Connecticut for Lieberman

The party was established on July 10, 2006, and began collecting signatures in case Lieberman did not win the Connecticut Democratic primary.[http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/08/many_factors_in_play_as_senate.html Many Factors in Play as Senate Primary Nears in Connecticut] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820125621/http://www.cqpolitics.com/2006/08/many_factors_in_play_as_senate.html |date=August 20, 2006 }}. Retrieved on December 20, 2006. On August 8, 2006, Lieberman lost the Democratic primary to Lamont. The next day, over 7,500 signatures were filed with the Secretary of State's office in support of Lieberman's candidacy. On August 23, the Secretary of State announced that the party had filed enough valid signatures and would appear on the ballot in November.{{cite press release |title=SECRETARY BYSIEWICZ: SEN. LIEBERMAN COLLECTS ENOUGH VALID SIGNATURES TO GAIN NOVEMBER BALLOT ACCESS |publisher=Government of Connecticut |author=Susan Bysiewicz |date=August 23, 2006 |url=http://www.ct.gov/sots/LIB/sots/RELEASES/2006/8_23_06PetitionSignatures.pdf |access-date=March 31, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910215327/http://www.ct.gov/sots/LIB/sots/RELEASES/2006/8_23_06PetitionSignatures.pdf |archive-date=September 10, 2008}}

The party's formation is similar to that of A Connecticut Party, created for Lowell Weicker's 1990 campaign for Governor under their label.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

After the election, contention developed between two different groups, one supportive of Lieberman and one critical of him, with each faction asserting that it controlled the party. On August 9, 2006, the day following the primary, Lieberman supporter Stuart R. Korchin changed his party registration to Connecticut for Lieberman.{{cite news |title=2 claim leadership of Lieberman party |author=Peter Urban |date=March 28, 2007 |newspaper=Connecticut Post}} "When Mr. Korchin filled out a short form in August at the Cheshire Town Hall changing his party affiliation from Democrat to Connecticut for Lieberman, the information could not be properly entered in the state’s electronic voter database."{{cite news |last=Medina |first=Jennifer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18lieb.html |title=Lieberman's Party, but Someone Else's Fight |work=The New York Times |date=January 18, 2007 |access-date=March 19, 2007}}

On November 15, 2006, John Orman changed his party registration from Democratic to the Connecticut for Lieberman Party, having been told by the Secretary of the State that there were no registered party members. Orman, a professor of politics at Fairfield University, had briefly challenged Lieberman for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination in 2006.{{cite news |last=Hladky |first=Gregory B. |url=http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17489096&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=31007&rfi=6 |title=Critic delights in taunting Lieberman |work=The New Haven Register |date=November 20, 2006 |access-date=December 20, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061217040320/http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17489096&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=31007&rfi=6 |archive-date=December 17, 2006}}{{cite news |last=Zeller |first=Shawn |url=https://www.nytimes.com/cq/2006/12/01/cq_1997.html |title=Crashing the Lieberman Party |work=The New York Times |date=December 1, 2006 |access-date=December 20, 2006}}

Party rules were filed with Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz on December 21, 2006, by Orman. According to Ted Bromely, a state elections attorney who works for her office, then said, "If someone wanted to challenge it, they'd have to go to court."{{cite news |url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003527233 |title=Sen. Lieberman's Party Taken Over By Critic |agency=Associated Press |date=January 3, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105164054/http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003527233 |archive-date=January 5, 2007}}

On January 12, 2007, Korchin filed a different set of party rules with the Secretary of the State, which were also accepted.

In response to an inquiry, Korchin received a letter from a lawyer in the Secretary of the State's office on January 17, 2007, stating that the state had "very limited jurisdiction" over intraparty battles, and was not taking a position over just who was in charge.

In Milford in January 2007, at what was billed as an "organizational meeting" of the party, Orman and Korchin appeared, each claiming to be the party chairman. Korchin announced the annual party meeting would be held in August and left, after which the Milford gathering elected Orman as chair, by a 5–1 margin.{{cite web |last=Bailey |first=Melissa |title='Lieberman Party' Hijackers Win HoJo Skirmish |publisher=New Haven Independent |date=January 19, 2007 |url=http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2007/01/cfl_goes.php |access-date=May 3, 2007}}

