LaMont, Malloy Endorsed By Local Voters

Nearly Half Of Newtown Dems Turn Out For Primary

By John Voket

In a hotly-contested political primary that was covered by Al-Jazeera television and a national community of bloggers, nearly 50 percent of the registered Democrats in Newtown headed to the polls sending three-term Senator Joseph Lieberman packing.

About 90 minutes after Newtown’s four precincts closed, Town Clerk Cynthia Simon announced that Fairfield County millionaire Ned LaMont had overcome the incumbent locally by a margin of 290 votes. While the margin was significantly less in the gubernatorial primary, Stamford Mayor Daniel Malloy was chosen over New Haven Mayor John DeStefano by a 135 vote margin.

Mr Malloy’s Lt Governor running mate Mary Messina Glassman also emerged victorious in primary voting by a 284 vote margin. While that margin for Ms Glassman was holding statewide, it appeared that Mr DeStefano was gaining marginally.

With 537 of 748 precincts reporting just after 10 pm, Mr DeStefano had 50.8 percent, or 95,557, and Mr Malloy was trailing with 49.2 percent, or 92,428. Meanwhile, in the lieutenant governor's race, Ms Glassman's significant lead over Mr Slifka had widened to 15 percentage points.

Mr LaMont’s support for the US Senate locally appeared to be slightly higher than late results statewide and was narrowing as this report was filed. With 73 percent of the state's precincts reporting, less than four points separated incumbent the two men. Lamont was in the lead with 51.7 percent of the vote to Lieberman's 48.3 percent. The vote tally was 100,425 for Lamont and 94,148 for Lieberman.

The numbers in the Newtown precincts were: Mr Malloy’s 893 to Mr DeStefano’s 758, and Mr LaMont’s 1,066 to Sen Lieberman’s 776. Ms Glassman won 816 votes to Lt Governor challenger Scott Slifka’s 532.

According to the AP, Mr Lamont’s Senate campaign was energized by members of the online community during his five-month campaign, so they were duly rewarded with rare media access at the challenger’s primary night party in Meriden Tuesday.

About 30 bloggers set up shop in their own press room to cover the challenger’s campaign, which was supported by many liberal bloggers who helped Mr Lamont raise money and saw the race as their best chance to take a bigger role in the Democratic Party.

“I think this race has been really energized by bloggers,” Mr Lamont’s spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl said. “They’ve been a great resource for us, because it’s this core of people who are so interested in the race and the outcome.”

But bloggers were far from the only ones interested in the Connecticut primary.

The race between Sen. Lieberman and his upstart challenger drew interest well beyond U.S. boundaries. Al-Jazeera television, the Arabic news channel with 40 million worldwide viewers, also covered the race.

Al-Jazeera chief correspondent Mohammed Alami was among the crush of media at Sen Lieberman’s headquarters in Hartford Tuesday night.

“Senator Lieberman is very well known in the Middle East,” Alami said.

He said many in the Middle East were surprised by the lack of dissent in Washington, DC, for the war in Iraq. Sen Lieberman supported the resolution to go to war, which became the divisive issue between him and Lamont.

Mr Alami said this is one of the few times that a Middle East issue has influenced a race in the United States.

A full story on the primary outcome will be posted Wednesday morning on this website, with a full story including local reactions appearing in this week’s print edition of The Newtown Bee.