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Poll Watch: Tom Ridge Better to Beat Democrat Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania Senate Race
Pat Toomey, left, is interviewed by news anchor Rob Vaughn at the WFMZ TV studio in Allentown, Pa. on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.. Toomey, was asked about the decision of Sen. Arlen Specter who switched from the Republican to the Democratic party. Toomey was set to challenge Specter for the Republican nominationAt 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…..
Technorati Tags: Arlen Specter, Tom Ridge, Pat Toomey
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Video: Arlen Specter – The Republican Party Contributed to Jack Kemp’s Death
Democrat Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Arlen Specter on Face theNation yesterday speaking about medical research, the Republican Party and Jack KempThis 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.
Technorati Tags: Arlen Specter
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Day By Day by Chris Muir May 4, 2009 – Cast Out
Ah here we go again with the national tax day tea party insults: rednecks and farmland indeed.The LEFT can ignore and/or ridicule citizen grassroots protests at their own political peril. I remember the same treatment of Howard Jarvis and his Proposition 13 in California over thirty years ago.
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Technorati Tags: Day By Day, Tea Party
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links for 2009-05-04
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RALEIGH Federal investigators are sifting through the records of money that helped John Edwards' presidential campaign to determine if any was used to keep quiet his affair with Rielle Hunter.
Edwards, a Democrat and former U.S. senator, acknowledged the investigation to The News & Observer.
“I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly,†Edwards said in a statement.
“However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true. We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved efficiently and in a timely matter. We appreciate the diligence and professionalism of those involved and look forward to a conclusion.â€
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Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) said Sunday in his first TV interview since becoming a Democrat last week that he had not promised to be “a loyal Democrat†and would lead a filibuster against his new party if he felt strongly enough about an issue.
Specter told David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press†that he had determined “with polls and a lot of personal contact†that his reelection prospects as a Republican were “bleak.â€
But he added: “There’s more than being reelected here. There’s the factor of principle. The Republican Party has gone far to the right since I joined it under Reagan’s big tent. … In recent times, I have diverged materially from the Republican line … As the picture has evolved, I felt a lot more comfortable — as a matter of principle — with Democrats than Republicans.â€
Specter heatedly denied a Wall Street Journal report that he had told the White House that he would be “a loyal Democrat.â€
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Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak told CNN Sunday that he wasn't sure Sen. Arlen Specter is really part of the Democratic Party, the latest in a series of tough comments aimed at his potential Senate primary rival.
"I'm not sure he's a Democrat yet," he told John King on State of the Union.
President Obama said earlier in the week that Specter had his support, with one administration official saying it took the president about "seven seconds" to make that decision.
Those remarks don't faze Sestak.
"The president has said he respects Arlen's independence…" he said. "He'll respect mine if that is the case, I know that."
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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.
"So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, it's great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause," Mr. Bush said."From the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow."
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