Connecticut for Lieberman Party finds a new direction

by: Sue

Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 08:25:30 AM EDT

At a statewide party caucus held on March 6 in Hartford with more than 50 percent of the party members in the state in attendance, Mertens was elected chair by unanimous vote. Members passed new party rules, and have nominated five candidates for state representatives.

Sarah Littman, columnist for the Greenwich Times and Stamford Advocate adds a footnote to the fresh focus of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party:

Part of what motivates Mertens are the roadblocks put up by the secretary of the state's office to his own Independent Party bid for Senate in 2006. "I've got two motivations: to counteract Joe Lieberman's support for the Iraq war -- he misrepresented his position on the war prior to the elections in 2006, running a commercial the day before the election that said 'vote for Joe Lieberman, he'll bring our troops home. We should use his party to point out that his position on the war is not the position of the majority of people of Connecticut ... I also want to use the party to run people for office the way we were denied doing in 2006. I want people to understand that we live in a democracy and what that means -- that people should have ballot access and are free to join any party they want and participate in that party. I'm doing this to prove it. I can't imagine any American being against what I'm doing. That's the way America's supposed to work."

Wouldn't it be deliciously ironic if the vanity party created by Sen. Lieberman to keep himself in power ended up being a truly independent voice for the voters of Connecticut?

For further updates, see the Official Connecticut for Lieberman Party blog.