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Specter peeved by Corbett ad

For the first time since he lost the May primary, Senator Arlen Specter is injecting himself directly into Pennsylvania electoral politics—but he’s not talking about the Senate race to succeed him.

Specter lashed out at Attorney General Tom Corbett Wednesday, responding to a new TV ad from the GOP gubernatorial candidate which spotlights the coming Arlen Specter library as an example of what Corbett calls wasteful spending. While the ad doesn’t say so explicitly, it implies that the price tag is being entirely footed by taxpayers.

Gov. Ed Rendell signed a budget that included $20 million in bond proceeds to be used for projects carrying Specter’s name and that of the late Congressman John Murtha. Since then, the price tag for the Specter project has been cut to $4 million—costs that will be split almost evenly between the state and Philadelphia University, which will house the library.

“Mr. Corbett ought to check the facts,” Specter said in a statement. “The facts are that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is putting up $1.927 million to match $2 million put up by Philadelphia University for the Senator Arlen Specter Center for Political Science and International Relations.”

Corbett campaign spokesman Kevin Harley defended the ad, which has not yet been fully fact-checked by pa2010.com. Harley told Capitol Ideas “it’s indisputable that the Rendell administration signed into law a capital budget borrowing and setting aside $10 million for the Arlen Specter Library. Our ad is designed to call attention to these wasteful spending priorities in Harrisburg.”

September 16, 2010 at 9:43 am

--pa2010.com Staff

Tags: Arlen Specter, Tom Corbett

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