Senate Primary Losers Go Independent

I recall, and apparently so do many others, how in 2006, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, having just lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont, decided to leave the party and run for reelection as an independent. Lieberman was wildly successful in the general election, mainly because the Republicans in Connecticut abandoned en masse their own weak candidate to vote for the incumbent, considered more conservative than the left-leaning Lamont. This year, we're seeing more of the same.

First, in Florida, centrist Governor Charlie Crist lost his bid for the Republican nomination for the Senate to right-wing teabagger Marco Rubio, a former state representative. Crist then left the GOP and started up his own independent run. And just recently in Alaska, incumbent Republican Senator Fran Murkowski has launched an independent write-in campaign for her reelection after losing to unknown teabagger Joe Miller in the primary election after quitter ex-governor Sarah Palin bestowed her endorsement on the latter.

I welcome both Crist and Murkowski's decisions to go independent and stay in their races, although I think each is facing difficulties that Lieberman didn't have to contend with. Crist's Democratic opponent, Kendrick Meek, although trailing in the polls, is still a viable candidate many of whose supporters Crist is going to be unlikely to win over (even if this results in Rubio's election). And Murkowski is going to have difficulties with the mechanics of voters having to take the extra step of writing in her name, much less educating them that they can actually do this.

I applaud Crist and Murkowski for their actions because I see our country slipping into two very ideologically polarized camps, with the moderate/centrist politicians being pushed out by each party. And it is the political center that best represents our country's (and my) sentiments! So I see these independent runs in the general election as a logical reaction to a flaw in the electoral process, a flaw that promotes ideologues and extremists over reasonable and pragmatic candidates.

I was earlier very dismayed to see such a distinguished public servant as Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter pushed out this way, first from the right by the Republicans after so many years of service and then from the left by the Democrats after he had joined their party and helped with their legislative agenda. Unfortunately, even if Specter, a great centrist senator, had wanted to launch his own independent run, I think his long-time struggle against cancer would have prevented it. It says something about the sad direction our country has turned when both parties abandon such an experienced, knowledgeable, and reasonable individual!