Lieberman not ruling out running as independent

HARTFORD, Conn. --U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, facing a challenge from within the Democratic Party for renomination, said Monday he could seek a fourth term as an independent.

"I have not foreclosed the option," Lieberman said at a news conference at the Capitol. "If I wanted to run as an independent, I would. I'm running as a Democrat. I've been a Democrat all my life."

Ned Lamont, a Democratic activist and anti-war candidate from Greenwich, is challenging Lieberman for the party's nomination. He has been winning support from some Connecticut Democrats dissatisfied with Lieberman's support of the war in Iraq and his perceived closeness with President Bush's administration.

The party will endorse a candidate at a convention on May 20, and Lamont believes he will win enough support to force a primary on Aug. 8.

Lieberman "takes the party for granted every once in a while and should be challenged," Lamont said. "I'm going to run as a Democrat. I'm going to win as a Democrat."

Republican challenger Alan Schlesinger, a former state legislator and ex-mayor of Derby, said he believes his chances will improve if Lamont wins the Democratic nomination and Lieberman is an independent.

"My gut is I'd do better if there are three people on the ballot," he said.

Paul Streitz, a Darien resident who also is seeking the Republican nomination for the Senate, agreed.

"A Republican would win, obviously," he said. "It would split the Democratic vote."

But Nancy DiNardo, chairwoman of the Connecticut Democratic Party, said she believes the issue is moot.

"I expect Sen. Lieberman to win the primary," she said. "He's always been a good Democrat and has been good to the party in the past and I expect him to support the party."

Lieberman said he understands that fellow Democrats oppose his position on the war in Iraq. He, too, has criticized certain operations of the war and the Bush administration's handling of postwar Iraq, he said.

"I feel very strongly the world is safer without Saddam Hussein in power. We have to complete the job in Iraq," Lieberman said.

He said Democrats should not judge him solely on his position on the war, but also on his record on the environment, economic development and his support for civil rights and civil liberties, he said.

Howard L. Reiter, chairman of the political science department at the University of Connecticut, said an incumbent senator running without a party is not unprecedented.

Sen. Thomas Dodd was censured by the U.S. Senate in 1967 for financial misconduct and was denied renomination by the Democratic Party, which backed Joseph Duffey. Dodd ran as an independent and lost the general election to Republican Lowell Weicker, who was defeated by Lieberman in 1988.

"That's the precedent, but you have to go back 36 years," Reiter said.

Lieberman, who became a national political figure as his party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination four years later.

He has burnished a reputation as a maverick who bucks his party. He was one of the few Democrats to chide then-President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and has been a prominent critic of the sex and violence depicted in video games and by Hollywood, a major source of campaign money for Democrats.

Lieberman also voted for the 1991 Gulf War, casting the fight in moral terms.