Specter’s trouble in the polls

October 19, 2009 at 10:58 am

This pollster graph (after the jump) averages all the polls taken in this primary over time, and conveniently creates a line graph to illustrate trends in the electorate. Notice anything dramatic about the trend lines?

It is fairly obvious—the race is getting tighter. The more Democrats learn about Joe Sestak, the more they like him. Arlen Specter’s positives numbers are staying static or dropping, while Sestak is gaining ground. This can’t be good news for…

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The rising threat of political violence in America

October 14, 2009 at 9:08 am

While we normally focus exclusively on the Senate race here, I want to take a moment to weight in on what I think is a most disturbing trend in our politics of late—the rising threat of political violence.

This topic was once again brought to my attention last weekend, when I discovered that Rich Lowry, a Republican running against my hometown Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida’s 20th district, recently attended a Broward County Republican…

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Sestak copied me!

October 13, 2009 at 1:32 pm

I knew The In-Specter was a clever name when I launched this blog back in April, but I had no idea that Arlen Specter’s opponents would nakedly copy me in an attempt to scrutinize the sitting Senator. Yet, that is precisely what Joe Sestak has done with a new set of Web videos entitled “Arlen InSpecter,” in which Sestak hopes to highlight Specter’s ties to his own Republican colleagues. See the first video

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Live-blogging the Specter town-hall meeting at the UPenn

October 9, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Its Friday afternoon, and I am at Houston Hall with about 100 other University of Pennsylvania students awaiting the arrival of Senator Arlen Specter for a town hall meeting. We’re in the Hall of Flags in Houston Hall, a large, rectangular room, with are seats in a fan shape around a small lectern where the Senator will be speaking. There is a boisterous atmosphere in the room, and it is clear that, while there are…

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Polls show Toomey beating Specter for first time

October 9, 2009 at 12:14 pm

In the flurry of election coverage last week, one poll slipped our attention here at The In-Specter. Its a big one, and I commend it to your attention: pSure, it’s a razor thin margin, and polls…

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On the judiciary, Specter’s heart beats liberal

October 6, 2009 at 12:05 pm

This weekend, I attended a conference at the Yale Law School entitled “ pAs I munched on some appetizers in the alumni room, I admired the many paintings of the walls of famous Yale alumni…

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Specter bemoans Finance Committee’s failure on public option

October 1, 2009 at 2:34 am

Arlen Specter has come a long way from his days of being negative on health care reform. After a public option plan was defeated in the Senate Finance Committee earlier this week, Specter opined via Twitter:

“I am disappointed by today’s vote in the Finance Committee preventing the inclusion of a public option in the health care reform bill. A robust public option will create competition in the marketplace and will help to provide affordable…

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Deal in the works on EFCA?

September 21, 2009 at 8:29 pm

Keeping with his new found tradition of lining up to support President Obama’s major legislative goals, Senator Arlen Specter suggested to a group of labor leaders last week week that a new version of the Employee Free Choice Act

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Specter raises $2.5 million with Obama and friends

September 17, 2009 at 10:27 am

$2.5 million—not bad for a night’s work. That large sum is the total haul Arlen Specter took Tuesday night in his highest-of-high-profile fundraiser with President Obama, Gov. Ed Rendell, Senator Bob Casey and a host of other state and national Democratic luminaries.

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For Specter, hypocrisy on missing votes?

September 15, 2009 at 12:01 pm

We’ve all heard the daily canard from Arlen Specter about Joe Sestak’s missed votes in the House. Sestak has been absent quite a bit attending to the needs of his campaign, and Specter has made much political hay over it. Just last month, Specter was on TV saying of Sestak: “He’s missed 105 votes; worst record of any Pennsylvania member of the House of Representatives. He’s AWOL, been absent without leave. If he were still…

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