New Haven Independent

The three-term senator is keeping his options open: He has not ruled out running as an Independent in this year’s Senate race. He ducked the question, responding, “I’m totally focused on the Democratic primary.”

With a recent Quinnipiac University poll showing challenger Ned Lamont hot on his trail — likely primary voters would cast 55 percent for Lieberman, 40 percent for Lamont — Connecticut’s junior senator is getting worried.

“I’m in a little bit of a fight, so I need your help,” he told one family biting into pancakes at Hamden’s Town House Diner Monday morning, where he made a characteristic “Cup of Joe with Joe” campaign stop.

“If you’re Democrats, I need your help,” he told two firefighters.

Do they deserve to know if Lieberman’s making a party switch? Is there a date by which he’ll make up his mind? “Not really,” he responded, rushing out the diner door towards his tinted car. “I don’t even think about it.”

“I’ll always be a Democrat, so I guess the best way to answer all these questions” is to win the primary, he concluded. Then he ducked into his car.

Inside, Hamden resident Meg Barone (pictured at top) talked to the senator on the Iraq war — “We should not be fighting” — and gas prices. She echoed complaints from 86-year-old Eugene Papa, a WWII veteran across the aisle at the Whitney Avenue diner, who said troops “shouldn’t have been there” in Iraq in the first place. But they’re both sticking with Lieberman’s camp this election. So is a 90-year-old woman who exclaimed, “He’s even better looking than on TV!”

This table of diners contained seething criticism while speaking with Joe, only expressing concern about a “lack of values” and “lack of integrity” in Congress. “Are you going to stand up for your thoughts and vote your conscience? I know you haven’t always done that in the past,” charged the woman, who declined to give her name.

When Lieberman moved on to the next table, she said, “I am not supporting him — absolutely not.”

Her husband, Nick DiGioia, chimed in. He used to support Lieberman, but sees the Democratic Party as moving away from the concerns of “the average guy.” He sees the “erosion of real, meaningful wages” and health care. Democratic politicians are “more concerned about their electability” than issues affecting the working class, DiGioa said. “[Lieberman]’s really a moderate Republican. I’m voting principally against the incumbent – get some new blood in there.”