Specter takes Sestak on a lunch date

Any bad blood has been laid to rest—or at least enough so that Arlen Specter can introduce Joe Sestak around.

The New York Times

May 26, 2010 at 9:50 am | Comments (20)

Rendell loves The Campaign Group—but still hates the ad

PHILADELPHIA—Gov. Ed Rendell sure had a lot to say about The Campaign Group in the days before and after last week’s Senate primary. To any cable pundits that would listen, Rendell would say the Philadelphia-based consulting shop, which counts him as a client, was basically the only reason Joe Sestak stood on the precipice of victory. He would call it “my ad agency,” and say hiring media gurus Neil Oxman, Doc Sweitzer and J.J. Balaban…

May 23, 2010 at 3:36 pm | Comments (18)

Why Specter lost (and Sestak won)

There have been countless postmortems examining the fall of Arlen Specter at the hands of Joe Sestak.

But there’s no such thing as over-analyzing in this business, so here’s our take.

It’s the party, stupid

On the national level (and even on these pages), Specter’s loss has often been interpreted as part of the anti-incumbent wave sweeping the country. While that was likely a factor, the core of what happened was much more simple: Specter…

May 21, 2010 at 5:30 pm | Comments (49)

One more reason Sestak won

We just offered up

May 21, 2010 at 5:21 pm | Comments (21)

Arlen Specter’s perfect storm

The political world watched almost stupefied as the national melodrama played itself out. The pre-primary polls told the startling story while the astonished pols read the increasingly clear tea leaves: Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s longest serving U.S. Senator, arguably the state’s most skilled and luckiest politician, was losing. And he was losing to an opponent few had heard of just about a month earlier, losing despite substantial advantages in money and party endorsements, losing despite support…

May 19, 2010 at 4:02 pm | Comments (49)

Toomey to Sestak: Take a vacation

Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey had some congratulatory words for his Democratic opponent Joe Sestak Tuesday night, and some advice, too: Why not take a vacation?

In a video message delivered after

May 19, 2010 at 8:43 am | Comments (9)

Dems look to rally behind Sestak, aim at Toomey

PHILADELPHIA—In the moments after

May 19, 2010 at 8:34 am | Comments (22)

Sestak wins big, completing come-from-behind win and ending the Specter era

WAYNE—Joseph A. Sestak, the former Navy Admiral and second-term congressman who challenged his party’s political establishment, won the Democratic Senate primary Tuesday, riding a wave of anti-incumbency and a brilliantly-run TV campaign to a victory that ended the 45-year political career of Senator Arlen Specter.

Despite polls that had shown the bitter primary contest coming down to the wire, it was hardly close in the end; with nearly all precincts reporting, Sestak enjoyed an 8-point…

May 19, 2010 at 6:25 am | Comments (36)

Getting out the Specter vote

On the ground in Philadelphia, Politico‘s Jonathan Martin has a nice story on Arlen Specter’s get-out-the-vote operation.

full story

May 18, 2010 at 4:32 pm | Comments (0)

Obama and Specter, hands held high

Here’s a state Democratic Party-funded piece of campaign literature making the rounds in Philadelphia, first published by

May 18, 2010 at 3:30 pm | Comments (5)