Lieberman Under Fire for Independent Bid

Critics of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s independent run to keep his job attacked on two fronts Monday, with one group asking an elections official to throw him out of the Democratic Party and a former rival calling on state officials to keep his name off the November ballot.

Campaign workers for Lieberman, who lost the Aug. 8 Democratic primary to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, called the efforts dirty politics. The senator filed as an independent a day after the loss, running under the new Connecticut for Lieberman party.

A group with members describing themselves as peace activists asked Sharon Ferrucci, New Haven’s Democratic registrar of voters, to remove Lieberman from the party, arguing that he cannot be a Democrat while running under another party’s banner.

The request could lead to a hearing in which Lieberman, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2000, would have to argue that he still adheres to the party’s principles.

“The law is pretty clear he is no longer a member of the Democratic Party in good standing,” said the group’s leader, Henry Lowendorf. “There was an open vote and he was voted out. He joined a different party.”

Ferrucci said she would research the request.

Lieberman campaign manager Sherry Brown said the effort was “dirty political tricks at its worst.”

John Orman, a Democrat who gave up a challenge to Lieberman last year, argued in complaints filed with the state Monday that Lieberman should be kept off the Nov. 7 ballot. Orman, a Fairfield University political science professor, accused Lieberman of creating “a fake political party.”

Since losing the primary, Lieberman has called himself an “independent Democrat” and said he plans to remain part of the Democratic caucus in Washington, even though several leading Democrats have called on him to give up his independent run.

Lieberman led Lamont by 12 percentage points in a recent statewide poll, with Republican Alan Schlesinger trailing far behind.

As of Monday, about 4,600 of the 7,500 voters’ signatures Lieberman collected to petition his way onto the November ballot had been verified, and Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz said she expects Lieberman will have enough.