Joe Sestak: Confused

By ARLEN SPECTER FOR SENATE

Dear [xxx],

How can Joe Sestak claim to be a non-partisan Independent and the “real Democrat” at the same time?

1) Congressman Sestak has claimed to be the only “Real Democrat” in this race. However, official Delaware County voting records show that Sestak was a registered Independent from August 1971 to early 2006. He only became a Democrat in February of 2006, shortly before he began his Congressional campaign.

Sestak told the AP for a July 7, 2009 story that he registered as an independent throughout his military career because he believed it inappropriate for a military officer to be affiliated with a political party and that he registered as a Democrat shortly after retiring in January 2006. Congressman Sestak said, “I have always believed in the Democratic principle.”

However, when he was asked by KDKA TV in June if he was a lifelong Democrat, Congressman Sestak said, “Actually I was a registered Independent in the military. I voted for both Democrats and Republicans . . .” (Starting at 4:15, through 6:15).

On MSNBC on July 10th, Sestak told Andrea Mitchell, “I lived Democratic principles the entire time I was Independent.” (Starting at 2:45, through 3:20).

So, how can Sestak claim to be a non-partisan Independent and the ‘real Democrat” at the same time?

2) Sestak voted in just 13 of the 35 (37%) general elections from 1971 through 2005, according to official records available at the Delaware County Courthouse.
When confronted by this information Sestak said in response: “In other years for example, in 1994 — the records show that I requested an absentee ballot because I was serving out of Pennsylvania.”

That’s true, sort of: Sestak was serving ‘out of Pennsylvania’ in 1994. Where was he serving? In DC, with the National Security Council…at the White House!

Check out his bio at the National Defense University website.

There it says: “In July 1993, Rear Admiral Sestak reported to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as Head, Strategy and Concepts Branch. From November 1994 to March 1997, he was the Director for Defense Policy on the National Security Council staff at the White House.

All that being said, the bottom line is Joe Sestak did not vote in 1994.

3) Despite his continuous barrage of negative comments against Senator Specter’s record, Sestak has still declined to say that he is definitively a candidate for the U.S. Senate. First he stated that he needed to discuss it with his family. He then said that he got the go-ahead from his wife, but he still had to talk to his eight-year-old daughter.

Though an early July news article cited Sestak as saying he was running against Senator Specter, his staff quickly retracted it, stating that it was a mistake. More recently Sestak has said it will be several months before a final decision is made. Sestak can’t make up his mind whether or not he’s actually running for Senate.

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