Facing increasingly long odds of winning a Republican primary, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter announced Tuesday he was switching parties, giving congressional Democrats a much easier path to passing their agenda by shutting down Republican opposition.
Democrats, including President Barack Obama, welcomed Specter into their party and pledged to help him win Senate re-election by raising money and campaigning on his behalf.
“I have traveled the state and surveyed the sentiments of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania and public opinion polls and have found that the prospects for winning a Republican primary are bleak,” Specter told reporters Tuesday after announcing his decision to Republicans at a closed-door luncheon.
It was great news for Democrats, whose agenda has been stalled or modified because they lack the 60 votes needed to block a Republican filibuster.
Republicans said they were disappointed by Specter’s move.
“I think the danger of that for the country is that there won’t automatically be an ability to restrain the excess that is typically associated with big majorities and single-party rule,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of the possibility that Democrats will have a 60-vote majority.
Issues such as a proposed system to charge companies for releasing global warming gasses, a national health care plan, new financial regulations, revised labor rules and others have been slowed in Congress because of Republican opposition in the Senate.
Specter has promised to keep his independent streak, but is expected to start caucusing with Democrats next week and will be officially welcomed into the party at a Wednesday ceremony on Capitol Hill. Even if Specter breaks ranks on some votes, the magic number of 60 could prevent the Senate from slowing down Democratic initiatives that pass the House easily.
“He’ll be a moderate Democrat instead of a moderate Republican,” said Franklin and Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna. “But on procedural votes, he could be very critical.”
But Democrats will have just 59 votes until Minnesota officially declares Democrat Al Franken the winner of its second Senate seat. Franken has been leading in a recount, but Republican incumbent Norm Coleman has appealed through the courts. The Senate is expected to seat Franken in the coming weeks.
Specter was one of the few remaining Republican moderates in Congress and has crossed party lines in the past to give Democrats the 60 votes they needed to move or pass a bill, most recently Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package.
Since then, Specter has been getting the cold shoulder from his Republican colleagues in the Senate, who were warming up to Specter’s more conservative opponent, Pat Toomey, as the candidate with the best hope of keeping the seat in Republican hands.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he has “had conversations” with other moderate Senate Republicans about joining the Democrats, but would not name anyone.
