This is what people power is all about:

BOSTON (Reuters) – U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), a three-term Democrat now running as an independent candidate, leads the man who beat him in last week’s primary vote by 12 points in a three-way race, a poll released on Thursday shows.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll, conducted between August 10-14, shows Lieberman leads Democrat Ned Lamont, a wealthy businessman with little political experience who has played on anti-war sentiment, by 53 percent to 41 percent among likely voters in November’s election. The Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger drew 4 percent, the poll shows.

Granting the obvious caveat that there’s still a long time until November, this poll suggests that Lamont already peaked and that he’ll have a tough time drawing support outside of the Democratic Party. The Quinnipiac news release breaks the numbers down further:

In this latest survey, Lieberman leads 75 – 13 – 10 percent among likely Republican voters, and 58 – 36 – 3 percent among likely independent voters, while likely Democratic voters back Lamont 63 – 35 percent.

So even if Lieberman hangs on to a third of Democrats, he can still win handily.