But its certainly possible for him to become the next Republican Senator from Pennsylvania:
Likely Republican nominee Pat Toomey trails both of the Democrats who are vying for their party’s nomination – Senator Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak – in potential match-ups for next year’s U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows Specter leading Toomey by 11 points, 50% to 39%.
Sestak bests Toomey by a narrower 41% to 35%.
But incumbents who poll at 50% or less are generally viewed as vulnerable, and Specter, who recently switched parties to become a Democrat, may face a bruising Democratic primary. Also, Toomey could be helped or hurt by the state of the economy and the level of President Obama’s popularity 17 months from now.
My bet is that Sestak will emerge as the Democrats’ choice – unless the Powers That Be really pressure the Democrat party in PA to swing behind Specter. There’s something really upsetting about the Powerful foisting upon an electorate a political turncoat who is only in it for himself – I think that PA Democrats will reject Specter. If Specter does win because the Democrat leadership twists arms, then I think that Specter would be fatally weakened – Democrats would stay home on election day and thus hand the election to Toomey by default.
On the other hand, the battle between Sestak and Toomey would be an epic political struggle between left and right – a clearly liberal Democrat against a clearly conservative Republican in a blue State which has plenty of conservative impulses (such as being strongly pro-life); we couldn’t ask for a better battle or a finer debate than that…and all of it with the backdrop of Obama and the judgment on his first two years in office.
Blogs For Victory 