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Edward Miner Lamont, Jr. (born January 3, 1954 in Washington, D.C.) is the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in the Connecticut United States Senate election to be held on on November 7 2006. He will face Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger, incumbent Senator and Connecticut for Lieberman Party nominee Joe Lieberman and Green Party candidate Ralph Ferrucci in a four-way general election in November, having defeated Lieberman 51.8% - 48.2%• among Democratic voters in a primary election on August 8, 2006.
Background Lamont grew up in Syosset, New York, and is a heir to the fortune of his great-grandfather, Thomas W. Lamont, who was a partner of the banking and finance firm J. P. Morgan & Co. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1972, Ned Lamont earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1976 and a Masters of Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management in 1980. He began his career working for a small newspaper in Ludlow, Vermont. Lamont then entered the cable television industry, managing the startup of Cablevision's operation in Fairfield County, Connecticut. In 1984, he founded, and is currently president and chairman of, Lamont Digital Systems, a builder and operator of advanced telecommunications networks for college campuses and residential gated communities, with over 150,000 subscribers. The company's finances are private, though it currently has 35 employees, down from 100 in 2001. His most recent salary was reported as $546,000 per year • A trade publication reported Lamont and his partners tried unsuccessfully to sell the firm two years ago.• Before running for the U.S. Senate, Lamont was elected and served as selectman in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, for eight years (two terms), chaired the state investment advisory council, and served on many civic boards. Lamont unsuccessfully ran for a state Senate seat in 1990, finishing in third place. Family Lamont and his wife, the former Ann "Annie" Greenlee Huntress, a venture capitalist, have three teenaged children. Lamont is the great-grandson of former J.P. Morgan & Co. Chairman Thomas W. Lamont and the grandnephew (not the grandson, as has been widely reported) of Corliss Lamont (a director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1932 to 1954). His self-reported net worth lies somewhere between $90 million and $300 million. His father, Ted (Edward M. Sr.), was an economist who worked with the Marshall Plan which helped reconstruct Europe after World War II. He later served in the Nixon administration in Housing and Urban Development. Ted Lamont is now an unaffiliated voter, having last voted for a Republican in 1988. Since then he has voted Democratic. He told The Hartford Courant that "Eastern Moderates no longer have a place in the GOP." Ned Lamont contributed to one Republican as late as 1998, when he contributed $500 to the re-election effort of Congressman Chris Shays, but since 1999 has contributed over $57,000 to Democrats, including $1,500 to Joe Lieberman. His mother, Camille Buzby "Buz" Lamont, was born in Puerto Rico, the daughter of an American salesman (a Quaker veteran of World War I) and a Catholic missionary. She is of French and U.S. descent and she studied at the George School in Pennsylvania, Middlebury College in Vermont, and at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.• She speaks fluent Spanish but never taught Ned.• 2006 U.S. Senate campaign | class="wikitable" style="float:right;" |+Democratic Primary Results !Candidate !Results Lamont began as a "dark-horse" candidate, but was at a statistical dead heat with Lieberman in July, and went on to win in August. Polls taken prior to the primary vote showed Lieberman, if running as an independent, polling better among Republicans and independents in a three-way race, including Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger, who badly trails both Lamont and Lieberman. Early August polls, however, showed Lamont increasing his lead significantly, and many speculate on the effect of the primary outcome (and expected high Democratic endorsement) on the general election. The initial post primary poll showed Lieberman holding a narrow lead in a general election, however. On July 30, 2006, the London Sunday Times reported that former president Bill Clinton is believed to have warned Lieberman not to run as an Independent if he lost the primary to Lamont. Many Democratic leaders pledged to support the winner of the Connecticut Democratic primary. Most Democratic leaders, however, supported Lieberman's campaign for the Democratic nomination, and some, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, allegedly asked Lamont not to run. Lamont resigned his membership in a Greenwich country club shortly before his campaign began, as the club was "too white and too rich and he did not want it to become a campaign issue." Lamont criticized Wal-Mart during the campaign and lambasted Lieberman for previously receiving campaign contributions from Wal-Mart, which he later returned. On August 4, 2006, The Washington Times reported that Ned "Lamont, his wife and a dependent child own as much as $31,000 in Wal-Mart stock. Mr. Lamont and his wife jointly own two accounts containing as much as $16,000 in Wal-Mart stock. Their Wal-Mart holdings spin off as much as $3,500 in annual dividends. In addition, a trust fund he set up for one of his children contains as much as $15,000 in Wal-Mart stock and spins off as much as $1,000 in dividends." Time magazine reported on August 4, 2006, that Lamont's campaign manager, Tom Swan, said the candidate was not actively controlling the investment. "He does not own any stock directly, it's not a direct holding," he said. Part of the Wal-Mart stock is held in a Goldman Sachs "Tax Advantaged Core Strategies managed account", according to a letter released Thursday by Swan. He said the account is designed to track the S+P 500 index, and that Goldman Sachs makes the investment decisions for the account." On August 21, Lamont distanced himself from the demands of some supporters that Joe Lieberman be purged from the Democratic voter rolls. In late September, Lamont's campaign aired a controversial television ad that depicted various actors portraying Connecticut voters referring to Lieberman as a "turncoat". One of these ads suggested that voters should wear their coats inside out to protest Lieberman's campaign as an independent candidate. A recent UCONN poll shows Lamont trailing by 8 points to Lieberman and Schlesinger at 9 points. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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