What I took out of it is the fact they are taking us seriously. They know we will be building a serious campaign.

We’re not surprised that there are people within the Republican Party that would think about endorsing Joe. He clearly is George Bush’s favorite Democrat.

I don’t know how someone who has tried to make his entire career be based upon principles could turn around and switch parties overnight.

What’s important out of that is not the dollar amount, but the number of donors. These are people who like to be part of the campaign and will give regularly and over installments.

I thought I was going to feel like I was on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney , but when we went into that room it was anything but. There is no doubt in anybody’s mind who follows politics in Connecticut that Ned Lamont can win the Democratic primary after last night.

It is a significant step forward. I am happy that Ned asked me to play a role within this campaign.

I do not believe it will be helpful for him. The degree of harm that this will cause him is yet to be determined. But for people that were questioning his loyalty to the Democratic Party, now they have a clear answer.

For him to officially get in, we’re going to need to recruit volunteers from every town.

It’s a contribution. Ned felt we needed to help level the playing field to kick off the campaign. He believes his money was a good down payment.

I think it shows that a challenge would be very difficult, but very doable.

We raised enough money from enough people to show we’re going to be very competitive in August. We’re very pleased.

It is a very premature poll.

Maybe he is the candidate I should have been looking for.

What the 93 percent says to me is that there’s a tremendous opportunity. What the overall numbers show is that there’s a pretty big challenge in front of us, which we’ve known all along.

We want to make sure we have somebody who reflects Ned. We’re confident we are there.

Is there some irony here? Probably. But sometimes in order to enact real reform, interesting alliances have to be made.