Lieberman Senate Detour Irks Some Dems

Joe Lieberman's stop in Connecticut on Monday has raised eyebrows among some Senate Democrats, who worry about his dual bids for the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency.

Lieberman hopped off one campaign trail and took a detour onto another, returning to his home state to campaign for his Senate seat.

State law allows him to compete for both offices, though Lieberman's critics - and some supporters - have questioned the wisdom of doing both.

In the Senate race, a recent poll shows that Lieberman maintains a huge lead over his Republican challenger, Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano. Lieberman, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, has a 72-19 percent lead among likely voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.

Lieberman is so popular that his latest job approval rating - 80 percent - sets a record for elected officials in the three states where Quinnipiac polls are taken: Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.

But the poll also found that voters were split over whether he should seek re-election at the same time he is running for vice president. And one in four voters said they are less likely to vote for him for Senate because of his dual candidacies.

Giordano has accused Lieberman of neglecting his job and being an absentee politician.

Lieberman and some other Democrats have said he should stay in the Senate race, in part because there is not enough time to hold a primary to find a replacement. Lieberman has said that if he were to step aside by the Oct. 27 deadline, only a handful of party leaders would decide who replaces him as the Democratic candidate.

But that reasoning isn't sitting well with all Senate Democrats.

"There's a huge worry that we could pick up four seats and then lose the Senate because Joe hasn't stepped down," one Senate Democrat told the New York Times on condition of anonymity. "It's one of the main topics among Democratic Senators."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has been widely mentioned as Lieberman's replacement in the Senate race.

Republican Gov. John G. Rowland has said he would veto any bill calling for a special Senate election in less than two years, should Lieberman win both the Senate and vice presidential races.

If Lieberman must resign his Senate seat, Rowland would appoint his replacement. By state law, a special election would be held in 2002 to fill the position, but the state legislature could call an election before then. Rowland has said he would not appoint himself to the seat. He said a short of list of successors would include Republican Reps. Christopher Shays and Nancy Johnson.

Some of Lieberman's vice presidential campaign staff dropped out of sight for the day so as to avoid any violation of Federal Election Commission rules - and some old faces from his Senate office suddenly appeared.

Campaigning in New Jersey on Tuesday, Lieberman had returned to the vice presidential huntpraising Al Gore's medicare proposals.