Tom Swan

Yesterday, after the Joe Lieberman campaign mounted accusation of a partisan purge by Ned Lamont supporters, Lamont's campaign manager Tom Swan said he suspected that the person behind the effort to strip Lieberman of his registration as a Democrat was a peace activist named Henry Lowendorf.

This morning, Lowendorf confirmed in a phone interview that he is indeed leading the charge to kick Lieberman out of the party, and added that although he has volunteered for Lamont in the past "we did not seek their permission or tell them," he said. "There is a report in the newspaper that the Lamont campaign opposes what we are doing," he said. "Well that's up to them."

Lowendorf's beef with Lieberman is that he is "splitting the Democratic party. He is attacking and has attacked people who support Lamont."

Lowendorf argues that Lieberman is in clear violation of section 9-61 of the Connecticut electoral statutes: "Prima facie evidence supporting discretionary erasure or exclusion."  read more »

(The statute in question is after the jump. Decide for yourselves)

--Jason Horowitz

The Ned Lamont campaign says that the accusations from the Joe Lieberman camp -- charging Lamont supporters with trying to strip the Senator of his Democratic registration -- sound a lot like the never-proven claims during primary night that Lamont supporters were responsible for the collapse of their overburdened campaign website.

"The Lieberman campaign should get some grip on reality before they start making baseless charges against our campaign," said Lamont campaign manager Tom Swan. "We had nothing to do with this. We don't condone it or encourage it. We saw this with the hacking accusations -- they continue to make baseless charges."

Swan added that the only name he had heard in relation to the effort to strip Lieberman of his Democratic registration was Henry Lowendorf, a member of the New Haven Peace Council who he says is unaffiliated with the campaign.

We asked Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein if he knows anything more than that. We are waiting for his reply.

--Jason Horowitz UPDATE: Dan Gerstein sends along Exhibit A about the Lamont supporters they're accusing of trying to kick Lieberman out of the party, with the following explanatory note:

Tom Swan asked for evidence that Lamont supporters were behind today's effort to purge Joe Lieberman from the New Haven Democratic Party rolls. Here is one cite we found from an online radio interview with Henry Lowendorf of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, which we are told was responsible for the complaint to the New Haven registrar. We will send others as we find them.

FURTHER UPDATE: More from Gerstein:

According to a report from the New Haven Independent:

Other activists signing Lowendorf's letter to Ferrucci included veteran activists Paul Hodel and Tom Holahan, a former Democratic alderman.

According to this posting on myleftnutmeg.com, Hodel was campaigning on behalf of Lamont in New Haven in July.