Ex-Sen. Joe Lieberman Dies

Former U.S. Sen. and vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, a leading New Haven and Connecticut politician of the past half century whose independent streak reflected an American shift away from loyalty to established party institutions, is dead at 82.

Lieberman died Wednesday due to complications following a fall.

Lieberman learned politics in New Haven in the 1960s, relearned it the hard way in New Haven in 1980, and used what he learned to win four terms as a U.S. senator. He served as Al Gore’s vice-presidential running mate in the 2000 election, the first Jewish candidate on a major-party ticket.

Along the way he made an ideological journey from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party to a leading ally of conservative causes.

Lieberman had a warm manner and a joy for interacting with people on the campaign trail. He possessed the successful politician’s talent for making people who spoke with him feel not just heard but important.

Lieberman was still a Yale undergraduate when he was featured in national press coverage about youthful activism. He went South to register Black voters as part of a civil rights campaign. He opposed the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, he learned the nuts and politics of winning elections. He wrote an undergraduate thesis about Connecticut Democratic Party boss John M. Bailey, which was subsequently published as a book by Houghton Mifflin in 1966 under the title The Power Broker (before Robert Caro wrote a famous book by the same name). As editor of the Yale Daily News he cultivated a friendship with then-New Haven Mayor Richard C. ​“Dick” Lee.

Lieberman settled in New Haven, practicing law and preparing for a career in politics. His break came in 1970, when at the age of 27 he toppled then-State Senate President Ed Marcus in a Democratic primary. He ran to Marcus’s left. He won with the help of liberal and Black voters in New Haven; Lee helped, too, arranging for public-housing residents of Crawford Manor to show up at the polls to nullify absentee ballots previously collected from the party machine and cast new in-person ballots for Lieberman.

Lieberman’s career was sailing forward when he ran for Congress in 1980 in New Haven’s solidly blue Third U.S. Congressional District. But that was the year of the national Reagan Republican landslide. It carried the Republican Congressional candidate Lawrence DeNardis past Lieberman. DeNardis (who lost the seat two years later, never to have it return to a Republican since) cast Lieberman as an out-of-step liberal.

Lieberman vowed never to let anyone defeat him again by brandishing the ​“L” word. It would be the last time he lost a general election. Or sound like a liberal.

First he became the state’s attorney general in 1982. He built up statewide name recognition through consumer-protection advocacy in the office.

Then, in 1988, he went after another entrenched incumbent: Republican U.S. Sen. Lowell Weicker. This time Lieberman ran to the right of his opponent. Weicker was a moderate Republican known for challenging Richard Nixon on Watergate and hanging out with Fidel Castro. Lieberman won the support of National Review magazine founder William F. Buckley and Florida-based anti-Castro Cuban immigrants.

He made it to Washington, and became the darling of conservative Republicans. He advocated for bigger military budgets and assassinating foreign leaders. He teamed up with Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms on anti-gay legislation (though he did also support the repeal of the military’s ​“Don’t ask/don’t tell” policy). He called affirmative action ​“un-American.”

He paused those positions in 2000 when Gore tapped him for the Democratic presidential ticket, then resumed carving out a position on the right after their loss in the 2000 election. He remained popular in Connecticut.

But not with a growing left-liberal Democratic base. In 2006 Lieberman became the incumbent target of a different challenger in a Democratic Senate primary: Ned Lamont, embraced by grassroots (and emerging ​“netroots”) party activists opposed to the war in Iraq, which Lieberman supported. Lamont won the primary — but then Lieberman ran circles around him as an independent candidate in the general election and held onto his seat for one more term. Labor allies like New Haven’s UNITE HERE locals stood by their old ally Joe in the campaign. So did newfound Republican allies like Karl Rove and the Bush White House; the party largely withheld support for the putative Republican nominee in the three-person general election.

Back in office, Lieberman remained bitter at Democrats he felt abandoned him, especially in his adopted hometown of New Haven. He moved back to Stamford, where he grew up. He supported Republican John McCain against Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, then played a key role in killing a ​“Medicare for All” public option-style health plan Obama tried to pass before reverting to a less ambitious Obamacare health plan. Those actions prompted an old New Haven ally, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, to call for LIeberman’s recall.

Lieberman retired from the Senate in 2012. He remained active in conservative and centrist causes. He had a warm meeting with newly elected President Donald Trump about possibly serving as FBI director. Most recently Lieberman chaired the ​“No Labels” organization seeking to run a third-party presidential ticket. He remained an active, passionate participant in the political project to the very end.

Rosa DeLauro, for one, focused on positive memories in a statement released Wednesday evening about the death of her ​“dear friend.”

“He was a champion for consumers, and he also understood the importance of preserving a future for our children by battling climate change and fighting to protect the environment,” DeLauro stated. ​“Although we often disagreed on the issues, I know our purpose for service was aligned: fighting for the hardworking families of Connecticut.”

Now-Gov. Ned Lamont issued a statement saying that he and Lieberman remained friends after their 2006 battle. ​“While the senator and I had our political differences,” Lamont stated, ​“he was a man of integrity and conviction.”