Un-Lieberman Country
The polls were right about one thing: Ned Lamont's undeniable appeal to people who are well-off and white.
According to the town-by-town returns, Lamont padded his margins over Joe Lieberman in places like Greenwich, where he received 68 percent of the vote, and New Canaan where he got 62 percent.
But most impressive was his performance in Cornwall, a pleasant-looking town of 1,400 up in Litchfield County, where Lamont drew 91 percent of the primary vote.
How does that happen, exactly?
-- Josh BensonUPDATE: Steve Kornacki has more analysis. From an email:
"Yeah...although Lieberman loses New Haven, his hometown. His best town in the state is East Haven, the lily-white New Haven suburb. And Lieberman owns the Naugatuck Valley...Waterbury, et al. Waterbury was, I think, the only East Coast city (population: 100,000+) to vote for Bush in '04. It's a real throwback town: gritty, but socially conservative and dominated by a GOP machine. Lamont's dominance in Litchfield Co. is interesting too: In theory, those are the kinds of voters who an independent would be counting on in the fall."
UPDATE UPDATE: From Kornacki:
"For what it's worth, I looked up Waterbury's '04 numbers, and Kerry actually eked it out by 161 votes. But the point is still the same."
Wonder if the Cornwall result has implications for Nancy Johnson's reelection hopes?