Monday, September 18, 2006

Lieberman "No Higher than Fifth" on Ballot

According to the Secretary of the State's office, Joe Lieberman will be no higher than the fifth name down on the ballot: and he could be as low as eighth. From the SOTS press release:
There are a total of five candidates running for United States Senator this year in Connecticut: Alan Schlesinger of the Republican Party, Ned Lamont Democratic Party, Timothy Knibbs of the Concerned Citizens Party, Ralph Ferrucci of the Green Party, and Joseph Lieberman of the Connecticut For Lieberman Party. The sequence in which they will appear in Column 2 on the November 7th ballot is as follows:

* Alan Schlesinger
* Ned Lamont
* Timothy Knibbs
* Ralph Ferrucci
* Joe Lieberman

However, in some single-town state representative districts, minor party candidates are filed locally at the Town Clerk’s office. The deadline for such candidates to file was Wednesday, September 13, so it is possible that the Office of the Secretary of the State has not yet been notified of those candidates. If minor party candidates for State Representative from either the Libertarian Party, Working Families Party, or Independent Party file to run this year, Senator Lieberman would appear below any or all of them on the ballot as well.

The first contest listed on the ballot is that for Governor and Lt. Governor, followed by U.S. Senate. The Republican candidate will be listed first all across the ballot. Sen. Lieberman will have to do quite a bit of work to educate voters about where, exactly, his name is.

I have to wonder how many votes Alan Schlesinger will get by benefit of being right next to Jodi Rell on the ballot. It can't hurt.

13 comments:

GMR said...

What portion of Democrats are going to vote for Jodi Rell? I'd say about 1/4 to 1/3 (typically, any Republican gets about 10% of Democrats and vice versa in most polls, which makes you wonder why these people insist on calling themselves something they're not, but I digress).

It's likely that of the Democrats that vote for Lieberman, many of them will also choose Rell. So you've got a not insignificant number of Democrats first voting for Rell, then going way down the ballot to vote Lieberman.

My question is, do these people, who are normally Democrats, then proceed to line 2 and vote straight across?

Also, of the Democrats, what do people here think will be the percentage that won't vote for both JDS and Ned?

Anonymous said...

Totum Pole position is often better than top line.

Anonymous said...

I can hardly wait to see the palm cards that Joe uses:

Vote for Joe, an Independent Democrat*

*Note: While Joe is still registered as a Democrat, he will not be appearing on Row B, the Democratic Line.
Nor, will he be appearing on on the Independent Party line. He's really just independent of the Democrats and not a member of the Independent party.

Depending on the town you live in, please pull lever E3, F3, G3, or H3. It will actually be easy to remember. Joe Lieberman will be the lowest person in Senate column.

Anonymous said...

I'm not worried about Joe Lieberman being 5th on the ballot. He's a high-profile candidate, everyone knows about him, and anyone who wants to vote for him will find him on the ballot.

After all, this isn't Florida. At least, I hope not.

Anonymous said...

I'm not too worried about Joe being 5th through 9th on the ballot. Afterall, it isn't like his supporters are low information voters, or anything.

Anonymous said...

GMR,
Fewer than that, I'd imagine. Given how the primaries turned out, you'd have to imagine that JD will only get about 60% of Dems. A lot of voters in the Democratic primary that voted for Malloy were Unaffiliated who registered Dem just for that purpose, and a lot of the primary voters who went with JD were driven to the polls by the closeness of that race--both factors that bode ill for the Democratic nominee.

Ned has a more legitimate shot, and my guess is that he'll garner closer to three quarters of the voting Dems. As the election drags on, Joe and Rell will be campaigning together more and more, and this should help to push Dems formerly supportive of Joe away from him for the sake of party control. Will that shift be enough to compensate for a GOP voter roll that is turning it's back on Alan Gold and will therefore be almost entirely behind Joe and a large Unaffiliated contingent that will probably split 80% for Joe (with the balance of Unaffiliateds voting exclusively on the Iraq War, ergo with Ned)? That has yet to be seen.

Ned will do best in the 2nd and 4th CDs, where solid Democratic Congressional challengers will drive up Democratic turnout.

As far as your question about how many people will vote for both JD and NL, I have no idea. I don't imagine JD's vote total improving much over his total in the primary (not to say no DM supporters will move to him, but that supporters he had will now not show up because of the futility). The question is, how many members of the unions which have flip-flopped since the Senatorial primary will follow suit.

Anonymous said...

Look, the people of Waterbury (really, Waterbury, as hard as it is to believe) demonstrated that ballot position is meaningless when Mayor Jarjura was elected as a write in candidate. This just means that Lieberman has to spend money educating his voters where they can find him on the ballot. No big deal.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but don't buy the idea that what line a candidate is on really makes a difference. This is mid-term election. Those who bother to come out and vote know exactly who they're voting for and they'll find that name in about .0756 seconds.

I look at the five names and the only two that jump out at me are Lamont and Lieberman. The other three could be Dick Hertz, Buster Hyman and Phil McCracken for all that it matters.

As for Schlesinger, the only votes he's going to get are from Republicans who refuse to vote for Lieberman. The idea that anyone would vote for him because he's on the same line as Rell is wishful thinking.

Anonymous said...

I look at those five names and the only ones that jump out at me are Lamont and Lieberman. The other three could be Dick Hertz, Buster Hyman or Phil McCracken for all the difference it makes.

This is a mid-term election. Anyone who bothers to come out and vote knows who they're voting for and it'll take about .0756 seconds for them to find that name on the ballot.

Anonymous said...

OK, looks like "comment moderation" is in play here and it's working just fine. (and I look like a smacked a$$). sorry 'bout dat.

Feel free to delete the repeats.

Sue123 said...

This is post is on
http://atrios.blogspot.com/

Wheeeeee!

(he had my 'Three Thumbs Down' diary linked from MLN yesterday). I'd stick around, but the General has something on Joe's car.

Anonymous said...

I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but here in California Arnold Schwartzenegger (I can't even spell it) was so buried in the ballot for the recall election against Gray Davis I really thought it would hurt him. It didn't.

Sorry, but Republicans are not retarded and they will be able to look down and vote for their guy, Joe Lieberman. Schlesenger might as well be listed as the Communist Party candidate for all it will do for him. I know all the Lamont people are excited. It certainly isn't what Joe would have wanted so that's good. He feels entitled to everything. (CT resident for 22 years)

Anonymous said...

Alan Schlesinger Deservers Our Support

Alan Schlesinger is actually a pretty good candidate, especially compared to Joe Lieberman. Unlike neoconservative Bush-smooching Lieberman, Schlesinger a real moderate. If you're a Republican or a moderate (like me), it makes a lot of sense to support Alan. Alan may count cards, but he simply doesn't have the record of corruption, dishonesty, and indifference towards constituents and our troops that Lieberman has.

I just gave Alan Schlesinger another contribution. I urge you to do the same. Here is a link:

Contribute to Schlesinger