July 17, 2003 … Lieberman’s Woes I. Headline from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times: “Signs Point to a Rocky Path for Lieberman…Senator’s 2004 campaign is thrown off balance by a staff shake-up and a NAACP feud. He’s also seen as not connecting with Democratic voters.” In addition, he slashed the $100,000 campaign salaries for his two children by 20%. Excerpt from Times report by Mark A. Barabak: “A staff shake-up and slap from the NAACP this week are just the latest signs of the problems facing presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman, whose strategy for winning the nomination faces deep skepticism from many fellow Democrats. Although he sits atop most national polls as the party's preferred candidate — thanks in large measure to his status as the 2000 vice presidential nominee — Lieberman is lagging in the crucial leadoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Moreover, in a year when angry partisans are hungry for red-meat rhetoric from the Democratic candidates, the affable senator from Connecticut is taking a more subdued approach. ‘Democratic primary voters tend to be activists: environmental activists, civil rights activists, pro-choice activists," said Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. With Lieberman, ‘there's a failure to connect on a basic level with Democratic primary voters.’ Brazile and others caution that it remains early in the Democratic contest, with no clear front-runner. ‘It's still a hot race,’ she said…Lieberman's middling performance so far has been one of the surprises of this campaign, given the expectations that followed his exuberant and history-making performance as the first Jewish candidate to run for national office on a major party ticket. On Tuesday, he reported raising just more than $5 million during the three months ending June 30 — a notable improvement over his performance earlier in the year. His total receipts for the year placed him third in the nine-candidate field. But Lieberman continued to spend money at a brisk pace, drawing down the reserves he may need to compete once voters start paying closer attention. His cash on hand ranked fifth among the Democrats. Meantime, there have been strains within the campaign between political strategists and members of Lieberman's Capitol Hill staff. The shake-up announced Monday was part of an effort to streamline the campaign's costs and its unwieldy decision-making process. As one consequence, Lieberman's top fund-raiser, Shari Yost, and her deputy have both moved into more limited consulting roles, at reduced salaries…Also taking 20% pay cuts were two of Lieberman's children, Matt and Rebecca, who were being paid $100,000 salaries for their fund-raising work. And the campaign is looking at other ways to trim expenses, including cutbacks in staff travel…But more fundamental questions surround Lieberman's positioning in the Democratic field and his strategy of waiting for a breakthrough after the early voting in Iowa and New Hampshire. A favorite of party centrists, Lieberman is the most conservative of the Democratic candidates on an array of issues. He unabashedly supported war with Iraq, backs experimental school vouchers, proudly boasts of being a ‘pro-business’ Democrat and has many enemies in Hollywood, thanks to his condemnations of sex and violence in mass entertainment. Temperamentally, Lieberman is more suited to smiling than slashing — an attribute that still rankles many in the party who remember his amiable debate with his GOP counterpart, Dick Cheney, during the 2000 presidential campaign, and his conciliatory demeanor during the Florida recount that decided the election. ‘There seems to be a significant portion of Democrats who want to see a candidate who rhetorically punches [President] Bush in the face every day,’ said Anita Dunn, a party strategist who is sitting out the primary contest. ‘That's not Joe Lieberman's style.’”
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