GOP Senator Arlen Specter joining DemocratsAssociated Press – OneNewsNow – 4/28/2009 11:35:00 AMWASHINGTON, DC – Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen
Specter has announced he is leaving the GOP and will join the
Democrats.
In a statement released this morning, Specter said that since his election in
1980 as part of the Reagan “Big Tent,” the Republican Party has moved far to
the right. According to Specter, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania have
changed their registration to be come Democrats. He says: “I now find my
political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”He says he plans to run for re-election as a Democrat in the 2010
Pennsylvania primary. He has served five terms as a member of the GOP.
The move would give Democrats a 60-seat filibuster proof majority in the
Senate — if Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator
from Minnesota.
Associated Press reports that President Obama fully supports the
senator’s decision, saying the Democratic Party is “thrilled to have you.”
Face-off against Toomey?
Specter’s strategy apparently is to increase his chances of returning to
the Senate for a sixth term. Diane Gramley of the American Family
<http://www.afaofpa.org/> Association of Pennsylvania points out that
for years the 79-year-old Specter has been described as a RINO —
“Republican in name only.”According to Gramley, Specter has lined up philosophically with Democrats
for quite a while. The pro-family activist was asked if the senator has supported
the Republican Party platform? “No — he’s not pro-life, he’s not pro-family,” she
emphasizes. “He has not followed the platform of the Republican Party for as
long as I can remember.”Will the switch to the Democratic ticket make Specter a stronger candidate
in the general election?
“Definitely, it would strengthen Specter’s running with the Democrats, but
not with Republicans,” responds Gramley. “I think that he has definitely cut
the last string that ties him to anything Republican.”
His chief challenger is Republican conservative Pat Toomey, who Gramley
believes will win that primary easily. So the big battle likely will be in the
general election in 2010. Specter narrowly defeated Toomey for the Republican
nomination in 2004.