In Connecticut, over the past few days the local left-wing blogosphere has been agog with a “dirty trick” being pulled by the
Lieberman campaign heading into the Democratic state nominating convention. As reported by the Hartford Courant:
Lieberman’s campaign predicted that Lamont will force the primary at the convention by landing 30 percent to 35
percent of the votes.
(Party rules in CT say that if more than one candidate gains at least 15% vote among delegates to the state convention, a primary
must be held.)
The claim that this is a “dirty trick” is based on the expectation that Lamont will really garner only 20-25% of delegates’ votes
Friday. If the Lieberman campaign gets the media thinking that Lamont has underperformed, it will be viewed effectively as a
“loss” on Lamont’s part.
However, I note that Political Wire hints at a complementary tactic
being taken by the Lamont campaign:
However, Lamont’s campaign said Lieberman’s forces are trying to raise expectations and that they still “predict it
will be a close call, and they may have to resort to submitting the thousands of signatures they have begun collecting from
registered Democrats.”
In other words, one could argue that Lamont is trying to set expectations low, that he could garner less than 15% of the vote…and
therefore his actual expected 20-25% vote can be spun as a big win.
Aren’t political numbers games fun?!