Ned Lamont with Congressman Dave Loebsack
In the summer of 2006, Connecticut businessman Ned Lamont leaped from obscurity to internet stardom and defeated the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Joe Lieberman, in a home state Senate primary. The victory was short-lived, as Lieberman filed as an independent candidate the day after the primary. Republicans abandoned their own candidate to back Lieberman, who beat Lamont in November.
But Lamont, campaigning for Chris Dodd Saturday in Cedar Rapids at Dave Loebsack’s birthday fundraiser, told Iowa Independent he has no regrets about his run. “I was happy to challenge Joe and give it a run for the money,” he said. “I thought he was wrong on some big issues I really cared about,” such as the Iraq war.
Dodd was on the spot in that campaign, stuck between his sitting Democratic home-state colleague Lieberman and his party’s nominee Lamont. “Chris did a lot for our campaign, took a lot of heat for it,” said Lamont, “so I’m happy to be there for him.”
“The blogs made me, I was nowhere,” Lamont said of his own campaign. “We had My Left Nutmeg, we had Connecticut Bob, we had dozens of blogs that were created around that race. They brought a lot of people to our events when nobody gave us a shot. It really changes media and changes politics.”
“I’ve got no problem with underdogs, you know that,” Lamont said of the Dodd campaign. “What I love about Iowa is you guys give the people a shot. You can go with the frontrunners and be like all the rest of the states, or you can give somebody like Chris Dodd a shot. This is Iowa. You guys all get together on Jan. 3 and walk to your corner of the room. And that’s a chance to give one more guy a ticket.
“For me I love him because he’s the one guy talking on the Constitution,” said Lamont. This is an administration that’s been trampling all over the Constitution the last six years. I think it weakens our country, and Chris Dodd is standing up on that. He comes to life on that subject.”
Lamont said Dodd commands particular respect from his colleagues:
I got to know a lot of these guys down in Washington last year during my campaign, and I really got a sense that if the US Senate got behind closed doors and could vote for any of these folks on the Democratic side, they’d vote for Chris Dodd. I think he’s really well regarded on both sides of the aisle. You can count on his word. He’s passed a lot of bipartisan legislation. He’s got a lot of Republican sponsors for stuff he wanted to do. There wouldn’t be eight years of gridlock with President Dodd; he’d move the ball.
No matter what the outcome of the nomination, Lamont says he plans to work for the Democratic candidate. “Nobody’s calling these guys the seven dwarfs,” he said, referencing a nickname given to the 1988 Democratic field. “I’m going to fight like hell for whoever gets that nomination to make sure they win in November. This year we’re going to come together. There’s just a real sense that this party’s going to get together and rally around somebody. You’re not going to give a Republican the next vote on the Supreme Court; you’re not going to give a Republican the opportunity to leave our guys in Iraq.”
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