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Specter Switches Sides; Tells Obama: 'I'm a Loyal Democrat'
April 28, 2009 12:09 PM
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will announce this afternoon that he is switching to the Democratic Party.
He's taken an all-but-sure loss in the Republican primary into an almost sure hold on his seat in 2010.
Assuming Al Franken takes the Minnesota Senate seat, Democrats will have that magic number of 60 Senate votes.
Some background from the White House:
At 10:25am, while in the Oval Office and during his economic daily briefing, the president was handed a note that said “Specter is announcing he is changing parties."
At 10:32am, President Barack Obama reached Specter and told him "you have my full support" and "thrilled to have you."
Specter told the president, "I'm a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda."
In a written statement today, Specter wrote, "Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right."
"Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing," Specter wrote.
Specter was facing an uphill primary challenge from former Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Penn.
The Pennsylvania senator trailed Toomey 27-41 percent, according to a Quinnipiac poll last month among registered Pennsylvania Republicans.
ABC's Jake Tapper reports that last month, Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., told a Pennsylvania cable channel that he, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Vice President Joe Biden from neighboring Delaware have all been lobbying Specter to switch.
"We've tried," said Rendell. "Myself, Senator Casey, Vice President Biden have tried to talk him into it, but he's bound and determined to stay a Republican," Rendell said. "He doesn't want to see Republican moderates banished from the earth."
Rendell said then that if Specter ran as a Democrat, "he'd be unopposed" in the primary and "he'd win 60-65 percent of the vote in the general election."
Teddy Davis of ABC's political unit adds this from Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell:
At a March 12 lunch with reporters in Washington, DC, attended by ABC News, Pennsylvania Rendell paid tribute to Specter's general-election appeal, saying, "I have no interest in being senator but I couldn't beat Arlen in a general. We don't have anyone who can beat him in a general right now."
"If Specter wins the primary, it's a huge uphill fight" for the Democrats, Rendell added.
Despite Specter's general-election appeal, however, he faced a tough fight in the GOP primary against former Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who recently stepped down as the head of the anti-tax Club for Growth.
Part of the reason why a potential Republican primary was becoming so tough for Specter is that the hard-fought 2008 Democratic primary in the state between Obama and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinned the Pennsylvania GOP of many of its moderate voters who switched their party registration to Democratic so they could help influence the Obama vs. Clinton race.
A top Hill source says Specter gave Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a heads up last night, after assuring GOP leaders all year that he wouldn't defect.
ABC's Capitol Hill correspondent Jonathan Karl reports a smiling Specter walked into the Republican party lunch today near the Senate floor where he was greeted by -- stony silence.
A few minutes earlier, Maine Republican Susan Collins walked in, lamenting the move, "I am very, very disappointed. It means there will be no more checks and balances on Democratic control."
--George Stephanopoulos
April 28, 2009 in Capitol Hill | Permalink | Share | User Comments (531)
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This is goning to be fun.
Posted by: RC | Apr 28, 2009 12:24:11 PM
Yes Yes Yes......hahahahahahahahah
thanks Rush,Hannity,Cheney...keep talking.....hahahahahahahah
the exodus from hate into the mainstream
Posted by: watching | Apr 28, 2009 12:27:18 PM
As a "truth in labeling" measure, this should have been done years ago.....
Posted by: MNResident | Apr 28, 2009 12:30:21 PM
going
Posted by: RC | Apr 28, 2009 12:30:52 PM
Welcome Sen Specter I dont Blame you Many More will Follow your Probably Ashamed of the Republican Party I know I am and Anyway Pa is very Democratic!
Posted by: Angie in Pa | Apr 28, 2009 12:31:53 PM
Wow. That was not expected - did the Republicans pull Cheney out of retirement to do a Jeffords job on him or something? I hope this level of defections indicates the Republicans are reaching the extreme point of their swing out of the mainstream and will start returning to relevancy soon. We could use two parties working again.
As a sidenote, I would bet that Norm Coleman in Minnesota just got a MOUNTAIN of cash to drag out his court case as long as possible to prevent the seating of Franken...
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 28, 2009 12:32:38 PM
Now Seat Al Franken and the Dems have their 60 Seats get ready for Republican Melt downs like you aint never seen HAHAHAHAH LOLOLOL HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Posted by: Angie in Pa | Apr 28, 2009 12:32:57 PM
Talk about the lure of the Obama agenda. But it means squat for card check.
Posted by: Matt | Apr 28, 2009 12:34:30 PM
And to think I though this would be another boring news day. God Bless You AS. You are wonderful human being.
