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Dems employing different strategies in Senate race

The race for the Democratic Senate nomination is in full swing and the two different strategies that are currently being employed by Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7) are interesting, to say the least.

For example, Sestak is working every major cable news network show, appearing side-by-side with Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey as they debate the most pressing news issues of the day. But Specter has been noticeably absent from these debates. The way the broadcasts are set up by some of the commentators, you would think that Sestak and Toomey were running for an open Senate seat.

Sestak has been capitalizing on these daily opportunities to speak to the voters in our state in an effort to increase his name ID with voters outside his 7th District. Remember, while many in political circles are well aware of Sestak and his far-left liberal agenda, the average Pennsylvania voter has yet to form a solid opinion about him.

Conversely, Specter has been on the Democratic committee tour. As a recent convert to the party, Specter has been trudging around the Commonwealth to beg for  the support of the members of the state and local committees. This is the same strategy that Specter employed numerous times as a Republican candidate. The only difference, in my estimation, is that the Republican Party’s committee structure is much more effective than our Democratic counterparts. While it is important to engage the committee members, Specter has to remember that these are the same people who couldn’t carry the gubernatorial endorsement for Bob Casey in 2002, the endorsements of a number of statewide judicial candidates and recently a member of their executive committee even publicly endorsed Joe Sestak for Senate in the The Morning Call.

Unlike his liberal opponent, Specter does not have a problem with name ID—if anything, his problem is that he is too well known and most Pennsylvanians polled just don’t like him.  Specter’s major hurdle will be combating those high negatives, and my gut tells me that Specter is going to have a tough primary.

Regardless of the outcome of the Democrat Primary, Republicans are growing more confident regarding our chances to win this race as Toomey continues to solidify his position as the mainstream candidate who is willing to go to Washington, D.C. and fight the Obama administration’s big government policies that Americans are rejecting.  Meanwhile, Senator Specter and Congressman Sestak continue to embrace extreme liberal positions as they attack each other for the apparently empty prize of the Democratic nomination.

October 15, 2009 at 10:29 am

--Michael Barley

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