Lamont catches Lieberman

A Qunnipiac Univeristy poll shows that anti-war Democrat Ned Lamont leads Senator Lieberman by a margin of 51-47 among likely Democratic primary voters in Connecticut. A June 8 Quinnipiac poll had Lieberman up by a margin of 55-40.

The poll shows that Lieberman is more popular among non-Democrats than among Dems. The Connecticut electorate as a whole believes by a margin of 56-41 that Lieberman deserves to be re-elected. But Democrats believe this by a “margin” of only 46-45. The Senator’s popularity among non-Democrats should see to his re-election even if he is defeated by Lamont in the primary. In a three way race that includes Republican challenger Alan Schlesinger, Liberman leads Lamont 51-27 with Schlesinger a very distant third.

Lieberman is reliably liberal on most domestic policy issues. Thus, his problems in Connecticut Dems (a reasonably good surrogate for blue state Dems) clearly stem from his dissent from liberal Democratic orthodoxy on issues regarding the war on terrorism, especially his support for our efforts in Iraq. By contrast, I’m aware of no evidence that Republican voters are turning against Senators like Chuck Hagel who question President Bush’s approach to the war on terrorism and Iraq, but who are generally conservative on domestic issues.

Advantage, Republicans.

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