On July 10, 2007, Orman wrote to Bysiewicz and Jeffrey Garfield, executive director of the Elections Enforcement Commission. He asked them to have the state attorney general's office investigate the petitioning done by Lieberman in 2006. Orman's contention was that Lieberman had violated state law by knowingly circulating false petitions, in that he had no actual intent to join or form a new party.{{cite news |last=Lockhart |first=Brian |title=Critic calls for probe of Lieberman's party |newspaper=The Advocate (Stamford) |date=July 11, 2007 |url=http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-lieberman4jul11,0,2973472.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090405184140/http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-lieberman4jul11%2C0%2C2973472.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines |archive-date=April 5, 2009}}

The next month, Korchin told the Hartford Advocate that he had held another party meeting on August 9, although he refused to say where it had occurred. Orman said he had not been informed of any such meeting.{{cite news |last=Bulger |first=Adam |title=Whose Party Is It? |newspaper=Hartford Advocate |date=August 16, 2007 |url=http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=2465 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406135801/http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=2465 |archive-date=April 6, 2009}} Korchin responded that Orman had been notified but had "declined to attend in an e-mail."{{cite news |last=Korchin |first=Stuart |title=It's Not Your Party, Dr. Orman |newspaper=Hartford Advocate |date=August 23, 2007 |url=http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=2596 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406135805/http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=2596 |archive-date=April 6, 2009}}

On March 6, 2008, there was a statewide party caucus organized by the faction that had chosen Orman as party chair. With Orman declining to run for re-election, John Mertens was elected to succeed him.{{cite web |title=Election of New Officers |date=March 10, 2008 |url=https://ctforlieberman.blogspot.com/2008/03/election-of-new-officers.html |access-date=May 15, 2008 }}

Lieberman himself was never a member of the party; he was a registered Democrat.{{cite news |last=MacEachern |first=Frank |title=Lieberman registers to vote as a Democrat, wife and daughter unaffiliated |newspaper=The Stamford Times |date=September 18, 2007 |url=http://www.thestamfordtimes.com/stamford_templates/stamford_story/289850115142016.php |access-date=September 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330043140/http://www.thestamfordtimes.com/stamford_templates/stamford_story/289850115142016.php |archive-date=March 30, 2020 |url-status=dead}} The Senate website listed him as an Independent Democrat.{{cite web |title=Senators of the 110th Congress |publisher=United States Senate |url=https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm |access-date=September 20, 2007}}

The two competing factions have differing views of the party's mission in the wake of the 2006 election.

As Orman expressed it in 2007, "What we said was that if the state was going to allow a fake institution to exist, we were going to turn that fake institution into a real party to hold Joe accountable."

Korchin, however, stated: "Connecticut for Lieberman is a new political party that carries on what used to be the ideals of the Democratic Party: A liberal approach to domestic issues coupled with a strong commitment to a robust foreign policy. New members who subscribe to this platform are welcome."{{cite news |title=This Chairman Disputes 'Facts' |url=http://www.greenwichcitizen.com/letters/ci_7829677 |author=Letters to the Editor |date=December 28, 2007 |publisher=Greenwich Citizen |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080510103742/http://www.greenwichcitizen.com/letters/ci_7829677 |archive-date=May 10, 2008}}

Activist John Mertens was nominated as the party's candidate for United States Senate in 2010. Mertens had been an ardent critic of Senator Lieberman, and during an interview with Monmouth University's student newspaper, he said: "[In 2012] the party will run a candidate against Joe Lieberman!"{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Lieberman, however, announced in January 2011 that he would not seek re-election to his Senate seat in 2012.{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/politics/Lieberman-To-Announce-2012-Plans-Wednesday-114149544.html |title=Lieberman to Announce Retirement From Senate |work=NBC Connecticut |date=January 18, 2011 |access-date=January 19, 2011}}

In January 2013, the party lost its minor party status after not fielding any candidates in the November 2012 elections. Mertens, who left the party and became an Independent shortly after the elections, said, "We don't have a ballot line. With Joe retiring, its purpose has been kind of served."{{cite news |url=http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Lieberman-splinter-group-loses-minor-party-status-4173204.php |title=Lieberman splinter group loses minor party status |work=GreenwichTime |date=January 7, 2013 |access-date=March 12, 2013}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://ctforlieberman.blogspot.com/ "Official Connecticut for Lieberman Party Website/Blog"] (by the party members hostile to Lieberman)

{{ConnecticutPoliticalParties}}

Category:2006 Connecticut elections

Category:Defunct political parties in the United States

Category:Political history of Connecticut

Category:Political parties disestablished in 2013

Category:Political parties established in 2006

Category:Political parties in Connecticut

Category:Regional and state political parties in the United States

Category:2006 establishments in Connecticut

Category:2013 disestablishments in Connecticut

Category:Joe Lieberman