In Good Hands With Lieberman?
He may be number two on the ticket, but Joe Lieberman is number one with insurance companies, reports CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason. Lieberman raised nearly $200,000 from the insurance industry, more than any other Senate candidate this year.
"Like every other senator, Lieberman is naturally responsive to his constituency in Connecticut," says University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato.
One look at the skyline in the Connecticut capital will tell you what that constituency is.
"When you think of insurance, you think of Hartford, Connecticut," says election analyst Norman Ornstein. "So the idea that Lieberman would strongly support insurance, but also get financial support from them, isn't quite as insidious as it might seem on the surface."
Just what has the insurance industry gotten for its support of Lieberman?
Lieberman is one of very few Democrats who have championed tort reform — legislation limiting damage awards in lawsuits, including those against HMOs.
"It really reduces the price of doing business and that's why business is in favor of it," says Sabato. "And, of course it reduces the fees that lawyers can get. And that's why lawyers are so strongly opposed."
That could be a problem for this ticket because trial lawyers are among the party's most generous contributors.
"They're providing tens of millions, it may amount to a hundred million dollars, to the Democratic Party at all levels in 2000," Sabato says.
But Lieberman can offer the Democratic ticket some support where Gore has had trouble finding it — on Wall Street. The Connecticut senator has raised almost as much money from the securities industry as he has from the insurance industry.
"Remember that Joe Lieberman is a pro-business Democrat who has supported lower capital-gains taxes," says Ornstein.
And if candidate Gore is looking for a little more credibility in the business community, Joe Lieberman might just offer him some insurance.