The so-called internet grassroots - "netroots" - is getting credit for helping to take down an incumbent senator in Connecticut.

In challenging onetime vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's primaries, Ned Lamont - now the Democrats' official candidate for a Senate seat - relied not only on anti-Bush and anti-war sentiment in the state but also on online activists, writes CNET. The campaign had an official blogger, support from blog DailyKos and a YouTube group called "Nedheads" - 13th in membership on the popular site.

"The Lamont campaign is the best example to date of a tech-savvy campaign," says Zack Exley, who worked at MoveOn.org during the 2004 elections and later worked for John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential bid. Such a campaign "understands that the purpose of technology in politics is to get boots on the ground in the real world, and to actually sway voters and turn out voters in reality."

It's a point Lieberman seems to have learned. Having now decided to run as an Independent in the November elections, his campaign will be ramping up its online efforts, according to MediaPost. Though Lieberman's campaign site crashed - he says it was hacked - in the final days of the campaign, he gave out its URL as he conceded the primary race.

"You can go to my Website, joe2006.com - when it is unhacked - to send me your ideas about how we can build this new politics of unity and purpose," he is quoted as saying. As of Thursday afternoon, it was still down and showed only a placeholder citing "a coordinated attack by our political opponents" for the crash.