A question from Gus Sperrazza of Washington, D.C.:

Is there any chance that Arlen Specter could lose his party's primary
and run as an independent, a la Connecticut's Joe Lieberman in 2006?

Well, there certainly is a chance that Specter could lose his primary — as we discussed on Monday — but if he does, that's it for him. Pennsylvania law does not permit a candidate defeated in the primary to run as an independent (or on another party line) in the general election.

In the past half-century, of all the senators who were denied renomination in the primary, only two tried to keep their seat in November running as an independent or on a third party. The most recent, of course, was Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who lost the Democratic primary in 2006 to anti-war activist Ned Lamont but then mounted an independent effort in the fall to win a fourth term.

The other was Jacob Javits. The New York Republican, seeking a fifth term, was beaten in the 1980 Republican primary by Al D'Amato. Javits stayed in the race as the candidate of the Liberal Party; he had never served in the Senate majority and desperately wanted to have that chance. But all he did was split the liberal (small "l") vote with Democratic nominee Elizabeth Holtzman, and the divide on the left helped D'Amato win the first of his three terms.

Thomas Dodd, a two-term Connecticut Democrat, sought re-election in 1970. But he doesn't qualify for this list because not only did he not lose his party's nomination, he didn't even seek it. He was censured by the Senate in 1967 for redirecting campaign funds for personal use and found that he had no chance of getting Democrats to back him for a third term. So rather than seek renomination, he ran on a third-party line in the general election, unsuccessfully.

Tags: Questions From The Reader, On The Ballot