HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman vowed to launch the “most aggressive” get-out-the vote effort of his political career Friday, trying to make up a double-digit deficit to a political novice just four days before Connecticut’s Democratic primary.

Lieberman, a three-term senator who’s seen his popularity plunge in part because his support for the Iraq war, is buying more radio and television time in the campaign’s final days, but denied reports that he’s abandoning other get-out-the vote efforts, such as phonebanking and voter canvassing.

“We’re going to have more paid workers on Election Day, not even counting volunteers, than I’ve ever had in any campaign I’ve had before,” said Lieberman, following a rally with a building trades union in Hartford. “All I can tell you is, we are focused on the most aggressive get-out-the-vote operation that I have ever had.”

Lieberman, 64, one of the Senate’s most well-known centrists and his party’s nominee for vice president in 2000, has been harshly criticized on liberal political Internet blogs and by many rank-and-file Connecticut Democrats for his support of the war and his perceived closeness with President Bush and other Republicans.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows Lieberman trailing Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont by 13 percentage points.

Lieberman is spending over $100,000 on new ads that tout the senator’s record and his desire to work for Connecticut families, campaign manager Sean Smith said.

Lamont, meanwhile, is spending more than $200,000 in the final days on TV and radio ads to counter Lieberman’s criticism that Lamont is unqualified. Lamont’s only political experience has been as a Greenwich selectman and a member of the town’s finance board.

Both campaigns are using the final days of the primary race trying to encourage Connecticut’s 700,000 registered Democrats to vote Tuesday. Typically turnout in state primaries is about 25 percent, but most of those have been held in September. This marks the first statewide primary held in August.

“Any time that it’s a primary, it’s about identifying your voters and getting them out to vote,” said Lamont campaign manager Tom Swan. “We have been planning for this since day one. Our initial hires were all seasoned organizers that were about building toward primary day.”

Lieberman and Lamont’s campaigns have taken different approaches when it comes to their respective get-out-the-vote efforts. Lieberman has hired Washington, D.C. strategist Tom Lindenfeld, who helped organize President Clinton’s 1992 campaign, to oversee operations and its hundreds of paid workers and volunteers.

Lamont has relied on a group of veteran political and labor activists from Connecticut. Swan, for example, has taken a leave of absence from his full-time job as executive director of the Connecticut Citizens Action Group.

Since the multimillionaire businessman announced his candidacy in March, Swan and his deputy campaign manager, John Murphy – CCAG’s political director – have been compiling a statewide voter file that takes into account everything from voting histories for local budget referendums to local primaries.

The Lamont campaign has also used the Internet to reach out to supporters and get them to the polls. There’s a link on Lamont’s web site that allows supporters to tell family members and friends about the candidate. The campaign is now sending e-mails to the supporters, reminding them to call people on their list to vote and/or register as a Democrat before the Aug. 8 primary.

Lieberman’s get-out-the-vote workers, many college-aged students, can be seen at events throughout Connecticut, include Lamont’s campaign stops, wearing their signature white and blue T-shirts, waving Lieberman signs and chanting “Joe! Joe! Joe!” Marion Steinfels, the campaign spokeswoman, said workers were getting on vans and going out to canvas voters and make a visible statement for Lieberman on Friday.

“We have an aggressive (get-out-the-vote) operation going on right now,” Steinfels said. “We’ve been laying the groundwork for it. We’ve been saying all along that we knew it was going to be competitive. We’ve been preparing for a competitive race.”

Unaffiliated voters have until noon on Monday to change their registration to either Democrat or Republican.