A decent editorial today shows the strategy Sen. Joe Lieberman is taking to convince Democrats he’s really a Democrat. More importantly, he’s trying to show local Democrats he really votes the way his constituents would want. Lieberman touts his scorecards with issue groups, but those don’t include procedural votes that truly affect the outcome of legislation. It’s one thing to take the easy stands on votes that don’t matter. It’s yet another to really stand up and fight for things that are wrong. Lieberman has a nice scorecard but he has no battle scars. On how many issues has he stood up for the citizens of our state where he actually won something for his constituents?

When defense contractors and big campaign contributors weren’t involved, his list is nearly at zero.

On a related note, today was Celebrate! West Hartford in our lovely town. Every year, the Republicans and Democrats have booths at the festival. Walking by the Democratic booth, and walking around the fair, I saw many, many, many people asking about Ned Lamont. Our neighbor was working the booth (though not for Lamont), so we stopped to chat with him for a while. During that time, I saw several people come up for stickers and bumper stickers. I saw many people around the festival wearing Lamont stickers on their shirts and jackets. Lieberman’s folks had a table at the booth as well and no one came up during that time. I saw no signs or stickers for the Senator, either. West Hartford is a large district in CT, and while it’s hard to draw any hard conclusions from this about Lieberman, it’s clear that Lamont’s name is getting out there and he has supporters.

Heidi’s department had a faculty picnic tonight at the chairperson’s home. On our way there, we also saw surprisingly many houses with Lamont signs out front (including our own). Against an incumbent like Lieberman, it’s surprising to see such visible support out among the community.

Lieberman has a fight on his hand, and August 8th is going to be a big day in Connecticut.