It was a big day in Pennsylvania, with Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak formally announcing his primary challenge to recent convert Arlen Specter this morning. Sestak faces a major challenge in going up against an incumbent backed by the White House and sitting on big leads in the polls, but he likes it that way:
“I love being the underdog,” Sestak said. “A lot of room to grow. Seventy percent of the people don’t know me enough to make a decision, and I’m going to give them that opportunity.”
In a D-on-D primary like this, with Arlen Specter being forced to smooth out his long list of conservative votes as part of the GOP caucus for decades, hitting back against Sestak isn’t an easy thing to do… but Specter’s team is making the effort. From the miracle of human and technological evolution that is Twitter:
“His months of indecisiveness on his candidacy raises a real question as to his competency to handle the tough rapid-fire decisions required of a Senator,” Specter wrote.
“During his continuing taxpayer-financed self-promotion tour around the State, Sestak should explain why, when Pennsylvanians are working harder, he can barely show up for work.”
Sestak will try to make Specter answer for a laundry list of crappy votes (from Iraq to Bush’s economic agenda) — votes that the recent progressive convert will have a hard time justifying, so he’ll try to make this primary be a referendum on his seniority, and, I guess, record of “getting things done”. Somehow I think Sestak has the saucier narrative.
Meanwhile, a somewhat hilarious sideshow to this Dem fracas is likely GOP nominee Pat Toomey’s pivot to the left, most recently witnessed today by his support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. With no primary competition to force his hand, it looks like Toomey will be attempting to quietly put distance between himself and the insanity of his Club For Growth brand of politics by making a few of these easy concessions to the center. Let’s see how far this takes him.
RaceTracker Wiki: PA-Sen
Wow I hope Pennsylvanian’s aren’t stupid enough to buy that. I think people will have ample evidence to conclude otherwise considering his past statements concerning Specter’s impurity in the GOP fold.
so that he’d drag down other Republicans on the ballot such as Charlie Dent
“Looks like Toomey will be attempting to quietly put distance between himself and the insanity of his Club For Growth brand of politics by making a few of these easy concessions to the center. Let’s see how far this takes him.”
It will take him as far as the point when people start paying attention to his record, beliefs and Santorumness. I’m guessing sometime about 6-9 months from now or whenever Specter/Sestak is settled.
Im not surprised that Toomey is showing hes more of a politician than an ideologue. Remember when Toomey was a pro-choice congressman? Or at least when he initially won his U.S. House seat. Sure, one can argue that its insane to run as a far right Repoublican, in 2004, in a state like PA. But the activist wing of the GOP wouldnt have been fired up about a mainstream conservative Pat Toomey. And so while hed have stood a better chance in the general as a mainstream conservative, that year, he wouldnt have even gotten the opportunity to be in the GE had he not been an activist, far right Republican. And now with his nomination all but sowed up he can triangulate once again.
Sestak acting like a champion of Progressive causes is kind of vomit inducing considering his moderate voting record.
Sorry I’m not wholy optimistic like you guys are.
I don’t care for Sestak that much and I think this primary is going to take a lot of money away from other races we need to focus on like NH, OH and KY. I would rather stay on offense during a potentially down year then have to worry about this race.
has endorsed Sestak over Specter.
How much do you think this will help/hurt each candidate?