Once the Republicans won big, the question became “Will Joe Lieberman become a Republican?” Lieberman seemed to throw cold water on the idea. But now a political tidbit that has started snaking its way around the Internet will raise the possibility of whether Lieberman would have to switch to the GOP if he wants to serve beyond 2012. The Hartford Courant reports:
Add the Connecticut for Lieberman party as one of the losers in last week’s election: the party’s candidate for U.S, Senate, John Mertens, apparently failed to get at least 1 percent of the vote, which would mean the loss of its guaranteed ballot line for the 2012 Senate election.
The party was created in July, 2006, as a backup plan in case Joe Lieberman lost the Democratic nomination to Ned Lamont (which he did, by the way.) But after Lieberman won re-election as an independent, some of his fiercest critics took control of the party that bears his name.
Mertens, a Trinity College professor, ran on the CFL line but, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of the State’s office, failed to reach the 1 percent threshold in his loss to Democrat Richard Blumenthal.
“We cannot make a final determination on this until the results of the election are certified,” Av Harris, spokesman for the Secretary of the State’s office, said via email. “However, from the official returns we have seen and posted publicly thus far, it does appear that…Mertens did not receive the required 1% of the votes in order for the party to retain minor party status for the U.S. Senate Seat.”
If he can’t run under the Joe Lieberman Party the he’d have to seriously consider a switch to the GOP. But would he be welcome there? Political history (recent and past) has shown that when someone jumps to another party they are not necessarily welcomed with open arms by their new party and could have problems getting the nomination — and/or being elected.
Of course Lieberman could create a new party with a new name (“Connecticut Independent Party”? Or one that has a name sure to get a lot of votes such as the “Unlimited Porn Party”). Lieberman will have his work cut out for him in 2012: His poll numbers are not good among Democrats (who mostly hate him) and Republicans (who are so-so on him which is surprising given his popularity with conservative talk show hosts). Lieberman is above all a political survivor but the outlook for his party plus the outcome in the Senate and Governor’s races (Democrats won) make it look like a 2012 battle will be a decidedly uphill one.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.