Decisions, Pennsylvania style…
It became official — Arlen Specter will face an opponent in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania.
“Rep. Joe Sestak made it official today — he’s challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in next year’s Pennsylvania Senate race.
The Democrat, who is now in his second term in the House, announced his candidacy at a VFW post in Folsom, Pa., promising that he would be the most “honest” and “hardest-working” senator if he is elected.“In Pennsylvania, where I was born and bred, we find ourselves in pretty downtrodden times,” Sestak said. “But this nation, especially we as Pennsylvanians, with adversity comes opportunity. And there is opportunity if we act now.””
While not the favorite, candidate Sestak does have a few things going for him — half of Pennsylvanians don’t believe Specter deserves another term in the Senate. He’s also found his first campaign hook:
“U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak made his candidacy for the Senate official Tuesday, saying he wants to put ”principles over politics” in his quest to unseat Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter next year.”
This is a fertile field for Sestak to plow — Specter’s opportunistic jump to the Democratic party (forty four years after he opportunistically jumped *to* the GOP) is the very definition of politics trumping principle.
If nothing else, a good, old-fashioned Democratic primary, complete with flying mud, bodes well for Republican challenger Pat Toomey. Let the games begin.