Another morning jolt:
Democrat Susan Bysiewicz is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by longtime incumbent Joseph Lieberman – almost two years before the 2012 election.
Bysiewicz announced her intentions Tuesday morning in an e-mail that was sent to reporters.
“We need a senator who is 100 percent focused on helping our state, and Senator Joe Lieberman has been focused on everything but Connecticut,” Bysiewicz said in a statement. “I will only work for the people of Connecticut so we can create jobs that keep our children and grandchildren here in Connecticut for generations to come.”
Bysiewicz’s entry — assuming she actually stays in the race — could force a competitive Democratic primary between her and Rep. Chris Murphy, who has made every indication that he’s interested in the race.
UPDATE: Bysiewicz is coming armed with an internal poll, too. The poll from Bennet Petts Normington (from December 13-16, of registered voters) gives her a lead in both the primary and the general, suggesting she hasn’t been too badly harmed by a year’s worth of public ooopsies. She leads Chris Murphy in a Dem primary 46-37, and if there’s a three-way also involving Ted Kennedy Jr., she leads that 33-26-26. In a general that’s Bysiewicz, Joe Lieberman, and Linda McMahon, she leads 34-30-28. She also leads a Bysiewicz/Lieberman/Tom Foley race 33-29-27, and leads a two-way race against Linda McMahon 54-36.
Also, Chris Murphy doesn’t seem to be backing down; his post-Bysiewicz statement is the most candidate-ish thing today we’ve heard out of him yet:
However, Bysiewicz’s announcement Tuesday prompted Murphy to send out this statement: “My interest in running for Senate in 2012 is well known in the state, and I expect to announce my decision very soon. All I can say now is that this is going to be a pretty busy few weeks.”
UPDATE: Apparently tomorrow we’ll know what Joe Lieberman’s plans are for 2012. An announcement at a press conference is scheduled, although there’s no suggestion yet what’s being announced.
UPDATE 3: A few hours later, we are getting multiple reports that Lieberman’s announcement tomorrow will be that he will retire.
She’s very ambitious and wants to scare away Murphy. I don’t mind entirely. Murphy’s seat will be harder to defend if it is an open seat.
is any indicator – i doubt she will win. Too many gaffes in relatively short time (if i remeber correctly)
It’s time Lieberman went.
If Courtney gets in this could be really messy.
if murphy, not so mighty B, lieberman and some dudes run, lieberman could, in theory, win a barebones plurality in the primary.
Lieberman: 30%
Murphy 29%
NSMB: 28%
some dude #1: 7
some dude #2: 5
some dude #3: 2
Between this and Conrad, it’s not a great morning.
Not quite “OMFG, Republicans just won every statewide office in the Midwest outside of Minnesota” bad, but it really isn’t a good start to the cycle.
And given NMSB’s close ties to Lieberman (in addition to having political instincts slightly to the south of Richard Blumenthal’s), something smells here. Not sure what, but it’s just all too convenient somehow.
Not quite as bad as Sen. Conrad retiring, but I had been feeling very good about Rep. Murphy’s chances to take over Sen. Lieberman’s seat, and this is an added annoyance.
Tom Jensen has declared the oft talked about “enthusiasm gap” officially dead based on his national Kos poll
http://publicpolicypolling.blo…
My own voter model (granted, I’m not the king of this stuff) has Murphy up 43-32-25 over McMahon and Lieberman. Unless all of the undecideds in her poll are Democrats.
Hopefully he’s been working behind the scenes establishing connections and a solid donor base to run on. He has what it takes to make Bysiewicsz completely irrelevant.
Is it just me, or is her internal poll not a good sign. I never thought that she would only lead McMahon by 6 in a three way and only 4 to Lieberman. Anyone else see that as a read flag for Dems?
She leaves the gubernatorial race for run for senate in 2012.
I think she was in since she leaves the race for governor.
Still her bid for AG was as sign of it. The current senators of Connecticut jump to the senate after be CT Attorney General.
I expect something like Lieberman leaving the democratic caucus…
I would like he resigns tomorrow, for other democrat can be appointed, but I expect something worse.
at least not in this climate. lets see.
supported gore? one heck of a check.
Stimulus? check.
HCR? check.
FINREG? check.
DADT? another heck of a check.
supported RINO MCCAIN (aka mccain XP)? check.
START? yep.
support for the iraq war, when the next election will probably (although not necessarily) be an economic election and referendum on obama, won’t cut it. neither will support for the tax cuts which most democratic senators voted for any way. Lieberman doesn’t have a platform with the CT republicans, heck, at least specter had stimulus votes to run on.
Off topic, but PPPolling has a big bucket of cold water for the “Dems must contest this seat” crowd.
See link: http://www.dailyructions.com/l…
Frankly, this is good news for us. We don’t need Joe sucking up oxygen, it takes resources away from elsewhere. We’re much better off, especially in a Presidential year with Obama turnout, to have a straight one-on-one D-vs.-R fight. Even though Joe would be a longshot if he ran, it’s an easier win this way, and we can spend more resources elsewhere.
Just make sure we have a plan in place for CT-05. Thats one of those races that can either be really easy or a pain in the ass.
and take Ensign’s seat to remotely come close to holding the Senate in 2012.
The NE and ND seats are probably gone and TX is a fool’s errand not to talk of defending Tester, Webb, McCaskill and Nelson (FL) and holding Stabenow and Brown.
what would of been a clusterfuck that would of played into McConnell and Cornyn’s hands might off been averted. Now all we need is for Bysiewicz and Murphy not to nuke each other to high hell and remind CT that McMahon has blood on her hands for helping to cover up steroid use among her wrestlers and we have a Democratic hold. Guess the only New England Democratic senator who Republicans could knock off is Jeanne Shaheen, and she isn’t up for reelection until 2014.
If Lieberman does indeed announce his retirement, I’ll miss his presence dearly in the U.S. Senate. I think he’s been a tremendous U.S. Senator, and I firmly believe some of the left-wing attacks launched at him over the past few years have been rather unfair and/or over-the-line. I hope the reports are false and that he does run again.
Linda McMahon will have a better chance of winning in two-way than in a three-person race with Lieberman.
is we don’t need a state court to tell us she’s unqualified this time
I seriously bet you that, once Linda starts advertising, most people will be thinking “oh, no, not this shit again”.
throws his support behind Chris Murphy:
http://twitter.com/markos/stat…
I agree with Markos on this. Murphy would be the stronger candidate, both on the campaign trail and position wise. I fear that Bysiewicz will crack under the pressure and have some nightly news worthy gaffes like Martha Coakley a year ago.
… the past decade? Maybe it isn’t more than usual, but it does seem like there are LOTS of old bulls leaving. I mean, how many senators are there from the ’70s now? As best I can tell, just Inouye, Leahy, and Baucus.
How many senators will even be left from the ’80s post-2012? Grassley, Harkin, Kerry, Reid, McConnell, McCain, Mikulski, Bingaman (if he doesn’t retire). That seems to be it. Am I forgetting any?
the primary. She’s damaged goods. And she’s not an impressive speaker at all – that is, when she shows up for her press conferences.
The only reason she may be polling better than Murphy at this point is that she’s held statewide elective office for a long time. Murphy, on the other hand, represents only about a fifth of the state.
But Murphy’s impressive on the stump – and has a very strong voting record that’s in sync with the state’s sensibilities. He’ll make up for any name recognition deficit very quickly.
PS. I doubt Courtney runs. My sense is that his interest in the race is just a move to raise his profile.