John Orman: My Hero

by hilzoy

From the New Haven Register:

“Lamont beat Lieberman in a bitter Democratic primary, which forced the incumbent to use a backup option he’d been preparing for months. The day after the primary, Lieberman handed state election officials more than 7,500 signatures supporting his bid to run as a candidate of the Connecticut for Lieberman party.

At the time, Orman protested that there really was no such party, and that Lieberman was simply manipulating the election system to invalidate the outcome of the Democratic primary. Election officials disagreed and Lieberman said he’d been forced to take that route in order to allow all of Connecticut’s voters the opportunity to vote for him.

Lieberman promised over and over to be an “independent Democrat” if elected to a fourth term. With lots of support from Republican and unaffiliated voters, Lieberman won with 50 percent of the vote.

Orman’s response was to trot down to his local registrar’s office to try to switch his party affiliation from Democrat to Connecticut for Lieberman, which is something no one else has done.

Although that switch isn’t official yet, Orman waggishly proceeded to convene a one-man party organizational meeting and elected himself “chairman.”

Chairman Orman also passed some rules for the party, including one requiring that, “If you run under Connecticut for Lieberman, you must actually join our party.”

Another of his tongue-in-cheek party rules reads as follows: “If any CFL candidate loses our party’s nomination in a primary, that candidate must bolt our party, form a new party and work to defeat our party-endorsed candidate.”

Sounds like Orman is having a blast.”

Kos has found the full rules of Connecticut for Lieberman. I’ve put them below the fold. I particularly like this one: “The party will nominate people for office who have the last name of Lieberman and/or who are critics and opponents of Senator Lieberman.” Heh.

“Orman Elected New Chair of Connecticut for Lieberman Party Minutes from first organizational meeting of Connecticut for Lieberman, at John Orman?s house in Trumbull, November 15, 2006
At the first meeting I nominated myself to be party chair for Connecticut for Lieberman. I seconded my own nomination and then I voted for myself. I was selected unanimously as Chair of Connecticut for Lieberman on Novemeber 15,2006.

These new rules were adopted:

This party is open to every citizen who wants to keep Senator Joseph Lieberman accountable. It is open to critics, opponents, bloggers and everyone else who will work to provide citizen oversight for Lieberman?s actions, words and deeds over the next six years.

The chair of the party shall be elected for a period of six years until Lieberman decides to run again.

Party history: This party was officially formed the day after Joe Lieberman was defeated in the August Democratic primary in 2006 by Ned Lamont. Lieberman turned in the required signatures to go with his party organizing committee to declare their intent to form a new political party. Senator Lieberman and his committee did not change their party registration so some suggested that Senator Lieberman may have used the CFL as a gimmick to run twice for the same Senate seat within three months. We who are members of the CFL do not care.
We at CFL do care that Senator Lieberman is now turning his back on our party and wants to be called an ?Independent Democrat? even though he was not the nominee from the Democratic Party. He was from our party, Connecticut for Lieberman and he should be identified that way.

Many citizens complained about our CFL and one citizen (me) asked the Secretary of State and the Elections Enforcement Commission to rule that the CFL was a fake political party contrived to allow Senator Lieberman to be a sore loser and to keep running after he lost. It was argued that Senator Lieberman had no intention of forming the CFL. State officials ruled that Connecticut for Lieberman was not a one man fake party and that it was legitimate.

New Connecticut for Lieberman Rules:

a. If you run under Connecticut for Lieberman, you must actually join our party.

b. The party will nominate people for office who have the last name of Lieberman and/or who are critics and opponents of Senator Lieberman.

c. If any CFL candidate loses our party?s nomination in a primary, that candidate must bolt our party, form a new party and work to defeat our party endorsed candidate.

d. We in the CFL intend to run the same candidate for three different jobs at the same time, ie. House, Senate and Governor.

The meeting closed by observing that Senator Lieberman was threatening to caucus with the Republicans. One member said, “How can he turn his back on the CFL? We got him to where he is today.”

Another member asked “What if state election officials rule post election that there is no such legal entity as Connecticut for Lieberman and that it is not a legitimate third party since Dr. Orman is the only registered member? What if they rule a party for one is not allowed in our state?” No chance of them going back on their previous rulings for Joe Lieberman, right.

A member asked, “What if election officials won?t let us run for three different jobs by one candidate at the same time because we would be making a mockery of the electoral system in Connecticut?” No chance of that happening either.

These are the new rules for my new political party that I am working to keep alive so it will not be some fake gimmick that Senator Lieberman used to get elected. Thank you,

Sincerely

Dr. John Orman

Chair, Connecticut for Lieberman”