HARTFORD, Conn. — Senator Lieberman made an election morning appeal to primary voters on Radio 1360-AM. He appealed directly to moderate voters unafraid to oppose external enemies in the tradition of John F. Kennedy and Harry Truman. He said America faces tough times and great danger from our enemies. Such times, he argued, called for difficult measures.

Connecticut didn’t want it. Any of it.

Sure, this was only the Democratic primary contest against Greenwich multimillionaire Ned Lamont. And the result was narrow — at press time, with about 86% of precincts reporting, Mr. Lamont was leading by almost 4%, or about 9,000 votes. But turnout was far greater than the 220,000 voters hoped for by the junior senator’s campaign for a primary victory. The state’s top election official, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, had forecast a turnout of around 45%. Based on numbers that showed that more than 20% of the voters in many communities across the state had already voted, she estimated vote turnout as high as any statewide primary since the 1970s. Roughly 15,000 voters had registered in the Democratic Primary for the first time. This meant they were either former supporters of Ralph Nader, a Nutmeg State native, or Republicans. Judging by the numbers, they were probably Republicans, which doesn’t bode well for the prospects of a third party run by Mr. Lieberman.

The CEO of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, Al From, showed up mid-afternoon to speak for the man he called a “friend” and to stop everyone from pushing the panic button. Hold on, hold on, he said. Don’t make too much of a prospect of a defeat for the man who served as his party’s vice presidential nominee in 2000. “It is one primary race,” he was saying. “It’s the state where Jerry Brown beat Bill Clinton.”

He was saying, in other words, that Connecticut doesn’t matter because the Nutmeg State is really the Nut State. Or, perhaps, using his logic, you could call Connecticut “The Moonbeam State” thanks to its 1992 vote for Governor Moonbeam. That’s Jerry Brown, mind you. Not Howard Dean, now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

But Governor Dean’s brother, Jim Dean, who now heads a vestige of the Dean presidential campaign that has morphed into a grassroots outfit known as Democracy for America, did call in during the afternoon. “I think it’s clear that voters want to take control,” said Mr. Dean, adding that voters want politicians who “put people first instead of this culture of incumbency.” He seemed to indicate that Moonbeam fever was sure to spread from Connecticut to the rest of the country.

Moonbeam fever is contagious and is spread via the Internet. It is also communicable and people get it starting with the Netroots. The Internet can be trouble, as Senator Lieberman found out when his campaign Web site and e-mail went down yesterday after what his aides said was a malicious attack. They are asking for an investigation and say that the attack probably hurt them.

“I think Democratic incumbents are going to have their feet put to their fire,” Mr. Dean said.

He was careful not to mention any names. One place to look is due north of Oakland, where Jerry Brown is now the mayor, to Washington, “The Latte State.” Senator Cantwell, a Democrat who backed the Iraq War, faces a left-wing challenge from a lawyer, Hong Tran. Another place to look is New York. Senator Clinton doesn’t face a serious primary challenge, but she is interested in running for president in 2008. If the Netroots are in a frenzy, it could be bad for her.

This was almost too much for the DLC’s Mr. From. “It seems to me it is this broad brush ‘all incumbents are bad,'” he said. “Were incumbents bad when his brother was governor of Vermont?”

The fact that Democracy For America is headed by Jim Dean is a step in the right direction. Mr. Dean’s supporters presumably hope that rural voters think he is the purveyor of a tasty variety of breakfast sausage and not the brother of Howard Dean. Mr. Dean said the election results were bad for the prospect of an independent run by Mr. Lieberman. “Most Republicans in this state are also against the war in Iraq as well,” Mr. Dean said.

Indeed, Mr. Dean is correct. There was a time when many of the prominent New England “progressives” had another name. It was “Republican.” This was when to be a Republican meant to be for lower taxes and oppose international involvement. Such proto-Moonbeams included the young Howard Dean, who attended the 1964 Republican Convention in San Francisco with his father, who supported Nelson Rockefeller. The same is true of Mr. Lamont’s family. President Bush’s as well. But he moved to Texas.