Facing increasingly unlikely odds of winning a Republican primary, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter announced Tuesday he will run for re-election in 2010 in his state’s Democratic primary.
Specter’s switch would give Democrats a much clearer path to passing their legislation out of Congress by potentially increasing their majority to 60 seats, the number of votes needed to prevent Republicans from blocking bills they oppose through the use of the filibuster.
But the Democrats’ 60-vote majority still hinges on if and when Minnesota officially declares Democrat Al Franken the winner of a contested Senate seat. Franken has been leading in a recount, but Republican incumbent Norm Coleman has been appealing through the courts. The Senate is expected to seat Franken in the coming weeks.
Specter seemed to try to temper wild Democratic enthusiasm for his switch, warning people not to compare his move to that made by Sen. Jim Jeffords, a Vermont Republican who became an Independent in 2001, which tied the Senate 50-50. Jeffords struck a deal with Democrats. He would give them the tie-breaking vote on every procedural measure in exchange for the gavel of the
Senate environmental committee.
Specter said he is making no such promises.
“My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans,” Specter said. “I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture.”
Specter has been one of the few remaining Republican moderates in Congress and has crossed party lines in the past to give Democrats the 60 votes they need to move or pass a bill. For that reason, he was often vilified by Republicans and courted by Democrats. Both Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Vice President Joe Biden have tried to convince him to switch parties.
In this instance, a push by Republicans was more likely the cause.
Specter has also been getting the cold shoulder from his Republican colleagues in the Senate, who, desperate to prevent the 60-vote Democratic majority, are warming up to Toomey as the candidate with the best hope of keeping the seat in Republican hands.
Specter acknowledged this rift in his statement, saying he is “disappointed that so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who earned the nickname “The Jim Whisperer” after talking Jeffords into switching eight years ago, was a key negotiator in getting Specter to switch, said a top Democratic aide.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, head of the Senate’s campaign arm, called Specter’s decision “the height of self-preservation.”
Specter said he will not change his decision to oppose legislation that would make it easier for labor organizations to unionize. Specter’s decision not to back such a bill deprives the Senate of the 60 votes needed to block Republican opposition.
Specter, once a proponent of card check, changed his mind after conservative Pat Toomey announced he would challenge Specter in the Republican Primary. Toomey has been leading Specter in the polls and his candidacy is likely another big reason for Specter’s switch. Toomey nearly
beat Specter in a 2004 GOP primary.
But Specter now faces a Democratic primary with at least one challenger, State School Board Chairman Joe Torsella.
In the meantime, said Franklin and Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna, don’t expect Specter to radically change his
political philosophy.
“He’ll be a moderate Democrat instead of a moderate Republican,” Madonna said. “But on procedural votes he could be very critical”