Posted by: RC | Apr 28, 2009 12:34:31 PM
I could care less if a politician changes party, but bear in mind they register to run for office by party affiliation. Primary elections are governed by party afiliation. If they change, the only fair way is to resign and have another election.
Posted by: jamescbuilder | Apr 28, 2009 12:35:59 PM
jhw
I agree we could use a 2 Party system but not with the Likes of Cantor,Bohner Graham etc WE NEED MODERATE REPUBLICANS NOT FAR RIGHT LUNATICS!
Posted by: Angie in Pa | Apr 28, 2009 12:36:01 PM
Oh boy. Sit back and watch the fireworks. This is going to be fun. Watch the venom and bile that gushes from the 27% dead-enders.
Posted by: RC | Apr 28, 2009 12:36:26 PM
Apparently there is no room left in the Republican party for moderates anymore. Specter was left with no choice as many moderate repubs have become independent voters, leaving a base of far right conservatives that were gonna vote him out in the primary. The republicans need to veer to the middle, not to the right as they have been doing, or they risk losing even more moderates and putting more people like Michelle Bachman and her inflammatory rhetoric into office.
Posted by: Ordermonger | Apr 28, 2009 12:36:54 PM
The shoe fits then you should wear it.
WHAT A LOSER!!!
Posted by: James A. Muncy, Jr. | Apr 28, 2009 12:39:47 PM
This is what Republicans get by branding themselves as the Far Right Christian Only Southern Racism Party.
If they want to salvage the party, the Republicans need more members to move to the center instead of to the right.
Posted by: Reality | Apr 28, 2009 12:40:34 PM
Holy wow! GOP out.
Posted by: Iraq Vet | Apr 28, 2009 12:40:43 PM
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: toddo | Apr 28, 2009 12:41:31 PM
Oh boy. Sit back and watch the fireworks. This is going to be fun. Watch the venom and bile that gushes from the 27% dead-enders.
Posted by: RC | Apr
--------------------------------------
Actually, he belongs with the neo-marxist left wingers anyway. He always was a Republican in Name Only.
Posted by: dragoon70056 | Apr 28, 2009 12:41:37 PM
WOW!!!! I'm sure this is a major concern for the Republican Party! WOWEE!....
Posted by: FS | Apr 28, 2009 12:41:42 PM
Good call, Ordermonger. This guy came in with the tide of Reagan Republicanism and he remained a rReagan Republican. It's scary but Obama is closer to Reagan in action than the Neo-conservative, reactionary base of the modern republican party.
I call them the MAC party: Mid-Appalachian Conservatives. They're a regional party right now.
Posted by: USMC | Apr 28, 2009 12:41:57 PM
MEMO TO GOP
Listen up GET OUT OF THE FAR RIGHT LANE WE NEED YOU People are dropping out of you party like Flies for the Good of the Country please become MORE MODERATE OR FIND SOME MODERATES!
Posted by: Angie in Pa | Apr 28, 2009 12:42:06 PM
Mr. Spector is truly bi-partisan. As a life long republican (35 years) my eldest daughter who recently turned 18 registered to vote. As she decided between republican and democrat, I had to council her that my republican party no longer exists. I only remain in hopes of pulling it back from the far right into the mainstream. She would have rather registered independent, but since the republicans in california fought and undid our open-primary system, I told her if she wanted a say in that process she would have to choose. In the end she went republican, but will be on the moderate wing - so to the right-wing nuts- don't mis-inturpret her registration. She is very likely to vote democrat much of the time. Again, congratulations Mr. Spector. I admire your stand for the middle of the road and the moderate wing.
Posted by: Shane in California | Apr 28, 2009 12:42:35 PM
jamescbuilder:"If they change, the only fair way is to resign and have another election. "
That would be a radical shift in our governmental system and require a pretty drastic amendment of the Constitution. In the US we have always elected people to the offices, not party representatives. Parties are not even recognized in the Constitution, and there is serious question how they could be within our checks and balances framework.
Posted by: jhw539 | Apr 28, 2009 12:42:55 PM
Alienation: The Republican way of winning friends and influencing people.
Posted by: Welcome Spector | Apr 28, 2009 12:43:17 PM
Actually, he belongs with the neo-marxist left wingers anyway. He always was a Republican in Name Only.
======================================
Keep up the neo-marxist and neo-fascist junk. it only marginalizes you even further. Reasonable people know that just as Bush wasn't a fascist dictator (just an incompetent president), Obama isn't a marxist or communist, just a man with pretty sound judgment.
Posted by: USMC | Apr 28, 2009 12:44:41 PM
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