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Specter vs. Sestak: The full statements

Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak on Thursday exchanged their first barbs of what promises to be a heated primary.

Below is the Specter campaign’s full e-mail to reporters, followed by Sestak’s full statement. pa2010.com Central has confirmed the accuracy of Specter’s statement, with the exception of the allegation that Sestak didn’t vote in the 1992 general election. Records show he did. We are still working to confirm the accuracy of Sestak’s statement, but previous available reporting seems to verify most of what he said.

SPECTER’S STATEMENT

Statement by Sen. Arlen Specter

July 9, 2009

“Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress.  His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process.

“Delaware County records showed that he voted in only 12 of 35 general elections (34%) from 1971 to 2005.  He did not vote from 1989-99, missing President Clinton’s 1996 election despite working in the White House at that time as well as missing the 1992 Presidential election.”

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Delaware County voting history for Joe Sestak — taken from official records on file at the Delaware County Office of Voter Registration.

1. Joe Sestak registered to vote as an Independent in August 1971.
2. He did not vote in any primary elections from 1971-2005.
3. He did not vote in these 23 general elections during that same time: 1973,74,75,77,79,81,83,84,85,87, 1989-1999, 2001, 2002.
4. He re-registered as a Democrat in February 2006, just weeks before he began his campaign for Congress in Pa-7.
5. In last Sunday’s Express-Times, Sestak said he was the only ‘real Democrat’ in the race.
6. From an AP story that appeared in the 7/7/09 edition of the Phila. Inquirer: Sestak, the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to the House, said he registered as an independent throughout his military career because he believed it is inappropriate for a military officer to be affiliated with a political party. He registered as a Democrat shortly after retiring in January 2006.

SESTAK’S STATEMENT

“We’ve learned today that Arlen Specter can abandon his party, but he just can’t quit making Republican swift-boat attacks on the integrity of Democrats who served in our military.

Like Colin Powell (who was also registered as an Independent while he served), I believe that military officers should be nonpartisan.  The military depends on cohesion and unity, and the defense of this nation must never be political.  I’m proud that I was an Independent during my 35 years in the Navy, and I was proud to register as a Democrat as soon as I retired from active duty.

Let’s be clear:  I voted for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama while Arlen Specter was voting for George Bush and Bob Dole and John McCain.  My question to Arlen Specter is this:  do you regret voting for George Bush and John McCain?  Why should Democrats support someone like you who actively campaigned – as recently as last year – for politicians with values like George W. Bush?

As for my voting record, Arlen Specter should get his facts straight.  Obviously, I didn’t vote in any primary elections because Independents are prohibited from voting in party primaries in Pennsylvania.  Arlen Specter claims I didn’t vote, for example, in the 1992 general election, even though voting records show that I did.  In other years – for example, in 1994 — the records show that I requested an absentee ballot because I was serving out of Pennsylvania.  And I also clearly remember voting at other times by absentee ballot, such as in 2002, while I was leading an aircraft carrier battle group in the war in Afghanistan.  Unfortunately – as multiple reports have documented – it is all too common for service members serving in our military to not have their ballots counted because they arrive too late.

It’s sad that after 30 years in Washington, all Arlen Specter has to run on is a negative campaign.”

July 9, 2009 at 6:51 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Arlen Specter, Joe Sestak

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