Conservatives Bet on Ousting Specter in 2010

[babylonsister]

Conservatives Bet on Ousting Specter in 2010
Pat Toomey Contacts Campaign Staff for Possible 2010 Primary Run in Pennsylvania
By David Weigel 3/10/09 8:35 AM



Five years ago, after Pat Toomey conceded a photo-finish Republican primary to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), his eastern Pennsylvania grassroots organizer Ted Meehan took him aside.

“Specter won with 51 percent of the vote,” said Meehan in a Monday interview. “I told Pat, if he’d had all of Specter’s advantages — had he raised 10 times as much money, and gotten endorsed by {former Sen. Rick} Santorum and President Bush — I don’t think Specter would have gotten even 25 percent of the vote.”

Five years later, Meehan was one of the people Toomey called to inform them that he would probably enter the 2010 race for Senate and face off, once again, against Arlen Specter. The former congressman and current president and CEO of the Club for Growth had repeatedly, and recently, denied interest in a rematch. But activists in Pennsylvania and across the broader conservative movement are now urging Toomey to get into a race where, for a number of reasons, he might be the frontrunner.

The looming Toomey candidacy is a product of multiple, interlocking factors that have altered the Republican Party inside and outside of the candidate’s home state. Specter’s brand of liberal, pro-labor, pro-choice Republicanism has become less and less tenable in the Republican Party; indeed, many conservatives blame the party’s Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) for hurting their brand and paving the way for Barack Obama’s victory. This has happened in part because of the fundraising and organizational strength of conservative political groups like Toomey’s own Club for Growth, which has defeated two moderate Republican congressmen in primaries since Toomey took charge in 2005. And in Pennsylvania, more than 100,000 of the moderate, pro-choice Republicans who made up Specter’s victory margin in 2004 have responded to this by switching parties.

“These moderate Republicans are gone,” said Jim Lee, the president of Susquehanna Polling and Research, in a Monday interview. “They’re just gone. That’s made matters very difficult for Arlen Specter.”

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/33092/specters-2004-competitor-ready-for-a-rematch

[FLAprogressive]

1. It would be an EASY Dem win. Hopefully the Dems don't nominate a stinker like Patrick Murphy.

[babylonsister]

2. And Specter might be thinking of changing parties...

either way, it's going to be interesting.

[stray cat]

3. Is it an open or closed republican primary?

[happyslug]

4. Peg Luksik also wants to run, headline in the Johnstown Paper

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_068232130.html