WI: Lowell Weicker defeated Joe Lieberman in 1988

I think this may have been one of the very few elections where William F. Buckley, Jr. actually made the difference. He backed Lieberman and very likely persuaded enough conservatives to vote for Lieberman to enable Lieberman to win that very close race. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Connecticut,_1988

Without Lieberman Al Gore might choose Bob Graham or Jeanne Shaheen as his running mate--and might therefore win FL or NH, either of which would be sufficient for an Electoral College victory.
 
Lowell Weicker was a liberal Republican in the Senate, at least from the Watergate days through ‘88. Sometime after he lost to Lieberman, he ran for the governorship of Connecticut, and won. So, we can also ask, how much good was he able to get done as governor?
 
Well, for one, he’d likely be re-elected in 1994 and 2000, though I’m not necessarily sure beyond that. Either way though I think it’s likely that at some point he pulls a Jim Jeffords and becomes an independent caucusing with the Democrats.
 
Lowell Weicker was a liberal Republican in the Senate, at least from the Watergate days through ‘88. Sometime after he lost to Lieberman, he ran for the governorship of Connecticut, and won. So, we can also ask, how much good was he able to get done as governor?

He was one of Connecticut’s most consequential governors, pushing through the state income tax. He was likely the only one who could do that as he was undaunted by political ramifications.
 
Well, for one, he’d likely be re-elected in 1994 and 2000, though I’m not necessarily sure beyond that. Either way though I think it’s likely that at some point he pulls a Jim Jeffords and becomes an independent caucusing with the Democrats.

He would almost certainly be primaried by 1994, by which time Connecticut Republicans had moved to the right. He might have to run for re-election in 1994 as an independent as Lieberman was later to do in OTL. Whether he would succeed or not depends on whether he gets enough Democratic support--in other words whether Democrats were willing to vote for him as overwhelmingly as Republicans did for Lieberman in OTL in 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Connecticut,_2006
 
He would almost certainly be primaried by 1994, by which time Connecticut Republicans had moved to the right. He might have to run for re-election in 1994 as an independent as Lieberman was later to do in OTL. Whether he would succeed or not depends on whether he gets enough Democratic support--in other words whether Democrats were willing to vote for him as overwhelmingly as Republicans did for Lieberman in OTL in 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Connecticut,_2006

My question is by who? None of the CT congressional delegation at that time was really that much more conservative than he was...

My sense is Weicker would be safe until 2006, but I could even see him withstanding that race because he would may have opposed Iraq from the start. In 2012, he’d retire and the seat would be open for some young Democrat.
 
My question is by who? None of the CT congressional delegation at that time was really that much more conservative than he was...

Why does a challenger have to be a member of Congress? (Though Gary Franks seems to me to be considerably to the right of Weicker). There are plenty of state legislators, wealthy business people, etc. The point is that Weicker himself recognized that the Connecticut GOP was becoming inhospitable to liberals like himself by not running as a Republican when he ran for governor in 1990.
 
Why does a challenger have to be a member of Congress? (Though Gary Franks seems to me to be considerably to the right of Weicker). There are plenty of state legislators, wealthy business people, etc. The point is that Weicker himself recognized that the Connecticut GOP was becoming inhospitable to liberals like himself by not running as a Republican when he ran for governor in 1990.

It doesn’t, of course. I guess my point was by 1994 Weicker would be a rather considerable force in the state and Connecticut is notoriously difficult to wage a primary in given its archaic convention rules. I was just pointing out that there would be no natural challenger to Weicker in this New England state. He may have one, but I think he’d have the seat until 2006 or 2012 (if he wanted it that long)
 
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