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(CNN) -- Democratic leaders Wednesday moved quickly to back Ned Lamont, the winner of the Connecticut primary.The move puts veteran Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has vowed to run as an independent, at odds with his own party. Lieberman lost the primary election to Lamont, a millionaire cable executive, 52 percent to 48 percent on Tuesday night. In a joint statement, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said they would back Lamont this fall. They also said Lieberman's ties to President Bush caused his defeat. "Joe Lieberman has been an effective Democratic senator for Connecticut and for America," Reid and Schumer said. "But the perception was that he was too close to George Bush, and this election was, in many respects, a referendum on the president more than anything else." Other Democratic senators Wednesday also voiced support for Lamont, including assistant Democratic leader Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California also endorsed Lamont's campaign. However, two Democrats -- Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ken Salazar of Colorado -- said they would support Lieberman's independent campaign. Connecticut's senior senator, Chris Dodd, also appeared with Lamont on Wednesday. Dodd had campaigned for Lieberman before Tuesday's primary. In a statement, Dodd called Lieberman "a good friend, a good senator, and a good Democrat." "But now the voters of our party have spoken -- and I respect their decision," Dodd said. Lieberman will not accept results Lieberman, however, said Tuesday night that he could not accept his primary loss and vowed to run for re-election as an independent this fall. He told his supporters: "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand." Lieberman told CNN's "American Morning" that he would say "no, no, no" if the Democratic Party asked him not to run by himself in the fall poll. "I am in this race to the end. For me, it is a cause, and it is a cause not to let this Democratic Party that I joined with the inspiration of President Kennedy in 1960 to be taken over by people who are so far from the mainstream of American life that I fear we will not elect Democrats in the numbers that we should in the future," he said in an interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "I'm carrying it on because Lamont really represents polarization and partisanship, which is the last thing we need more of in Washington," he said. Lieberman's team filed petitions for him to run for re-election to the Senate just hours after his defeat, The Associated Press reported. Lieberman -- who was former Vice President Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election -- is seeking a fourth Senate term. Lamont, a former Greenwich city councilman, is running his first statewide campaign. Lamont calls for unity Lamont swept to victory on an anti-war platform that included a call for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. He made a conciliatory victory speech Tuesday night after a sometimes bad-tempered campaign in which Lieberman's critics portrayed him as a "cheerleader" for President Bush. That image was encapsulated in Bush's embrace of Lieberman after the 2005 State of the Union address, which was dubbed "The Kiss." Lamont said Wednesday he would prefer that Lieberman not run as an independent and that Lieberman's candidacy would hurt the Republican ticket more than his campaign. "I want us to present a bold and clear and constructive alternative to the Bush agenda, and I think we're stronger if we do that with a unified voice," Lamont told CNN. "But the senator will do what he'll do." Lieberman, who voted for the Iraq war, said Lamont had made the primary a referendum on Bush and the war, both of which Lieberman said were intensely unpopular among Connecticut Democrats. Voter turnout for the high-profile primary fight was 43 percent, according to the Connecticut secretary of state's office, with about 280,000 people voting. It was the highest level of turnout for a primary in the state's history, the secretary's office said. The previous record was 39 percent in 1970 for the Democratic primary. GOP: 'Defeat-ocrats' won GOP leaders were quick to jump on Tuesday's primary results, saying Lamont's victory indicated that the 'defeat-ocrats' were taking over the Democratic Party. While campaigning in Ohio, Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman said the vote reflected "an unfortunate embrace of isolationism, defeatism and a 'blame America first' attitude by national Democratic leaders at a time when retreating from the world is particularly dangerous." Mehlman also tried to tie Lamont's victory to the Senate race in Ohio, where GOP Sen. Mike DeWine trails Democratic candidate Rep. Sherrod Brown in the latest polls. "Sherrod Brown is Ohio's answer to Ned Lamont," Mehlman said. McKinney loses runoff In Georgia, Rep. Cynthia McKinney -- a vehement critic of President Bush who scuffled with a Capitol Police officer in March but was not charged -- lost in a runoff against Hank Johnson, a former county commissioner in her suburban Atlanta district. Johnson thumped McKinney by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent but McKinney was unbowed. And in Missouri, Claire McCaskill, as expected, won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. She will face Republican Sen. Jim Talent this fall, according to The Associated Press. | |
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