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A new Pennsylvania poll has GOP conservative  Pat Toomey in better shape against U.S. Senator Arlen Specter but former Pennsylvania GOP Governor Tom Ridge is beating him ourtight.

Former Governor Tom Ridge and US Senator Arlen Specter are neck-and-neck across Pennsylvania in an election poll conducted for a state business group. Conservative former Congressman Pat Toomey, while potentially viable, trails Specter in most regions of the state.

PEG PAC, Pennsylvania’s oldest pro-business political action committee and the affiliated PAC of the Pennsylvania Business Council (PBC), today announced the results of a statewide poll that tested whether a well known conservative Republican or a well known right-of-center Republican can best challenge incumbent US Senator Arlen Specter who recently joined the Democrat Party.

In an automated poll of 1,019 households of registered voters taken at the end of last week, announced PBC President and CEO David W. Patti, “PEG PAC found that if the election for US Senate were held today, Tom Ridge could defeat Arlen Specter by a margin of 39 percent to 38 percent. The poll also shows Specter would defeat Pat Toomey by a margin of 42 percent to 36 percent.” The number of undecided voters in the survey is over 20 percent cautioned Patti, and the margin of error is +/- 2.8 percent, so the association leader said the results are not conclusive.

This is the second poll in the last week that shows Tom Ridge as a very strong contender for this seat. Pro-life conservatives may not like Ridge since he is pro-choice but in this Republican Party climate , it is electability that will sway the donors and the National Repuiblican Senatorial Committee.

If Tom Ridge wants to be a U.S. Senator, then he will likely be one.

At least initially it looks like former Pennsylvania Tom Ridge has a better chance to win Pennsyvania’s Senate seat.

Specter, who announced April 28 he was changing his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, leads likely Republican contender Toomey by a 53 percent to 33 percent margin, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found.

But if former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge throws his hat into the ring, he might give Specter a run for his money, the poll found. A Specter-Ridge showdown only has the sitting senator leading 46 percent to 43 percent.

And independent voters, who back Specter over Toomey, 45 percent to 36 percent, switch to Ridge by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin if Ridge becomes a candidate.

“A former Republican Senator running as a Democrat against a popular former Republican governor seeking to make a political comeback would be a battle royal in Pennsylvania,” Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

But, will Tom Ridge run?

And, would then Toomey then withdraw to spare the GOP a contested primary election?

Stay tuned…..

This type of rhetoric is why Arlen Specter whether a Republican or Democrat will NOT and should NOT be re-elected to the Senat in 2010. He has simply lost his mind.

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

Mr. Specter, responding to a question from CBS’s Bob Schieffer over whether he had let down Pennsylvanians who wanted a Republican to represent them, said he felt his priorities were more in line with those of the Democrats.

“Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn’t want me as their candidate,” Mr. Specter said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But as a matter of principle, I’m becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats’ approach. And one of the items that I’m working on, Bob, is funding for medical research.”

Key graph:

“If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”

How can anyone, particularly a person weilding tremendous political power, get away with saying something like this. The statement is simply absurd.

It is way past the time that the voters of Pennsylvania retire Specter from the Senate.

Update:

Here are some figures from Heritage that suggest Senator Specter is just a little mistaken about health care spending.

During Republican control of Congress, federal spending on health research and regulation increased 46% after inflation,
from $49 billion a year to $72 billion a year, or about 7% increase
each year.  That’s almost the same rate of increase as Defense spending
got in the same period (48%), when we actually had a real war on our
hands, and not a political contrivance for excusing federal spending.

This is not exactly what the LEFT is making of Rush’s comment.

But, it an intriguing thought.

Alas, Meghan McCain won’t be going.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Meghan McCain fired back on Twitter. “RED TIL I’M DEAD BABY!!! I love the republican party enough to give it constructive criticism, I love my party and sure as hell not leavin!”

And, why?

Corruption