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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (175845)	8/9/2006 7:54:44 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793914

Where The Lattes Reign If there was a way to obtain the per capita income and racial demographics of each Connecticut town, some politico cartographer wizard out there could have a field day portraying the economics and ethnicity of this race. Ned Lamont, scion of the Eastern Establishment, rolled up staggering margins in those places most likely to include his fellow anti-war WASPs. Joe Lieberman, son of a Stamford liquor store owner, won the workaday towns most likely to include other ethnic voters less motivated by opposition to Iraq. With the exception of some of the cities or grittier suburbs, Lamont racked up victories of 10% or higher in town after town along the state's affluent shoreline. From his hometown of Greenwich (68-32%) on the Gold Coast next to NYC all the way up to Stonington (60-40%) on the RI line, Lamont won the Long Island Sound vote. He performed even better in the more wealthy parts of Litchfield Co, in the bucolic northwest corner of the state, crushing the three-term Senator with eye-popping numbers (Cornwall 91-9%; Canaan 83-17%) in some of the smaller towns there. The pattern was the same throughout the antique towns dotting the Connecticut River Valley, 15 point and higher margins throughout. Lieberman's best returns came in the blue-collar and heavily-Irish and Italian Naugatuck River Valley, where he picked up 60-40 victories in places like Prospect, Beacon Falls, Naugatuck and Waterbury (where the rally with Pres Clinton was held). Lamont's victories were not, however, totally limited to the state's elite. He scored victories in the two old-line Dem cities that are also home to tony colleges (New Haven, Yale and Middletown, Wesleyan Univ.) while also picking up a stunning win, as noted by Kevin Rennie, in the heavily-minority and low-income Bridgeport. Lieberman could've closed the gap down a bit from 4 pts had he done better in Hartford, but as the capital city returns finally rolled in for Lamont, it was clear who the night belonged to. A closer look at two neighboring towns reveals the split. Sitting on the MA border halfway between Hartford and Springfield, MA, Enfield and Suffield are divided by only the Connecticut River. Both are essentially bedroom suburbs, but Enfield has a far higher middle-class and working-class population. Suffield, with its traditional clapboard houses and prep school on the town green, is more upper crust. The results reflect the pattern in the 167 other towns in CT: Lieberman eked out a two-point victory in Enfield, while losing by 20 in Suffield. If it was, as Mike Barnicle put it on Hardball, a battle between Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks, the folks holding the soy lattes won. [JONATHAN MARTIN] hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com