Lieberman Reduces Effort to Get Out Vote

With only three days left to reverse the course of the Democratic primary race, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman is scaling back on the ambitious ground operation that his supporters had hoped would pull him past his challenger, Ned Lamont, in Tuesday’s election, people affiliated with the campaign said.

Mr. Lieberman, slipping badly in recent polls, still has solid organizational support. Major unions are planning phone banks on his behalf. Firefighters are taking the day off to drive older voters to polling stations. Black churches are distributing literature focusing on some of the historically most reliable Lieberman supporters, in the belief that the more Democrats show up to vote, the better his chances are.

But in the waning hours of the most closely watched Democratic primary in the nation, Mr. Lieberman, a three-term incumbent, appears to be ceding some tactical ground to his opponent in favor of running new advertisements emphasizing his message that voters should see him for more than his vote to authorize the war in Iraq.

People affiliated with the campaign said it had dropped plans for a far-reaching — and expensive — get-out-the-vote effort that would have added as many as 4,000 new workers and volunteers to the campaign in its final day.

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