Specter Won't Switch Parties

[CARLHAYDEN]

He may side with the Dems sometimes (ok, a fair amount of the time), but he's still more of a Republican than a Democrat.

Not when it counts.

His 2008 ACU rating was 42!

He's one of only three Republicans in the Senate with less than 50.

Guess which three Republican Senators voted for H.R. 1?

[CARLHAYDEN]

Saturday, Mar. 21, 2009

Specter downplays re-election bid scenarios
By PETER JACKSON- Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa. — U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter summed up his situation as well as anybody this week, when he all but shot down the most recent burst of speculation - that he might quit the Republican Party and run as an independent.

"It is a possibility in the sense that almost anything is a possibility," he told The Morning Call in Allentown. "But I'm not planning to run as an independent."

"Almost anything" also describes what could happen in this long, nationally watched run-up to Specter's 2010 campaign for a sixth Senate term.

It's well-established that Specter angered fellow Republicans when he cast one of only three GOP votes for the $787 billion economic stimulus plan last month. On a looming vote on "card check" legislation to make it easier to unionize workers, Specter is holding out the possibility that he'll buck his party again and support the measure.

Many conservative Republicans are pinning their hopes again on Pat Toomey, the former congressman who came close to ousting Specter in 2004 - within about 17,000 votes out of 1 million cast. Toomey, 47, who heads the anti-tax Club for Growth in Washington, is said to be seriously considering a renewed challenge to the 79-year-old Specter.

Then there are the huge registration gains Democrats enjoyed in last year's presidential campaign, widening their majority to more than 1 million voters. The new Democrats include many former Republicans, presumably moderates who are inclined to support Specter but will be shut out of the GOP primary unless they change parties again.

It's no wonder political observers are speculating about alternative scenarios for Specter's re-election.

One possibility calls for Specter to rediscover his Democratic roots, defect from the GOP and let Gov. Ed Rendell, who got his first job out of law school as a prosecutor under then-District Attorney Specter in Philadelphia, help him raise money. Specter said he wasn't interested.

After that came the scenario that involved Specter ending his four-plus decades in the GOP, skipping the primary and running for re-election in the general election as an independent.

Specter clearly has his own ideas about how to survive in an increasingly right-leaning party.

In recent days, Specter has quietly lobbied Republicans who control the state Senate to support a proposal that would allow independents to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary. He has called individual senators and spoke before the entire caucus - on that and other subjects - earlier this week.

One senator who attended the caucus said it was tough sell.

"It was apparent that he wanted the support" of the caucus, said Sen. John H. Eichelberger, R-Blair, who supports Toomey. "I could tell from the looks in the room and the comments that were made that there wasn't much support for it."

Specter said Friday that the idea has merit.

"It would obviously help me, but beyond my own situation it would help the party," he said in a telephone interview Friday.