I’m stunned… just stunned:
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to sources informed on the decision.
Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next Senator from Minnesota. (Former Sen. Norm Coleman is appealing Franken’s victory in the state Supreme Court.)
“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”
“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”
I guess he realized that he could not possibly survive a GOP primary against arch-conservative ex-Rep. Pat Toomey. Still, I can’t help but be shocked.
UPDATE: The Hotline has Specter’s full statement.
LATER UPDATE: After receiving the “full support” of President Obama in a phone conversation, Specter told the President that he will be a “loyal Democrat” according to ABCNews:
Specter told the president, “I’m a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda.”
Here’s what I’m interested in seeing: official statements from Reps. Pat Murphy, Allyson Schwartz, and Joe Sestak on Specter’s move. It’s hard to imagine any one of them running against Specter in a primary, but I’m still curious to see if and when they make an endorsement.
This is . . . amazing.
But his chances of reelection just went from 0 to about 90%.
Here’s my question: what will his committee assignments be? Pay Leahy should NOT stand aside.
He’s probably a far surer bet to win the Democratic primary even if he’s challenged. He’s already said that he won’t vote for cloture on EFCA, so I’m not sure if he plans on flipping that position or just trying to win without labor.
I also imagine that the GOP field in Pennsylvania just got a whole lot bigger.
I swear to god, I’m not convinced that this isn’t an “April Fool’s Month” prank.
If it IS true, it may not be good news. He still needs to swing his votes significantly to the left to be at all useful.
Way to go, Arlen. You have revived your career and helped the Democrats in one fell swoop.
party switches tend to move more in line with their new party – even more so then some life-long party members.
We won’t get him on Employee Free Choice but give him time.
the funniest thing is reading all the conservative online comments that are like “GET OUT GET OUT YOU STUPID RINO.” yeah thanks for the extra vote br0s
Expect Rendell to get Torsella to drop out. Specter will thrash Toomey or whoever in the general. I expect he will become a reasonably reliable caucus vote.
I KNEW this would happen! Just had a feeling!
Even still, I would rather run someone fresh than Snarlin’ Arlen; the dude’s like 200 years old.
Oh one other thing, Arlen gives Dems 59 votes in Senate. With Al Franken coming aboard sometime next month, hellooooo 60 votes!
and I reckon the DSCC and Big Ed will dry up the money for any primary challengers…
But Specter was trying to appease the GOP base he alienated on the stimulus but opposing card check, so…
Will the unions demand he flip on card check if he is gonna get the national money?
If he doesn’t, he could have trouble in a contested Pa Dem primary.
I just got a ton of stares in my school’s student union… I whoa’d really, really loud. I also think Mr. Specter owes me a new pair of pants, as I seem to have shit mine. ha
On a serious note, party labels change people. I was once a Republican, after dropping the label, and eventually picking up the Democrat label, I have changed ideologies a great deal. I expect Specter to do the same. He will not become a Kennedy or anything like that, but he will become far more moderate, and probably, like he said in his statement, stay in line with the voters of Pennsylvania. Now if only we could give Collins and Snowe a little nudge in the right direction!
Remember, the Republican Party used to be the big tent party, now we are. We have to remember to be that big tent, welcome in people that we may not agree with on every issue, but make sure that everyone has a place in the Democratic Party.
Welcome to our 59th Democratic Senator. haha Sounds nice, as does Pennsylvania having an all blue Senatorial delegation!
I really thought in the end he’d just retire. Kudos to Arlen for finally doing the right thing. There are a good number of republicans in Congress who wouldn’t be unemployed today had they just ditched that party.
I fully expect a flip flop on EFCA. Though it still won’t be enough to pass it this session of Congress.
I for one am very glad to have him on board.
Republicans squeezed him too hard and now he’s slipped out of their grasp completely. They way overplayed their hand on this one. What a party of idiots and incompetents. Hope our party goes down the same path that the Rs have–it leads to a dead end.
i would look for some symbolic votes soon. rendell and casey have been begging for him to switch and if obama said he has his support well, there is no primary. schwartz can play the maloney/mccarthy role here. is torsella steve israel?
and on a list of seats most likely to switch does this go from 60% to 100%? or from 60% to 10% if toomey wins?
Wow! and yippee!
I have to give a little cedit to menendez – hodes, carnahan, fisher/brunner, conway/mongiardo, now specter, soon biden…he’s already marginally ahead of schumer in my mind as a cold-blooded mofo who will stop at nothing to win. that’s what i like in a DSC chair:)
After his EFCA betrayal, I don’t want him. I hope someone takes him on in the primary. And what’s labor going to do?
But I thought he’d go the independent route.
