Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., suddenly
battling for his political life in a race that many thought just
weeks ago would be a walkaway, is flooding Connecticut's airwaves
with a series of ads striking back at his aggressive Democratic
challenger.
   But Weicker's assault _ one he all but promised he would never
launch _ has not yet brought the third-term Republican back to
safety, according to a new poll that shows a virtual deadlock with a
high number still undecided.
   Joseph I. Lieberman, 46, the state's soft-spoken Democratic
attorney general who has matched the incumbent's spending dollar for
dollar, trailed Weicker, 57, by one point _ 38-37 percent _ in a
Hartford Courant poll released Tuesday.
   The survey, which had a margin of error of three percentage
points, mirrored a poll released two weeks ago that showed the
combatants with 39 percent each. That survey transformed the race,
energizing Lieberman and putting Weicker on the defensive.
   The most telling information from the recent poll was the number
of undecided voters _ 25 percent in the last full week of a
well-publicized, statewide campaign. The undecided bloc was less
than half of that at the same point in 1982 in Weicker's race
against Democrat Toby Moffett, then a popular, four-term congressman.
   The Lieberman camp is euphoric over the poll results, which the
Democratic challenger said was ``more than we originally thought
possible.''
   ``For a three-term incumbent, after 18 years, to be in trouble as
deep as he is in a week before the election clearly shows the people
of Connecticut believe it's time for a change,'' said Marla Romash,
issues and communications director for Lieberman.
   But G. Donald Ferree, director of the poll, said the news is not
all cheery for Lieberman.
   ``It's been a loss of support for Weicker rather than a
conversion into the other camp,'' Ferree said.
   Each candidate blames the other's negative TV ads for the large
number of undecided voters. They say the attack ads have distorted
records and positions, confusing voters.
   Media consultant Carter Eskew began creating attack ads for
Lieberman early on, including a series depicting Weicker as a bear
who slept through votes while collecting thousands in speaking fees.
But Weicker, who had a solid double-digit lead in polls through the
summer, said he would resist the temptation to retaliate.
   ``I hope two things happen when the election votes are counted.
No. 1, Lowell Weicker would have won, and No. 2, it will be the
first nail in the coffin of the negative campaign that has become
the vogue in America,'' Weicker said just days before the first poll
showed his big lead had evaporated.
   A week later, he was on the air with his own series of ads
denying Lieberman's charges and attacking the Democrat's state
Senate attendance record and votes on taxes and drug sanctions.
   Weicker campaign manager Jay Malcynsky said the ads are
clarifying the record.
   The media war is the chief contributor to the campaign's
record-setting spending: Weicker plans to spend about $2.8 million
and Lieberman anticipates spending $2.5 million. At that rate, the
campaign will be the costliest in Connecticut political history.
   While the video sniping likely is adding to the confusion, the
candidates' positions on issues _ strikingly similar on many and
seemingly reversed in roles on others _ undoubtedly has added to
voters' hesitation to back a candidate.
   Weicker, known as a maverick who bolts from the GOP rank-and-file
on a range of social and foreign policy issues, has built one of the
most successful political careers in Connecticut history by forging
a delicate base of Republican voters, independents and Democrats
swayed by his leadership role on civil rights and other social
issues.
   This year he has won endorsements from the AFL-CIO, the National
Organization for Women and a state nuclear freeze group.
   Although he has never lost a campaign in his quarter-century
political career, a 3-2 Democratic voter advantage in the state
makes Weicker's re-election bids inherently risky.
   ``You could run a blank face in Connecticut as a Democrat with a
well-funded campaign and it puts the Republican in a position of
having one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel,''
Malcynsky said.
   Lieberman, in trying to punctuate the differences between himself
and Weicker, has attacked the senator variously from the left and
right, often sounding like the Republican facing a Democratic
incumbent.
   He accuses Weicker of wanting to raise taxes, says he is too
close to Cuban leader Fidel Castro and criticizes his opposition to
a moment of silence in public schools.
   But Lieberman must walk a political tightrope, luring
conservatives while keeping liberal Democrats in line.
   The Lieberman strategy is to hold Democrats, split the
independent vote and capture conservative Republicans such as
National Review Editor William F. Buckley Jr., who would rather have
anybody else _ even a Democrat _ in office.