Pennylvania Dem Senate Candidate: I'm Still In, Even With Specter's Switch
Joe Torsella, former head of the National Constitution Center and currently a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 2010 -- the seat now held by Arlen Specter -- has put out this statement saying he's still in the race:
"I decided to run for the United States Senate from Pennsylvania for one simple reason: I believe we need new leadership, new ideas, and new approaches in Washington. It's become obvious that the old ways of doing business might have worked for the special interests, but they haven't worked for the rest of us.
"Nothing about today's news regarding Senator Specter changes that, or my intention to run for the Democratic nomination to the Senate in 2010 - an election that is still a full year away."
Torsella raised $593,000 in the past quarter, and had $583,000 cash on hand. By contrast, Specter brought in $1.28 million, and has $6.74 million cash on hand, and is likely to have the full backing of the Democratic establishment against Torsella or any other Democratic primary challenger.
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Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
This guy's getting some $$$ from me, a former Philly resident, this year.
April 28, 2009 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
He'll get some from me too, and I've never even lived in PA.
April 28, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
too bad that one of the conditions for specter's switching was that the DSCC would not support any real Democratic challengers...
April 28, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
So you are saying that Torsella's being thrown under a bus? It all depends--looks like the 2010 race in PA's getting more interesting all of the time. Of course, the end result may be a much further right Republican taking over.
April 28, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP doesn't have a chance in 2010. We'd have to nominate Al Sharpton for Toomey to be competitive.
April 28, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
i think the dems jumped too quickly on this. if we had waited we would have had a real dem in that seat. there's no way specter could have beaten toomey and no way toomey would have won statewide.
now, all we get is a republican who MIGHT caucus with us on SOME issues as opposed to a real democrat who would, you know, have absolutely no qualms about supporting the democratic agenda.
i'm not happy about this at all and i certainly hope dems in PA mobilize
April 28, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
You could be right. I'm content for now that the GOP seems even more crazy and the Dems a bit more inclusive (and just a bit more mandated). For a little more than a year, we'll have 60 Democrats, irregardless what happens next.
(And, yes, I realize that 60 isn't the magic number that the media plays it up to be. They ignore that the Democratic Party is a coalition party, really, and that the Blue Dogs are the party within the party, so to speak.)
April 28, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Question?
That ton of money that Specter has raised, uhm, that's from Republican supporters - correct?
How are they feeling about Specter using their money to run as a Democrat?
April 28, 2009 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
This poor guy just had a flaming bag of poo dropped on his doorstep with the words Specter '10 written on the side...
April 28, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
You speak the truth.
April 28, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink