Man- it is hard to believe that Arlen is now a middle of the road, moderate republican, that is crazy in and of itself. Pennsylvania a very interesting state: two republican senators, and throw in a gov, Tom Ridge, that is now in the admin and yet Gore carried it in 2000...goes to show how convoluted things are and how tight this presidential race may be
Specter, for better or worse, has had a consistent voting record; conservative on money issues and liberal on cultural issues. Its served him well at election time but the GOP in Pa. as elsewhere has moved right on everything leaving him as the most liberal GOP senator in the country. He still raises lots of money because he's a reliable force for banks and corporations. His opponent has received hissupport from the Christian Coalition and the like who have always despised Specter but had to go with him in general against whatever the Dems threw against him. They still hate him for being deciding vote against Bork for Godsakes!
Interesting race.
Interesting race.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by WildBill:
Karl Rove has to be pissed. GOP already gets pretty solid turnout, this Toomey is sure to bring out the Dems to the polls in November. If this guy is the candidate and things don't pick up very soon for the economy Bush might have to write PA off.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I doubt moderates will refuse to vote in the presidential race just because they don't like a candidate for Senate. Bush had to campaign for Spector because he is in line to run the Judiciary; you won't see a lot of tears at the White House if he loses. Just another liberal knocked off the Judiciary.
Karl Rove has to be pissed. GOP already gets pretty solid turnout, this Toomey is sure to bring out the Dems to the polls in November. If this guy is the candidate and things don't pick up very soon for the economy Bush might have to write PA off.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I doubt moderates will refuse to vote in the presidential race just because they don't like a candidate for Senate. Bush had to campaign for Spector because he is in line to run the Judiciary; you won't see a lot of tears at the White House if he loses. Just another liberal knocked off the Judiciary.
You completely miss the point here. The lower participation of solidly Dems, mostly the minorities and the very liberal types (Green party types) might not come out to vote in high numbers if Arlen is in the race, but if Toomey gets there they will be riled into doing it by his presence and positions. Those people will heavily vote against Bush. If they had a nice quiet race between two moderates then the Repbulicans get an edge in the turnout because base case always is that Republicans get higher voting percentages than Democrats.
