Comments on: Union endorsement just another sign of Specter’s bedrock institutional support

By: Next Tuesday’s “other race” in Pennsylvania | RedState

Next Tuesday’s “other race” in Pennsylvania | RedState — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:45:35 +0000

[...] the desperate party-switching Arlen Specter got the endorsements of Barack Obama, the SEIU, the PA AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and a host of other unions, his primary opponent Joe Sestak passed the octogenarian [...]

By: David Diano

David Diano — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:03:29 +0000

Bruce-
Sestak isn’t going to make it to the final two in November.

By: Bruce Bailey

Bruce Bailey — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:34:56 +0000

There you go doing that Swami thing again, Dave. I’ve got Duke winning the Final Four – how’s that going to work out?

By: David Diano

David Diano — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:22:08 +0000

Bruce-
Rendell is against Sestak on this. Do you think his buddy Oxman is going to “give it his all” or give Sestak enough rope to hang himself?

When Sestak loses, they still get paid, but won’t get the blame because Sestak has no campaign structure and “image” will get Sestak only so far. I’ve met Mike Nutter, and Joe Sestak is no Mike Nutter.

BTW, there is a difference running in a homogeneous media market like Philly, and running statewide with mixtures of urban, suburban and rural markets.

Joe has clearly positioned himself as an “also ran”. In a few years, he’ll be the answer to a trivia question about whom Specter beat by the widest margin.

By: Bruce Bailey

Bruce Bailey — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:11:31 +0000

From Dan’s blog entry, March 2:

“It’s important to remember who the people running Sestak’s advertising operations are. The Campaign Group, led by longtime Rendell confidante Neil Oxman, is widely considered the best in the Democratic business in Pennsylvania. These are the folks that in 2007, when Michael Nutter was trailing in the polls and his allies were screaming for him to go up on the air, they waited—and waited, and waited.”

I agree with Dave, that part of this is simple economics. But it is also calculated strategy.

By: David Diano

David Diano — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 04:16:22 +0000

Lee-
Based upon my interaction with Joe in the 2006 campaign, I’m sure this action is coming right from the top. I had a similar discussion with Joe during the summer of 2006 on this very point. He told me flat out that running media ads in the Philly market was going to expensive and he would have enough for only a few weeks.

The strategy was very simple, compute how many weeks of saturation ads you can run, subtract that from election day, and that’s when you start running ads.

So, if Sestak’s got $5 million to p!ss away on ads, the question is how long will that last? He’ll start that many weeks before May 18th. Waiting for him to start sooner is a waste of time.

By: Lee Levan

Lee Levan — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:33:47 +0000

Adam

Perhaps we all can learn something from the Sestak campaign about running statewide. Do you know, or can you find out, who has made the decision to “save” Sestak’s money until the last several weeks of a nearly year long campaign, even though he is largely unknown to voters? If (s)he believes that this is a winning strategy, (s)he should be glad to take the credit.

By: STEELBLITZ1

STEELBLITZ1 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:01:34 +0000

HateSestak-

U think sestak is saving it for a defense fund?
Didnt u mention something about that?

By: HateSestak

HateSestak — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:19:22 +0000

So the question arises: why does Representative Sestak appear reluctant to invest his $5 million in the necessary advertisements? A burning question indeed. Office-seekers who are trailing their opponents by 20% or more in public opinion polls ordinarily would not hesistate – unless they were not legitimate contenders.