unknown last month, and see him as an acceptable alternative to Lieberman. But Lieberman’s strength among Republicans and independents gives him the lead in a three-way matchup in November.”
3. In possible general election matchups:* Lieberman defeats Republican challenger Alan Schlesinger 68 – 15 percent;
* Lamont beats Schlesinger 45 – 22 percent, with 24 percent undecided;
* Running as an independent, Lieberman gets 51 percent, to 27 percent for Lamont and 9 percent for Schlesinger.
What does this show? It shows that we have provided Lamont with enough free media to quickly raise his profile. As people get to know Lamont, their support for Lieberman craters in a hurry. The nedmentum appears irreversible, and if we continue to get the word out and help Lamont pay for his media campaign and ground operations, it should pay off with a primary victory. However, if the Nedmentum stalls, Lieberman could still pull this primary out, much to our dismay.
Lamont’s biggest weakness is that voters say by 39%-24% that he does not have the right kind of experience to be a Senator. Expect Lieberman to hit on that theme.
If Lamont does win the primary he still has a long way to go to close the gap on Lieberman. He is trailing 51%-27%. Schlesinger, at 9%, hardly seems likely to split the vote and pull off a victory. For now, this is a race between Lamont and Lieberman.
Lieberman will suffer a huge loss of support if he loses the primary. But, he currently has a 24 point lead. This could be a nail-biter.
We raised over $45,000 for Lamont yesterday, which he matched dollar for dollar. We can do better. Go Ned!
