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Lamont adds $750G to own Senate race

Democrat Ned Lamont is reaching for his hefty checkbook yet again. The multimillionaire businessman wrote a $750,000 check this week to help fund his campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman, the three-term incumbent running as an independent after losing the Democratic nod to Lamont.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Democrat Ned Lamont is reaching for his hefty checkbook yet again. The multimillionaire businessman wrote a $750,000 check this week to help fund his Connecticut Senate campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman, the three-term incumbent running as an independent after losing the Democratic nod to Lamont.

Lamont's latest personal contribution comes as both sides are spending heavily on television ads in their increasingly testy fall race.

Lamont has tapped his personal wealth for $6,251,500 to help pay for his primary and general-election efforts.

Politics of money
"Our fundraising is going very well and thousands of small donors continue to make their voices heard," said Lamont spokeswoman Liz Dupont-Diehl. "Ned has kicked in the money to amplify the voices of all those small donors who are contributing."

Lamont spent about $4 million of his own money to unseat Lieberman in the Aug. 8 primary. Since then, he has written checks totaling $2.25 million for his general election bid.

"If money talks, then this latest contribution speaks the truth: Ned Lamont clearly does not have the kind of broad-based, grass-roots support that Joe Lieberman enjoys," said Lieberman spokeswoman Tammy Sun.

Lamont, a cable executive and great-grandson of the former chairman of JP Morgan & Co., estimates he is worth $90 million to $300 million. His firm, Lamont Digital Systems, wires college campuses for cable television.

Fundraising factors
The rival campaigns have been busy recently raising cash.

Lamont was in California earlier this week for fundraising, Dupont-Diehl said. She did not provide details about the trip.

Lieberman's Washington supporters held a fundraising reception Tuesday night at a hotel a few blocks from the Capitol. The senator has a national fundraising base that was built, in part, when he was the Democratic vice presidential nominee six years ago.

Last week, a prominent Republican who chairs I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's legal defense fund co-hosted a Florida fundraiser for Lieberman, who attended the event.

Mel Sembler, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman, helped organize a reception that he said drew Republican, Democratic and independent donors.

Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, was indicted last year on charges that he lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters.