Joe Torsella, the current front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania, has vowed not to step aside and let Specter have the Democratic nomination. Unless he pulls a Specter and changes his mind in two weeks to serve his political ambition, that could make things slightly more interesting in ’10:
The state party powers that be are hoping he’ll figure out how much support they’re throwing behind their preferred candidate, who is still registered as a Republican, and drop out. After all, the One is backing Specter enthusiastically, because nothing says “change” and “new politics” like a guy who’s willing to change parties to make sure he has a new lease on his political life after he’s displeased the people who got him elected. Robert Gibbs indicated at the press conference today that Obama’s support for Specter will include campaigning and raising money for him, even in the primary, so Joe Torsella will quickly be crushed under the hope and change of a six-term incumbent Republican. Update: Looks like Rep. Joe Sestak, whose name had been bandied for possible entry into the Pennsylvania senate race, is not anxious to indicate he’s gonna lay down for Specter:
Sestak, a retired two-star admiral who beat Rep. Curt Weldon in 2006, became a darling of the ‘Net left during his run for Congress, as one of the handful of veterans who made support for withdrawal from Iraq a talking point of their campaigns. It was not his Iraq stance that won him the seat, as the FBI raids of Weldon’s daughter’s home (the agency was investigating whether her lobbying firm had improperly benefited from Weldon’s influence), defeated the incumbent. But Sestak proved to be a formidable fund raiser and good candidate, despite his political inexperience. TPM wrote about the Sestak senate possibility earlier this month:
Shame if he had all that money and no one to use it to beat up on.
