The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Rep. Sestak Says He Will Challenge Specter in Pa. Dem Primary

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The Spectacle Blog

Rep. Sestak Says He Will Challenge Specter in Pa. Dem Primary

By Jeffrey Lord on 7.1.09 @ 1:09PM

“I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter ... for senator.”

So says Pennsylvania US Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat from suburban Philadelphia. Sestak made the statement this morning in an interview with a local paper, the Wayne Independent.

A former Navy Admiral, Sestak was elected in 2006, defeating longtime Republican incumbent Curt Weldon.

This will mean a serious fight inside the Democratic Party for the new Democrat Specter. Specter left the GOP after polls showed he was headed for a certain GOP primary defeat at the hands of former GOP Congressman Pat Toomey, who narrowly lost to Specter in the 2004 Republican primary. While Specter has the support of President Obama, his longtime friend Vice President Joe Biden, and Governor Ed Rendell, Rendell is term-limited and will be replaced himself in 2010.

View all comments (4) | Leave a comment

james23| 7.1.09 @ 1:40PM

this is doubly good news for me: Arlen Specter's days in the US Senate are nearly at an end; and my Congressman, the nut job Admiral Smokestack, is moving on.

Steve N| 7.1.09 @ 2:25PM

* grin *

I was looking forward to once more being able to select Toomey over Specter, but apparently the Democrats may yet deprive me of that pleasure. Funny, as I recall, dear Arlen wasn't willing to let his political fate be decided by "Republican primary voters." Be careful what you ask for...

trax| 7.1.09 @ 4:07PM

Sestak will need the help of Team Clinton for this.. once again. I'm sure his friend Sandy Berger will host some fund raisers for him. Maybe they can pull some strings and have Specter investigated by the FBI during the run. It sure worked the first time!

David| 7.4.09 @ 1:35PM

Toomey's an extreme right-wing nut-job. It's people like him that are taking the party over the cliff, along with the lemmings that put ideology over responsibility.
The current crop of extreme Republican Primary voters shouldn't be deciding anything important these days, until they take their blinders off and expand their information horizons. They need to stop drinking the Fox cool-aid and realize it's a propaganda source, not a responsible news source. They even labeled Sanford with a (D) to confuse viewers.
Toomey is further to the right than Santorum, and less well known. He will get crushed in Pennsylvania.
Sestak's a raging, arrogant egomaniac that was unfit to lead (which is why he was relieved of command before he resigned). He's even more unfit to serve as a representative and is generally disliked by his colleagues and the pool of congressional aides.

Specter, for all his warts, is a moderate/independent who represents the large and politically diverse state of Pennsylvania. There are liberal, moderate and conservative elements in the state, and Specter has something to offer each of them.