Sen. Joe Lieberman has lost the Democratic primary to retain his Senate seat in Connecticut, although he vows he will file to run as an independent. The deadline to do that is tomorrow.
Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia congresswoman who had a much-publicized run-in with Capitol police earlier this year, has lost a run-off Democratic primary.
What do these losses mean for the Democrats and for the elections this year? It's not clear in the hours immediately following the closure of the polls. The McKinney situation is pretty clear: She's done. Her opponent will be the Democrat to run. For Lieberman, assuming he has gathered the thousands of necessary signatures for an independent run, the race continues. However, he will have to do it without the DNC money and without the support of many of his Democrat colleagues. Many of them vowed to support the winner of the primary -- as they should -- and the Democrats would be wise to not allow internal partisan differences consume or divide them.
So, Lieberman, the party's number-two in 2000, is forced to campaign to the middle -- a place where he has long been more comfortable anyway. Perhaps this will free him up to court those moderate voters who might have been reluctant to support a Democrat anyway. That race might also place the Democrats' chances for regaining the Senate in jeopardy. With a party split and one running as an independent it seems possible that the third candidate, in this case a Republican, could move in for a slim victory by plurality. George H. W. Bush and Al Gore know all about how that works.
I guess I cannot state enough how interesting this year's races have shaped up. Man, it will be a fun few months until Election Day.
-- Wenatchee, Wash.
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Loag, it's Craig. Sup dog? So ya, that was a killer kegger we had last week dude. Glad you were finally down in the area and able to make it man. None of your journalism students found out, did they? Ya, theyd probly be totally jealous man. So ya, I'm glad to hear your ok, i mean we got a little worried when you passed out, Susan was goin crazy. We'll definately have to do that whole streaking thing again next time your down here, that was killer, I had never been naked in front of that many people before except for that time we crashed that guest speaker's thing and dropped onto the stage naked from the rafters back in our C-Woo glory days. Anyway, call me sometime, guess I'll talk to you later or sumthin'.
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