Democrats Admit They Are Worried

Very interesting article out of the Associated Press today. Democrats are openly voicing worries that a Lieberman loss will hurt other Democrats. Now they are carefully phrasing it in terms of impact on Connecticut and other Democratic candidates there, but they are obviously thinking bigger, as well. The outbreak of war in Lebanon has made it even more dangerous, of course.

If Lieberman loses to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, he plans to run as an independent candidate. His volunteers are currently collecting the 7,500 signatures needed to petition Lieberman onto the November ballot, if necessary.

"It makes it more challenging," said John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, when asked what a Lieberman primary loss would mean to Democrats running for everything from Congress to state representative.

The hot Senate race has already drawn complaints from the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates running in the Aug. 8 primary. The campaigns for both Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano have complained that the Senate race is garnering the bulk of media attention, leaving their candidates fighting to win the voters' attention.

Feelings are mixed as to whether a primary loss by Lieberman would hurt the chances for the three Democrats hoping to defeat the state's three incumbent GOP U.S. House members, Reps. Chris Shays, Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson.

Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said she believes the healthy fundraising numbers posted by Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy show that Democrats are willing to financially back the candidates. All three races remain targeted by the DCCC.

"Regardless of the Senate primary, all three Connecticut House Republicans are in for the races of their lives in November," Psaki said. "There's no question Connecticut is one of the top battlegrounds in the country."

Both Murphy and Farrell stood on stage at Monday's event, urging Democrats to back the incumbent.

But Ed Patru, a spokesman for the Republican Congressional Committee, said if Lieberman's name appears on the November ballot as an independent, Democratic voters will be drawn away from the party.

I have been saying much the same things for as long as I have been blogging about this race. Because the Democrats have openly announced they planned to nationalize the elections, the Connecticut primary itself also has national implications even though the article steers clear of them. A Lamont win will give the Republicans a club roughly the size of Detroit to beat the Democrats with.

Are you really, really sure you want to court the netroots, Democrats?

UPDATE: The Washington Post's David Broder also writes about this.