General election poll estimate:
Specter (D) – 60-65%
Toomey (R) – 20-25%
Delaware-Specter’s switch will probably discourage Castle from making a run for U.S. Senate.
Illinois-Kirk is now less likely to run for U.S. Senate, although Roskam could be the replacement candidate.
Texas-If the GOP doesn’t have 41 votes, why wouldn’t KayBay resign to run for governor?
Connecticut-If the GOP gives up in PA (and strong candidates don’t emerge in DE and IL) this means resources can be shifted. Dodd seems to be the most vulnerable. If KayBay doesn’t resign (which would shift the resources to Texas) then Specter’s switch makes Dodd less likely to get elected.
Wisconsin-Possibly resources could be shifted to running against Feingold. Feingold may have to break a sweat, but he’ll win.
New York-Gillebrand is probably more solid on the theory that moderate Republicans are sorta in the “why bother?” mode.
Could Specter switching encourage GOP Senators to retire? McCain (Arizona), Grassley (Iowa), Bunning (Kentucky) or Coburn (Oklahoma)?
There’s already five Republican open seats and only one Dem open seat (although Dems will be defending in Colorado and Illinois incumbents who have no been elected as U.S. Senators).
McConnell ain’t keeping the members of his caucus happy.
More GOP retirements coming? A party switch by Snowe? Lugar?
What a joke Michael Steele is.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI…
will he stay in a race he can’t win, or switch to the govs race? if that happens would specter switch back? obama better have told specter that if he tries to switch back there will be hell to pay.
One, money. We probably don’t need to spend anything in PA now.
Two, message. Republicans were going to get some mileage out of “Don’t give Dems 60!” But by 2010, they’ll already HAVE 60 (maybe by only a couple of months, but whatever). If the sky hasn’t fallen, the argument that Dems can’t have control will fall on deaf ears.
So there are some benefits here.
I posted before that there was a decent chance that Arlen would join the Democratic party. I think he is/was in an impossible situation in PA. The Democrats should try and reach out to other moderate-minded Republicans in the House and Senate (all 9 of them). Plant some seeds…it probably won’t hurt.
“NBC News says Democrats promised Specter would face no Democratic challenger but that he was promised no committee chairmanship in return for switching parties.”
Via Taegan.
Dems have now gained 15 Senate seats since 2006. Amazing, and may break 20 in 2010.
…it’s still funny as hell to watch the Republicans become more and more irrelevent.
I wonder if Snowe will follow suit.
I don’t think Specter could be beaten in the Democratic primary, and I don’t think he should be, as the blowback from that would likely be disastrous.
Nevertheless, as much as he’s likely to move left, he’ll still be worse than our current candidates or the candidates we could have had. That means he needs to be pressurised.
An outsider primary campaign with perhaps a little union support but little else, hitting Specter on issue positions (particularly his EFCA flip-flop), would be a key element in keeping him in line and encouraging him to make 2010 his last election.
Some highlights:
1. He really rips the Club for Growth by name. Mentioned Chaffee, Gilchrist, Schwartz, and Heather Wilson as good Republicans who were forced out by CfG and rightwingers who want to “purify” the party.
2. Said he made calculation that it was no longer realistic to fight for the moderate wing of the Republican party in Pennsylvania.
3. Said he will be treated for seniority purposes and committees since he was elected to Senate in 1980.
4. On specific issues, it doesn’t sound like he’s changing positions too much. Said would still oppose Dawn Johnson to head OLC, still oppose use of reconciliation to pass health care, etc. We’ll see.
I wish he’d stayed in the Repub primary and lost to Toomey. Let’s face it, we’d have gotten a real Dem in 2010.
Wasn’t Specter the last Jewish Senator the republicans had? Once Coleman is officially gone that is…
HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT
Okay, enough from me.
But, hey Cornyn, how does it feel to try to keep the Democrats from getting to 60 when they will already have 60 before the 2010 cycle?
Snowe? Collins? Graham? McCain? Murkowski? Lugar? Hatch?
Looks like the Republicans are finally paying in spades for their electoral and policy-controlling success in 2000-2004.
There were a few roll call votes taken. Specter is still listed as a Republican there. He’s also still listed as a Republican on the Senate website (under the list of Senators) and isn’t listed as a member at the Democratic Caucus’s website.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30…
I was simply STUNNED when I saw this. I had just come back to law school from lunch, and in my university (U of Toledo), we have some big flatscreen TVs in the library right where the elevators are. I was going to do some more studying for my Con Law final when I saw this. I stood staring speechlessly at the TV screen, and a few other passers-by were also taken by surprised.
BTW, I took my Con Law final and, despite being taken aback by this news, I was still able to focus and confident that I did really well on it.