Posted on 04/24/2009 10:06:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter badly trails primary challenger Patrick J. Toomey, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll 13 months before GOP voters will choose their Senate nominee.
The survey, taken of 490 likely Republican voters on April 21, had Toomey leading Specter by 21 percentage points, 51 percent to 30 percent. Forty-two percent of respondents said that they had either a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" impression of Specter, compared to 55 percent of Republicans who said they had "somewhat unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" feelings about the senator.
The comparable numbers for Toomey, a former House member from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, were 66 percent favorable and 19 percent unfavorable.
The 2010 primary, which will be held in May of that year, is a rematch of a 2004 primary that Specter won by 51 percent to 49 percent. Toomey, the former president of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, has sharply criticized Specter for supporting some of President Obama's economic policies.
The only Democrat thus far who has declared a Senate campaign is Joe Torsella, who headed the National Constitution Center on Philadelphia's Independence Mall and who lost a 2004 Democratic House primary to current 13th District Democratic Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz.
CQ Politics presently rates the Pennsylvania Senate race as No Clear Favorite.
Spectre has already tried some hard right window dressing since he backed Porkulus, he knows he’s in trouble. He’s has been attacking Toomey even before Toomey announced.. one of the things he’s now voiced favor for was either the flat or the fair tax, can’t remember which.
Spectre will not win the republican primary in PA, he barely got by last time, and those that held their nose and voted for him at the behest of the party will not do so again. His Porkulus stand makes it impossible for him to win the republican primary.
Most likely the calculus is this, he loses the primary and runs as and independent, and frankly in the general he may still be able to win the state as an independent. OR the policies of Fauxbama et al wreak so much harm before the general that Spectre’s getting in bed with Fauxbama harms him so much he doesn’t even attempt an independent run, and is gone.
This is the kind of message that will get the attention of Senators and Representatives who think they are America's Royalty, unanswerable to the people.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny;
when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
-- Thomas Jefferson
A possibility, but he won’t win the Republican Primary that much is certain.
Under Pennsylvania law, he can't run as an independent unless he declares as an independent now before the primary. If he runs as a Republican in the primary and loses, then he cannot run as an independent. It'll be over for him.
He's actually been running around the Commonwealth asking Rats to sign up as Republicans for a day so that they can vote for him and save his sorry hide.
He's toast.
ping!
But the good news is that collectivism, communism, liberalism..whatever they call it..is on it's last legs here and elsewhere. I view BO not as any beginning of something new but an ending of something that seeped into our body politics decades ago. Those liberals who see BO as Gorbachev are right IMO.....but not for what they think........in my view he is trying to save a dying system, just like Gorby was...and like Gorby he will fail. I do believe the Republic will be restored....but only after we all pay a steep price to restore it. And without the excesses of Sulla hopefully!
Hey I said metro, not that other word.
PA has a “sore loser” law — a losing candidate from a primary can not run in the general.
Specter also may have trouble if the Democrats run a competitive primary for Governor. Then his plan to have Dems cross over to vote in the GOP primary won’t work.
Specter also was the lawyer for the guy that created Earth Day. The guy that created Earth Day brutally murdered a woman.
There’s no way Specter will go that quietly. He’ll either join the Democratic party, or run as an independent. I imagine he’ll do what Lieberman did, lose the primary, run as an “independent” in the general.
I believe that Pennsylvania has a "Sore Loser" statute which won't let you run as an Independent if you lose the primary. He can, however, register as an Indy before the primary and then run as an Indy in the general. Specter has said that he wouldn't do this though, he's running as a Republican. Also as a footnote, he was asked by Gov Fast Eddie to run as a Democrat, but declined.
Not in Pennsylvania, he won’t.
Specter better go ahead and officially change parties.
LOL!
The key here is “13 months” to go.
Those of us who live in PA know Snarlin’ Arlen’s ability to move faster than a cat on a hot tin roof.
This is going to be a tough election for the dhimmis. After all, do they support the candidate who has served their interests all these years (sphincter) or try to foist another dhimmicrat on the public?
The election is over a year away, so this isn’t meaningful.
SSBAMP!
sadly could very well run inbetween the 2 majors
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