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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

CT-Sen: Lamont Creates Candidate Committee

Posted by DavidNYC

Ned Lamont's campaign is heating up, at least a little bit:

Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont moved closer Monday toward a challenge of U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman as he created a candidate committee, named a campaign manager and began searching for a headquarters.

"It is a significant step forward," said Tom Swan, who is managing what he says is still an exploratory campaign. "I am happy that Ned asked me to play a role within this campaign."

Swan, a liberal activist and longtime critic of Lieberman, took a leave of absence Monday from his job as executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group so that he can work full time for Lamont.

The citizen group's political director, John Murphy, also will be joining the Lamont campaign.

So he's got a committee, and some staff (who sound experienced). That's a good start. However, note this:

Lamont has said that he will not move beyond an exploratory campaign until at least 1,000 volunteers sign up on his campaign website, nedlamont.com.

Still hasn't reached 1,000. Maybe I'm basing this too much on personal experiece, but I still really feel like 1,000 names is not a lot. When I was running New York for Dean three years ago, we had over a thousand local e-mail addresses in just a couple of months - and we weren't promoted on the million-visitors-a-day DailyKos, nor did we have our URL mentioned in newspaper articles. I would have expected Lamont to get 1K inside a week - but maybe I'm being unrealistic. Bottom line is, though, he'll get his 1,000 before too long.

Posted at 10:18 AM in 2006 Elections - Senate, Connecticut | Technorati

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Comments

I also thought that 1K would be no problem. Hell, could this be symbolic of what the majority of the netroots feels about a primary challenge to Loserman?

Posted by: DFLer22 at February 7, 2006 10:57 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Could be indicative of the the possibility that we blogosphere types are seriously, seriously divorced from reality in CT (which plenty of people have already argued, even prior to this name-collecting drive). However, I'm not willing to read too much into this.

Posted by: DavidNYC at February 7, 2006 11:02 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Seriously -- they couldn't get 1000 Nutmeggers to *claim* to volunteer in ten days?

Posted by: Adam B at February 7, 2006 11:06 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Or, 1000 people to claim they're Nutmeggers? ;)

Posted by: DavidNYC at February 7, 2006 11:19 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I'm not sure that achieving a real goal though underhanded means is the best route. After all, Lamont isn't Bush. ;)

So, I'm going to guess he will not call his committee "Nedheads for Ned"

Posted by: RBH at February 7, 2006 11:22 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

The Staff he hired is top tier. I was worked with them in the nutmeg state. I am saying nothing about my opinion of this idea just informing community about high quality staff.

Posted by: Democraticavenger at February 7, 2006 12:10 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

There's a few things about the 1K in volunteers:

1) My understanding is that he already has a couple of thousand pledged volunteers, but only about 500 of them are in Connecticut.

2) Connecticut only has about 3.5 million people, whereas New York has about 20 million. NYC, alone, is 3 times larger (and more liberal) than Connecticut. Getting 1,000 CT volunteers is like getting 10,000 New York volunteers.

3) Lamont is running a long-shot campaign. This is the reality of the situation. A 1,000 volunteer campaign like this is good for keeping Lamont's name in the news without forcing him to spend any real money. And having 1,000 pledged volunteers ensures that he's not just a rich guy with no real ground support. There's no reason for him to particularly hurry things up at this point.

Posted by: hyounpark at February 7, 2006 03:38 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

You guys should come to some DTC meetings. There is open dissension against our three-term incumbent/former V-P candidate. Folks are genuinely upset with Joe.

Whether they embrace Lamont is unknown. Ned is certainly new to politics, but that well may be a net plus in what is shaping up to be a "throw the bums out year."

I could go on about what makes Joe so vulnerable, but the most damning details are his upside down approval ratings, by which he is much more popular with "R"'s than "D"'s. He deserves a primary challenge whether it is successful or not. And such things can only be beneficial to Party discipline, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi.

P.S. my understanding is that we have a 1,000 CT "Nedheads". And 4,000 nationwide. Ten days after the initial website gets launched, and on the campaign manager's first day, that is no small feat.

P.S.S. Underestimate the MoveOn crowd at your own peril, (lol, I like that at your peril bit, thank you Joe.) If Iraq doesn't go well this year, expect a statement to be made with much of the focus on the Bush-kisser.

Posted by: DeanFan84 at February 7, 2006 08:58 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

It is a terrible mistake to after a fellow northeast democrat. He is honest, a strong new democrat and a deficit hawk.

Posted by: nasir at March 29, 2006 04:54 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment