| PROFILE Arlen Specter emerged victorious in a fractious and closely watched Republican primary in 2004, prevailing over a more conservative rival who had bucked the party and threatened its moderate wing. One of the last moderate Republicans in a politically polarized Senate, Spector eeked out a narrow 51-49 percent victory over Rep. Pat Toomey, though Specter outspent his opponent 3-1 and had the very public backing of President Bush and conservative Sen. Rick Santorum. Toomey had labled Specter a "RINO" ? or "Republican in Name Only" ? for the senator's stubbornly moderate voting record of supporting abortion rights, union causes and tax cut trims, and for bloating the federal budget by personally earmarking hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for Pennsylvania projects each year. Throughout the primary, Specter proclaimed himself the better Republican for winning party leaders' endorsements, but the day after the election, he held a press conference outlining various positions on which he differs from the White House ? a bald attempt to retain Democratic and moderate voters who have supported him over the years. Specter faces Rep. Joe Hoeffel, a three-term Democrat from the Philadelphia suburbs, in the fall 2004 election. Hoeffel will unlikely match Specter's name recognition or fund-raising prowess, but most believe the senator was brusied coming out of the primary ? an advantage for Hoeffel. If Specter wins re-election in 2004, he would be Pennsylvania's first five-term senator. Specter's moderate roots led him to help launch the Republican Majority Coalition in 1992, a moderate group pushing for lower taxes, deficit reduction and civil rights but taking no position on abortion or homosexuality. Specter also carried the same themes in his unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination. In his run for the White House, he called for a flat income tax, a balanced budget by the year 2002, tougher inspections of North Korea's nuclear facilities, speedy imposition of the death penalty and health care reform focused on those without insurance. Specter's campaign never really gained momentum and he dropped out, citing lackluster fund-raising. During the presidential race, the abortion-rights supporter antagonized his party's conservative wing, denouncing it as the "far-right fringe." After dropping out, he put his coalition-building skills to work and began embracing such programs as abstinence-based sex education. Although his moderate views don't always place him in the mainstream of his increasingly conservative party, Specter tends to stick with the Republicans on high-profile issues. He was seen as being tough on Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court conformation hearings. Specter chaired the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on terrorism that held hearings in September 1995 on the 1992 shootout at Ruby Ridge. In late October 1995, Specter said that such serious questions were raised by the confrontations at Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas, that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be abolished. As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1995-96, Specter applauded efforts by the CIA to send regular reports on its activities, including mistakes, to the House and Senate Intelligence committees. Commenting on his experience questioning law professor Hill during the 1991 confirmation hearing for Thomas, Specter said it was a "learning experience" for him and America. "I frankly had no idea how much sexual harassment there was until those hearings were over," he said. Specter prides himself on staying in touch with people across Pennsylvania and regularly visits nearly every county. When it looked as though the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team would be sold and moved elsewhere, Specter warned baseball team owners that they could lose their exemption from antitrust laws if the Pittsburgh franchise was not saved. Specter chairs the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee and the lucrative Labor, Health, Education and Pensions subcommitee on Senate Appropriations. He also serves on the Judiciary and Governmental Affairs committees. If he wins election in 2004, and Republicans keep control of the Senate, he will chair the Judiciary Committee in 2005. The American Conservative Union gave Specter's 2003 voting record 65 points out of 100. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him 25 points. CAMPAIGNS Arlen Specter won two terms as Philadelphia district attorney in the 1960s, the first Republican to hold a city office in 13 years. He had been a Democrat, but switched parties to challenge his former boss, James Crumlish. Specter lost a race for Philadelphia mayor in 1967; lost a bid for a third term as district attorney in 1973; lost the Republican primary for U.S. Senate to John Heinz in 1976; and lost the Republican primary for governor in 1978 to Dick Thornburgh. He won the 1980 Senate election over Democrat Pete Flaherty, a former Pittsburgh mayor, with 50 percent of the vote. Specter won his second term over U.S. Rep. Bob Edgar in 1986 with 56 percent and bucked an anti-incumbent mood in 1992 to defeat Democrat Lynn Yeakel with 49 percent for his third term. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1995, dropping out before the primaries. Specter won a fourth Senate term in 1998, defeating Democrat William Lloyd with 61 percent of the vote. He defeated GOP Rep. Pat Toomey in the 2004 Republican primary with 51 percent of the vote. FROM a George Soros Anti-Bush website called "Blog for America", you can find comments on what the Socialists think of Spector:
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