Democrats Senate Campaign Boss Wants

Lieberman To Stop Reelection Bid

By William C. Mann

Associated Press

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman says he won’t end his Senate re-election effort despite a colleague’s warning that staying in both races risks letting Connecticut’s Republican governor appoint a GOP successor.

The note of caution came last Sunday from Sen Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, who as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a key role in the party’s drive to win the seats necessary to overcome the Republicans’ 54-46 advantage in the Senate.

“If indeed the prospects of the Gore ticket get better and better as the weeks go by, which I think they will, and [Sen Lieberman] sees the real prospect of a Democratic majority in the Senate, which I think will become clearer, then Joe Lieberman has to make a personal decision,” Sen Torricelli said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“It is a difficult decision. I’m glad I don’t have to make it... I trust Joe Lieberman to make the right decision.”

Asked whether that decision would be to get out of the Senate race, Sen Torricelli said, “Well, it would from my perspective.”

Connecticut Democrats nominated Sen Lieberman at their state convention July 14, three weeks before presidential nominee Al Gore chose him as his running mate.

Sen Lieberman, campaigning Sunday, said that replacing him by committee now would cause “a lot of chaos” for the party. “The US Senate seat is too important to be filled on the run,” he said.

The state party’s 72-member central committee would meet to select a new candidate if Sen Lieberman did withdraw.

Sen Torricelli said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal “would clearly win the seat” if the central committee named him to replace Sen Lieberman even as late as October 27, the last day for Sen Lieberman to quit the Senate race.

Contacted at his home, Mr Blumenthal said he does not expect the senator to abandon the race. “I think he has made the absolutely right decision – to stay in the Senate race – and will continue to do so,” Mr Blumenthal said. He said most Connecticut voters want Sen Lieberman as their senator.

Recent polls reflect an extremely tight race with the Gore-Lieberman ticket holding an edge over Texas Gov George W. Bush and his running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.

“I think Joe Lieberman cares as much about a Democratic Senate as I do,” Sen Torricelli said, and for that reason will leave the race “if indeed it is clear he’s going to be elected vice president.”

Campaigning Sunday, Sen Lieberman told reporters he “consulted with a lot of people in Connecticut and in the Connecticut Democratic Party” after Mr Gore chose him. “The consensus was that I stay in,” he said.

Mutterings of dissent have appeared in recent days among Connecticut Democrats. Councils in two towns have passed resolutions urging Sen Lieberman to withdraw from the Senate race, and Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz said last week she was “a little disappointed” by his decision to continue.

Should Sen Lieberman stay in the race, then win the vice presidency, Connecticut law would allow Republican Gov John Rowland to appoint a replacement until 2002, the next statewide election. Democrats control the state legislature, however, and their leaders say they could call a special election next year.

That’s the course Sen Lieberman suggests.

“The bottom line is... I’m going to stay in as a candidate,” he said Sunday. Asked if there is a chance he will change his mind, he said, “I don’t see any, no.”

Sen Lieberman is not the only politician in recent decades to run for both a Senate seat and the vice presidency. Lyndon B. Johnson, the Senate majority leader, did in 1960, when he became President Kennedy’s vice president.