Specter Wins 51-49 Republican Senatorial Primary: live thread

4/27/2004 | self

[rudy45]

My apologies if a thread already exists. I did a search on "Toomey" and found nothing.

I arrived at my polling area (suburban Philadelphia) at 6:45 am to hand out palm cards. The weather is terrific this morning, but turnout (I thought) was light (I had to leave at 9:15, but will be back).

Actually, I have a good feeling about Pat.

[JohnnyZ]

The dirty little secret is that Penn Pubbies are not that ideological, in an internecine sense.

The dirty little secret is that VOTERS IN GENERAL are not that ideological. Their votes are personal, and when Bush endorses Specter, the bond of trust they have with Bush means they go along.

[Petronski]

Congratulations to the Free Growth guys. Next election, next target.

[Torie]

No, the place was rather uniform across the state (outside of Toomey's own CD district, which he won 2-1). Philly and Montgo gave Specter about his margin for the state, about 15,000 votes. De minimus. Some of the most conservative areas of Penn were carried by Specter, and in most others, he ran close. This was NOT really an ideological election, except of course on FR.

[Qwinn]

"Fight" for Thomas? That's a misconception. He just didn't do to him what he did to Bork. Big difference."

What are you smoking? He stood up and accused Anita Hill of perjury! What do you call that, if not "fighting"? Looking through very conservative sites like National Review, you find terms like "spearheaded the defense", "vigorously supported", "his harsh questioning of Anita hill"...

For God's sakes man. I'm not saying that that one act alone atones for everything he's done since, but at least give him credit for getting that one right! Yes, I suspect it's true that he did only do that because it was an election year, but it's simply a bald-faced lie to claim that all he did was "not Bork" Thomas. He was all-out in support of Thomas, and it's very very possible that Thomas would not be on the SC today if not for Specter.

And look - I -really- dislike Specter, so your forcing me to defend him is actually causing me physical pain, but my respect for the truth outweighs that. To claim Specter's support for Thomas was tepid is just absolutely and completely inconsistent with history.

Qwinn

[MJY1288]

Spector will go nowhere, he owes GWB big-time and he will be reminded of it from now until 2009

[Redbob]

"...he'll become as flaky as McCain, Snowe, Collins and Chaffee."

Did you use the future tense by accident?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Arlens on and he is not looking well.

He is a 74 year old confused socialist. How do you expect him to look?

[jwalsh07]

Close but no cigar. I'd damn sure like to see some exit polling on how many democrat union folks changed their registration to vote for mcSpecter.

[Petronski]

Specter's 74-years-old. He doesn't need anyone. He'll do what he wants, starting in 2005.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Absolutely disgusted bump - enjoy the big tent, y'all.

[Mo1]

I don't think so ..

[Michael Barnes]

er #953

Point well taken, thanks.

[Petronski]

Nice tagline. Perfect this morning.

[KQQL]

RATS SAY:

Specter Squeaker Puts PA Firmly in Play for Democrats as Voters Look For Change
http://politicspa.com/Press_Releases/042704dscc.htm

[Tribune7]

Toomey's campaign hinges on 1 big theme, and 1 big theme only... "I am not Specter, I am a "REAL" conservative".. thats it, that's his campaign...

You were watching a whole other campaign. He talked about tort reform, tax cuts and cutting the size of government. He talked about a ban on human cloning. He spoke against the International Criminal Court.

Now, he did note that Specter had opposed tort reform, was opportunistic about tax cuts, and supported human cloning and the ICC, but that's not unfair is it?

It also depends highly on large cash from the right wing of the GOP . . .

The right wing. That's interesting. The Club for Growth restricts itself to economic issues not social ones.

And what those right wing groups are learning tonight is you need something more than "I'm the real conservative" to win even their own parties primaries.

Sure, they have to watch their back with Dubya. Specter would be gone if Bush just did his expected duty, made a couple of campaign stops for Specter & let it go at that. Unfortunately, however, he went all out as did Santorum

Now, I'm going to pull the R lever this Nov. Maybe Rove is counting on that in which case it would be a real big mistake for him to let on.

But Toomey did a great job and provided a real service. Specter is in debt to us conservatives. Bush & Santorum made a concrete, overt appeal to conservatives and while I sure as sh*t didn't vote for him and whole lot of people who think like me did only because of that..

What we conservatives learned in this race is that on an even field we will crush moderates. Toomey had no major endorsement and was outspent, what 3 to 1? I think you moderates are soon going to out of the drivers seat.

[Fledermaus]

LOL...my mistake!

[Fledermaus]

Fine...he had ONE moment of sanity. But even Satan used to be an angel.

[Torie]

Not enough to make a differnce. We both learned something about Penn, other than that the polls were right. When Pubbies in Philly/Montgo don't vote all that different from Pubbies in the most Neandrathal areas, it is rather interesting. Maybe Pubbies are melting into something rather homogenous or something.

[Michael Barnes]

outta here for the rack...We gave it a good run PA freepers. Thanks to all for the updates and all who voted Toomey.