By Bennet Kelley

Ned Lamont’s dramatic primary victory over Joe Lieberman this week will cause much soul searching within the Democratic establishment. While the defeat of a three-term senator and vice-presidential nominee is certainly a shock, the result is actually a victory for the party for several key reasons.

The two primary reasons Democrats should be pleased is that the Lamont campaign has both energized the party base and placed the party in a stronger position with general election voters on key issues. More importantly, while Lieberman discounted the growing movement against him as being top down and the result of a constant drumbeat of attacks in the political blogosphere, Lamont recognized it as a reflection of sentiments percolating throughout the base and has given a voice to their frustration and anger.

California Democrats should take note of Lamont’s victory because California’s recent primary is a photographic negative of the Connecticut primary. While Connecticut voters embraced the future, California replayed the 1984 presidential primary battle between Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. In that race, Mondale was able to survive a tough challenge by Hart because he had secured the endorsements of the major unions and advocacy groups before a single primary vote was cast. Mondale, who accepted the nomination by promising to raise taxes, came within 3,761 votes of being the first candidate to lose all 50 states, while Hart’s attempt to define a post New Deal/Great-Society message for the party ultimately paved the way for Bill Clinton’s election.

Twenty-two years later, the California Democratic Party decided to ignore this history, as well as the party’s tradition of not giving endorsements in contested races and State Comptroller Steve Westly’s commanding lead in both the primary and over Gov. Schwarzenegger, in order to give a pre-primary endorsement to State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who also has promised to raise taxes, over the telegenic Westly. This endorsement combined with a record low turnout enabled Angelides to rebound and overtake Westly in the primary.

Unlike the Connecticut primary, however, Angelides’ victory has neither energized the base nor better positioned the party for November. The Angelides’ campaign has floundered since the primary and is now eight points behind Schwarzenegger. More importantly, Angelides’ support among Democrats is only 62 percent and major Democrats, such as Steven Spielberg and David Katzenberg, are jumping to the Schwarzenegger camp. While I hope that someday a Gov. Angelides will tell me how very wrong I am, at this moment it appears that the Angelides nomination is a classic case of a party catering to institutional forces and not the greater interest of the party.

A more subtle example is seen in the party’s sacrificing its rising stars in favor of short-term security by filling down ballot positions with termed-out politicians working their way down the ballot. With former-Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Attorney General Bill Lockyer — who collectively have held statewide office for 28 years — seeking lower offices, upcoming prospects had to choose between taking on one of these Goliaths in the primary, battling for one of the few open seats or abandoning Sacramento altogether.

None of the three recycled candidates, however, are likely to excite the base or give them a voice, especially considering Bustamante’s stumbling effort in the 2003 recall campaign in which he garnered only 32 percent of the vote or the fact that 47 percent of the state’s voting age population became eligible to vote after Jerry Brown left the governor’s office.

Brown’s comeback attempt, however, reminds us that he is the only California Democrat to win a Presidential primary in the post-Vietnam era.

Ned Lamont has demonstrated how Democrats can excite and revive the party by breaking the mold of politics as usual. While a major challenge for both parties in this election is navigating the growing tide of discontent, Lamont has demonstrated how to tap the power of this wave and ride it to victory.

Lamont’s victory is a signal to California Democrats to leave their longboards at Zuma Beach and head to Connecticut for surfing lessons, since learning how to ride this growing tide is the surest way to guarantee a Republican wipeout in November.

(Bennet Kelley can be reached at bennet@bennetkelley.com)