Early results showed Lieberman with 49 percent of the vote, handily
defeating the Democratic challenger Ned Lamont who had 40 percent and
Republican Alan Schlesinger who managed only 10 percent.

“It’s a real win for all of Connecticut and all of America,” said Scott
Overland, a spokesman for the Lieberman campaign. “In the end the people of
Connecticut have spoken.”

Lieberman decided to run as an independent almost immediately after losing
his party’s primary to Lamont in August. Lieberman received
48 percent of the vote compared to Lamont’s 52 percent. That contest was
seen by many as the party’s referendum on Lieberman, who has broken with the
Democrats on a number of high profile issues.

“The primary was dominated by activist liberal Democrats who were hostile to
him because he wasn't a purist,” said Jack Citrin, a political science professor
at the University of California at Berkeley. “If Republicans had a stronger
candidate Lieberman would have been squeezed between the Democrat and
Republican.”

Republican challenger Alan Schlesinger, whose campaign had little support
from his own party, finished last.

“You always hope for the best,” Schlesinger’s campaign spokesman Pat O’Neil said. “We hoped (the campaign) would have produced more positive results than it has.”

Lieberman was the first Democrat to publicly blast former President Bill
Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. More recently Lieberman helped block a filibuster of the nomination of Supreme Court Justice and President George W. Bush-appointee Samuel Alito.

And then there’s the Iraq War.

Lieberman has been a consistent ally of Bush’s handling of the Iraq War,
angering many Democrats. Lamont was able to defeat Lieberman in the primary
by running a campaign focused mainly on the war and highlighting the veteran
senator’s close ties to Bush. That strategy did not work as well this time
around.

People outside the state often falsely assume Connecticut is a Democratic
state, said Ken Dautrich, a pollster and public policy professor at the
University of Connecticut. Of registered voters, about 34 percent are
Democrats, 22 percent are Republicans and 44 percent are independent,
according to information from the secretary of state.

Many of those independents are more comfortable with the independent-minded, Lieberman than the left-leaning Lamont, Dautrich said. Lamont, a cable
television entrepreneur, was a political unknown before running for senate.
His only real experience was in local government.

In his concession speech Lamont reiterated the main points of his campaign. A Reuters article quoted Lamont as saying the United States faces a number of problems including its health-care system and the energy policy. Solving those problems is "a lot tougher while our brave men and women continue to die in Iraq while America continues to bleed in Iraq," he said.

As for the Republicans, their party’s candidate, Alan Schlesinger, was a
disaster. Over the summer it was revealed Schlesinger paid thousands of
dollars in the early 1990s to settle lawsuits on unpaid gambling debts.

Lieberman, who maintained a double-digit lead in the polls since September, was
seen by many as a virtual lock for re-election. The only real question was
what a Lieberman victory would mean for the Democratic Party, which
Lieberman has said he would not leave if re-elected.

“I think a general election victory will embolden him…to be an even more
independent voice in the Democratic Party,” Dautrich said.

Democrats as far away as California watched the race closely. Local
Democrat, Carole Mill, saw a Lieberman victory as a major concern for the
party.

The veteran senator will cast votes to help himself grab power and key
chairmanship positions as opposed to voting in the party’s best interest,
said Mills, director of the United Democratic Campaign for Berkeley, Albany
and Emeryville. She worries he will vote against Democrats to repay the
Republican Party’s support for his re-election bid.

“Joe Lieberman is interested in Joe Lieberman first and foremost,” Mills
said. “We want the war in Iraq to end. If the Democrats don’t take back the
House, I have not a moment’s doubt Lieberman will continue to go along with
the President’s policy.”