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Caruso, More Honest Than Joe

There is little love lost between the Democrat Party in Bridgeport and Rep. Chris Caruso , an out of the box Democrat.

When Caruso told a blogger that he would run as an independent should he lose in a primary with Bill Finch, the likely Democrat candidate for mayor, the blogger acknowledged a problem – “I guess primaries aren’t a principle of the Democratic party?” – but gave Caruso a pass on the larger question of loyalty to party: “But I do give him credit for being straightforward about his intentions. I’m completely against ignoring the results of a primary, but he’s being more honest than Joe Lieberman was.”

Lieberman came under heavy fire from bloggers on the left when, having lost a primary to leftist heartthrob Ned Lamont, the senator refused to acknowledge the primacy of primaries, ran against Lamont in the general campaign, and won.

Following the pitched battle between Lieberman and the left wing of his state party, the date for filing a petition for an independent line on the ballot was readjusted so that candidates who lost a primary but challenged party nominees in a general election would have to announce, prior to the primary, that they intended to challenge the party nominee in a general election. The misalignment initially occurred as a result of a change in the primary date.

Given the irreconcilable divorce that occurred in Connecticut between Lieberman and leftists in his party after the senator drubbed Lamont in the general election, “More Honest Than Joe” might make a clever bumper sticker for the Caruso campaign, and nevermind that Casuso’s honesty is at least in part determined by the impossibility of his waging an independent campaign without signaling, before the primary, his intentions to do so, as Lieberman did.

The Republican Party, a lifeless corpse in many of Connecticut’s large cities, is not likely to offer urban party machines much effective opposition. The opposition, if any, must come from politicians like Caruso. Since absolute parties corrupt absolutely, Caruso’s campaign ought to be cheered on by true democrats everywhere.

It will be interesting, though, to watch Democrat leftists, who regarded Lieberman as a traitor for bucking the Democrat Party convention nominee, maneuver cleverly around their “principled” opposition to Lieberman when Caruso, a candidate much more to their liking, bucks the party choice in Bridgeport and opens a somewhat traitorous campaign against his party’s choice as mayor.

Comments

mccommas said…
But Caruso does not appeal to conservatives and nonopolitical types as Lieberman did.

What his base going to be?

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