Posted on 04/29/2004 6:27:24 AM PDT by Russ
Apr 28, 4:50 PM EDT
After Win, Specter Looks to Fall Election
By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- After surviving a close scrape in the Republican primary, Sen. Arlen Specter turned his attention to the fall contest and began a campaign Wednesday that could put him at odds with the White House that helped him pull through.
The four-term moderate narrowly defeated conservative Rep. Pat Toomey, 51 percent to 49 percent, in Tuesday's primary after Toomey branded Specter as too liberal. The race was perhaps the most serious challenge yet to any Senate incumbent this season.
Specter will face Democratic Rep. Joe Hoeffel in November.
Less than a day after his primary victory, Specter touted his efforts to trim tax cuts, retain overtime pay for workers, resist school vouchers and continue embryonic stem-cell research - all in opposition to President Bush. The four-term Republican also called the situation in Iraq a "tinderbox" that could be a problem for the president in the fall elections.
"I intend to retain my independent voice, a voice I have always had," Specter said. "The 12 million people of Pennsylvania have not elected me to be a rubber stamp, and I will speak out where I think the necessity calls for it."
Despite his policy differences with the president, Specter said Bush's public support was key to his victory over Toomey. The race was so tight, he said, that the usually stoic Specter could not "stop my nervous system from gyrating a little" while watching vote tallies roll in.
Hoeffel, meanwhile, embarked on a 19-stop tour to raise his low statewide profile. The three-term suburban Philadelphia lawmaker predicted that Specter moved too far to the right in the Republican race to be successful in November.
"This primary has demonstrated that Arlen Specter is not the senator that he used to be," Hoeffel said. "He used to be a moderate maverick, but he is neither of those things. He's voting for a Republican program in Washington that's not working in Pennsylvania. He's their senator now - not ours."
The Democrats blasted Specter as a "political opportunist."
"He has taken every side of every issue for no other reason than to protect his political hide," said Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "He owes his political survival to George Bush, and he's now stuck with him and his right-wing policies."
Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Pennsylvania by nearly 389,000.
Specter has long enjoyed support within liberal-leaning unions and abortion-rights groups, and predicted he would attract Democrats and independents. He said he could help Bush in the fall by pulling moderates to the GOP ticket.
"My agreements with the president are more extensive than my disagreements," Specter said.
Specter spent $10 million to win the primary. As of April 7, he had $4.5 million in his campaign bank account to Hoeffel's $800,000.
That makes Specter tough to beat in November, said Wilkes University political scientist Thomas J. Baldino.
Specter's near-loss "will give Hoeffel some hope," Baldino said. "But as bad a beating as Specter took in term of his reputation, he will continue to raise and spend enough money to demonstrate he can win."
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Nonsense. Hoeffel cannot appeal to voters outside Phladelphia. Toomey would've accrued enough votes in the Pittsburgh area to offset Hoeffel's advantage in Philly and its suburbs.
What a stupid strawman argument.
Source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11408141&BRD=1677&PAG=461&dept_id=82745&rfi=6
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In generally light voting Tuesday, Republican voters turned out in greater percentages than their Democratic neighbors in Tredyffrin Township and Malvern Borough, possibly brought to the polls by a closely watched race for the party's U.S. Senate contender.
Twenty-three percent of Tredyffrin's 23,544 registered voters cast ballots, with about one-third of registered Republicans going to the polls, compared to about one-fifth of registered Democrats.
Numbers were similar in Malvern Borough, again with about 23 percent of the 2,180 registered voters turning out, including 32 percent of Republicans and just under 18 percent of Democrats.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter garnered 60 percent of the vote in Tredyffrin to Toomey's 39 percent. Results were virtually identical in Malvern.
Although John Kerry's lock on the Democratic presidential nomination seems certain, voters in the two Chester County municipalities were not unanimous in choosing him. Kerry picked up 890 votes in Tredyffrin, earning about three-quarters of Democratic votes in most precincts.
Republican incumbent President George W. Bush, with no challenger from his party, received a strong endorsement from Republican voters in both municipalities.
In Congressional races, incumbent Republicans Jim Gerlach (6th District, including Tredyffrin) and Curt Weldon (7th District, including Malvern) will face their sole Democratic challengers, Lois Murphy of Lower Merion and Greg Philips of Upper Merion, in November.
State Sen. Robert J. Thompson, whose 19th District includes Tredyffrin, had no Republican or Democratic opposition.
State Reps. Carole Rubley in Tredyffrin's 157th District and Bob Flick in Malvern's 167th District, both Republicans, also are unopposed.
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Light turnout will always favor the core voters of the Party. Even with a light turnout, Specter won. When it hits the general election, and heavier turnout, it favors moderate candidates.
It isn't nonsense - it's politics.
How else can they rationalize their support of Arlen Specter? For them, this is more about avoiding cognitive dissonance than it is about facts/evidence.
I like Toomey and I hope he continues to gain support in PA. He's supporting Specter and Bush. I wonder why.
In other words, your basic premise is that when a liberal faces a conservative, the liberal will win. Perhaps that's the way things work in Minnesota, but in PA voters are likely to choose a conservative when given the choice between two candidates who are equidistant from the political center. Hoeffel is AT LEAST as far left as Toomey is right, and likely more. If you think (for example) gun control (Hoeffel's for it) resonates with Pennsylvanians, think again. Moreover, courtesy of this election Toomey is a more widely-recognized name than Hoeffel.
Why do you lack faith in the basic appeal of conservatism?
The Bush/Cheney Specter ticket will look middle of the Road, and Three Far left liberals, will look,.....well, like Three far left liberals......
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