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http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-lieberman4jul11,0,2973...

Critic calls for probe of Lieberman's party
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer

July 11, 2007

The chairman of Joseph Lieberman's minor political party has asked state officials to determine whether the U.S. senator founded it last year under false pretenses and broke election laws.

"I think he took unfair advantage of his many years of incumbency," said John Orman, a Fairfield University political science professor who took over the party Lieberman formed after losing last year's Democratic primary to Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. "He decided to run as a minor party candidate without actually joining that party, knowing there would be protection from the various officials in Hartford he's been friends with for 30 years or so."

Orman, a longtime Lieberman critic, joined the party to bring attention to Lieberman's abandonment of it.

Lieberman and 29 friends and relatives established Connecticut for Lieberman in August after he lost to Lamont - 25 people are necessary to form a new minor party.

The incumbent then petitioned his way onto the November ballot, won a fourth term and walked away from his new party. He remains a registered Democrat but prefers to be referred to as an independent.

"So essentially, we had two Democrats running, although one was technically able to do it because he created a 'paper party,' " Orman said.

Orman late last night wrote Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and Jeffrey Garfield, executive director of the Elections Enforcement Commission, requesting they have the state attorney general's office investigate Lieberman for misleading state officials and voters.

"It is against state law to knowingly circulate a false petition, and I believe Senator Joseph Lieberman did that," Orman wrote. "The secretary of the state accepted Senator Lieberman at his word that he would form a new minor party so he could get maximum ballot access. . . . It has become clear Senator Lieberman had absolutely no intent whatsoever, at anytime, to join or form a new minor party in Connecticut."

A Lieberman spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Bysiewicz's office said it was reviewing the request.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal yesterday said his office has begun looking into the matter.

"We've reviewed the issue very preliminarily, and we'd have to do some more review and research before giving an opinion," Blumenthal said. "So far as we can determine, this situation seems factually unique. . . . But we're going to await a request from one of these officials before we take any action."

Orman unsuccessfully challenged Connecticut for Lieberman's existence in August, filing a complaint with Bysiewicz and Garfield alleging the party was a farce, with no platform or rules governing the nomination of candidates.

Later in the year, Orman decided that if he could not beat Connecticut for Lieberman, he would join it. He changed his affiliation from Democrat to the new party and crafted party rules, which were accepted by Bysiewicz in January.

His effort went unchallenged by Lieberman or any of the 29 other party founders.

At the time, New Haven resident Bishop Theodore Brooks, a Lieberman friend who helped found the Connecticut for Lieberman Party, said he had not heard anything about the future of the party but did not believe it would exist beyond the November election.

"I did not get that intention or that thought," Brooks said.

Orman invited anyone who wanted to hold the re-elected senator accountable to join the party, and a half-dozen new members elected him chairman at the inaugural Jan. 21 gathering in Milford.

At that same meeting, the party passed a resolution asking Lieberman to join his namesake minor party.

"At this time there are no plans considered for the party," Lieberman's former campaign manager, Sherry Brown, said when notified of the request in January.

Bysiewicz at the time said Lieberman could not be forced to join the minor party he founded.

More recently, Connecticut for Lieberman asked the senator to resign from office for advocating a military strike against Iran.

Orman said Connecticut for Lieberman was the only political party willing to hold the senator accountable.

"Republicans don't go after him because they want him to jump" to their party, Orman said.

Lieberman won re-election in November after the state and national GOP, fearing a Lamont win, all but abandoned the Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger.

"And the Democrats don't go after him because they want him to stay" in the closely divided Senate, Orman said.

Bysiewicz earlier this year proposed a change in election law that would force candidates to petition their way onto the November ballot weeks before a party primary.

The deadline for submitting petitions is Aug. 9, the day after a primary. Lieberman tipped his hand in mid-July last year by filing paperwork to begin collecting signatures, but the schedule allowed his campaign to remain coy about the petition drive and whether he might concede to Lamont.

Bysiewicz's proposal was not approved by the Democratic majority General Assembly this legislative session.

Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.