Rendell rule-change will make delivering for Specter more difficult

LANCASTER—When state Democratic Party insiders gather here this weekend to consider endorsing statewide candidates, the most interesting question will be whether or not Senator Arlen Specter can win the formal backing of his new party. Gov. Ed Rendell will surely be pushing for his longtime friend.

But about eight years ago, Rendell made the task he and Specter now face harder to achieve. After Bob Casey beat him out for the party’s gubernatorial endorsement in…

February 5, 2010 at 3:30 pm | Comments (10)

Sestak urges reconcilliation to pass health care

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) this week called for Democrats to use the parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation to push through elements of health care reform legislation, telling congressional leaders that his support for a pubic option and for revoking anti-trust exemptions enjoyed by insurance companies is such that he supports using “any means necessary.”

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sestak delivered his strongest statements on health…

February 5, 2010 at 2:34 pm | Comments (7)

Report: Specter refunds total $850K

The final refund tally is in.

Since defecting to the Democrats, Senator Arlen Specter has returned about $850,000-worth of campaign contributions to disaffected donors, The New York Times reports. When he switched parties last year, Specter said he’d refund donations to anyone upset by the move. His campaign closed the window on those refund requests last Fall, at which point about 900 people had requested refunds. The conservative Club for Growth is…

February 2, 2010 at 8:00 am | Comments (11)

More labor endorsements for Specter

Eight western Pennsylvania labor unions endorsed Senator Arlen Specter Monday during a rally at the Laborers District Council Hall in Pittsburgh, giving the longtime incumbent still more support ahead of the May primary.

“The Laborers’ District Council of Western Pennsylvania is proud to endorse Senator Specter for re-election,” union president Philip Ameris said in a statement. “He has always been a good friend of labor and was instrumental in passing the stimulus bill, which brought…

February 1, 2010 at 7:14 pm | Comments (7)

Kortz, other lawmakers endorse Specter

Senator Arlen Specter won the backing of a former primary rival Sunday, when state Representative Bill Kortz (D-Allegheny) and four other state lawmakers endorsed Specter’s reelection bid.

Kortz, who had been something of a super-underdog n the Democratic primary between Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7), dropped out of the race in mid-January. Appearing with Specter in Wilkins Township, Kortz said the Republican-turned-Democrat “has influence, he has stature, and that cannot be minimized.”…

January 31, 2010 at 10:37 pm | Comments (2)

Sestak has $5.1M on hand

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) raised more than $650,000 during the last three months of 2009, and finished the year with more than $5.1 million in cash on hand, a campaign aide confirmed.

Sestak has spent lightly, gradually narrowing what remains a significant fundraising gap between him and Senator Arlen Specter, who has about $8.6 million on hand.

For his primary challenge, the aide said, Sestak now has more cash than 1992 Democratic candidate Lynn Yeakel.…

January 31, 2010 at 5:45 pm | Comments (8)

Sestak, Specter take their turns wooing the base (Updated)

HARRISBURG—Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) each had their chance to woo the liberal base of the Democratic Party here Saturday night, when they took turns addressing a gathering of activists less than four months before their primary contest is decided by voters.

The two did not share a stage in debate, but took turns answering the same questions at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit. In taking questions first, Sestak mixed a wonkish display…

January 30, 2010 at 9:30 pm | Comments (12)

Specter gets bested in fundraising by Toomey; $8.6M on hand

Senator Arlen Specter’s campaign said Saturday that it had raised about $1.1 million during the last three months of 2009, finishing the year with about $8.6 million in cash on hand. The numbers, to be detailed in campaign finance data, represent a slow-down in his fundraising pace and the first quarter in which Republican candidate Pat Toomey has reported a bigger fundraising haul.

They also appear to signal an uptick in his spending less than…

January 30, 2010 at 8:00 pm | Comments (14)

Toomey says he’d vote against Bernanke

Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey said Thursday that he would vote against reconfirming Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman if he were in office, positioning himself with those critics of Bernanke who are looking to deny him an other term.

In a campaign statement, he criticized the Fed for keeping interest rates so low in the earlier part of the decade. Toomey held the 15th District House seat during some of that period.

“This was a…

January 28, 2010 at 2:03 pm | Comments (22)