CT-Sen: Lieberman Exits, Stage Center-Right

This seemed like a pretty foregone conclusion based on all of yesterday’s leaks and chatters, but at his lunchtime press conference today in Stamford, CT, Joe Lieberman just made it official: he will not be running for a fifth term in the Senate.

“I have decided it is time to turn the page to a new chapter, and so I will not be a candidate for re-election…”

“I promised [my wife] that when Regis leaves television, I’ll leave the Senate.”

The exit of Lieberman, who had many different ways of approaching the 2012 Senate race but probably no way of winning it, makes things easier for the Democrats here, turning this into a very straightforward two-way instead of a hard-to-game three-person race. Whether that Dem nominee will be Chris Murphy, Susan Bysiewicz, or somebody else… that’s the new big question in Connecticut.

UPDATE: If you haven’t seen it, here’s an excellent overview of Lieberman’s rise and fall, from Salon’s Steve Kornacki, who as always knows his history. Our younger readers may not be familiar with Lieberman’s first election in 1988, which he won by running to the right of iconoclastic Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker.

104 thoughts on “CT-Sen: Lieberman Exits, Stage Center-Right”

  3. I was thinking this morning that while there are always ways for the fundamentals to turn against us, there’s almost no excuse for the Democrats to lose big in Connecticut or Massachusetts. It’s slightly–and I mean slightly–more forgivable in Massachusetts, since we are going up against an incumbent who isn’t an idiot and won’t sink himself. But seriously, McCaskill, Tester, and Webb would run through the streets naked to get the sort of advantages that the Democrats running in these two states will have. I wouldn’t expect either candidate to coast, not the least of all in Massachusetts; in fact, I expect them to campaign until the polls close, as if their children were being held hostage and the only way that they could be released was to win. Yet it shouldn’t be as difficult as it will be in a lot of other states. I just hope the Democrats get their shit together and run campaigns that won’t make several members of their party hang themselves.

  7. I had forgotten Lieberman lost CT-03 in 1980 to a GOP one-term wonder. I guess Reagan was either extremely popular in the New Haven burbs, or Joementum just gave an early hint of his future suckitude.

    Though, ten years later Rosa DeLauro took over; imagine how shitty if Joe had won here and stuck around the House that long.  

  8. Just like last year. Dorgan gave us the your fucked announcement then Dodd gave us the news we would in fact keep his seat after all. Same thing this time around, though CT was not close to being as bad as it was with Dodd.  

  9. makes things a lot simpler. Himes or Murphy can now waltz into the Senate without that unpredictable x factor. I’m kind of rooting for Himes but Murphy would be fine as well. Susan is the only one who could make this thing competitive, even then she’s got the edge I would think. I’m glad to see Lieberman go. We will get a good liberal who will not cause us trouble. I’m no purist but we can do much better in the nutmeg state. I’m glad Lieberman was graceful enough to leave early on without struggle.  

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