With Arlen Specter now a D, Dems at brink of 60
The news that reshapes Washington.
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.
Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator from Minnesota. (Former senator Norm Coleman is appealing Franken’s victory in the state Supreme Court.)
“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”
He added: “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.”
President Obama was informed of Specter’s decision at around 10:25 a.m., according to White House officials, and reached out to the senator minutes later to tell him “you have my full support,” and we are “thrilled to have you.”
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
185 comments Add your comment
Fly-On-The-Wall
April 28th, 2009
12:47 pm
Watch the Republicans cry that it shouldn’t be legal to do this. Of course they wouldn’t include the times that Demos back in the 90s switched over to the Repub party.
Hillbilly Deluxe
April 28th, 2009
12:56 pm
I take the cynical view. I see another career politician doing what he thinks is necessary to continue his career. It’s doubtful to me that ideology has anything to do with it. Sort of the same thing Sonny did here in Georgia.
It’s up to the people of Pennsylvania to keep him or not.
Wes
April 28th, 2009
1:03 pm
It’s kind of a shame that he had to go for a party at all. I suspect that the people of Pennsylvania would have elected him no matter what. Lieberman basically did that when he ran last time.
Besides both parties seem to get in the way of governing more than they help.
Mrs. Godzilla
April 28th, 2009
1:04 pm
Sadly, Arlen says he won’t change his vote on EFCA. That may still
cause him to lose in PA dem primary.
Mrs. Godzilla
April 28th, 2009
1:07 pm
How long does Michael Steele have? Lost Tedisco and Specter….
I’m telling ya’ make Coleman chair of the RNC.
Daedalus
April 28th, 2009
1:10 pm
Based on the response fromt he GOP to Specter’s (and the last two moderate Republicans in the Senate from Maine) support for the stimulus bill — its hard to blame him.
The GOP is rapidly become a southern, angry, white male party.
Its a pity because there are many conservative ideals that deserve consideration — but when the party takes its cues from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh that they must oppose everything Obama does to preserve their (dwindling) chances in future election and stifle internal debate — they make it harder for those ideas to get heard.
When the Georgia GOP’s Chip Rogers recently opined that talk of secession was a valid response to the recent elections — its clear that the GOP is losing it.
ByteMe
April 28th, 2009
1:11 pm
And now the political calculus gets interesting.
What do you think the Republicans will offer Lieberman?
Copyleft
April 28th, 2009
1:12 pm
I’m looking forward to the spin the right-wing media will try to put on this, somehow claiming it as a “victory for the Republican Party.”
Will they take the “drive out the sane moderates” angle and pursue another purge, making their tent smaller and smaller until the entire national convention can fit in a Motel 6?
Or will they just bray “Now that they’re unstoppable, the Dems are bound to screw everything up and overreach, and then America will HAVE to vote for us!” That’s one inspirational platform, all right: Hoping the Other Guys Screw Up.
Either way, it’ll be fun to watch. Get a comfortable seat and a tall, cold drink, America!
Susan Myers
April 28th, 2009
1:17 pm
Has Sheyawn Hannity’s head exploded yet?
N.J,
April 28th, 2009
1:19 pm
Spector was originally a Democrat, and was a registered Democrat when he first ran for district attorney in the 1960’s, though he ran as a Republican because the Democrats had their own nominee. Much like Michael Bloomberg in New York, who was a registered Democrat and merely switched parties because the Democratic machine in New York already had their own nominee.
I am not surprised. The Republican Party has been threatening Spector with ejecting him for not abiding by the Southern Leadership’s extreme right wing agenda. Spector has always been more the Linconesque populist Republican as opposed to the far right, pro-corporate wing that is prevalent in the Republican party these days.
This will hold up George Voinevich’s retirement a bit, because if Voinevich retired and they do not appoint a replacement but wait to hold a special election, the figures for filibuster change, and then it taked 59 votes to overcome a filibuster attempt because when there are two empty seats, the percentages change from 60/40 to 59/58 to overcome a filibuster.
I doubt that Spector will lose the Democratic Primary. Its a sure thing that a deal was struck to get him to switch party affiliations and that deal included his getting the nod from the Democratic Party as their nominee of choice.
Paul
April 28th, 2009
1:19 pm
Isn’t this the same thing Colin Powell said – that the Republican Party has moved too far to the right? What’s interesting is so many disaffected Republicans (what was it, 200,000 Reps in Pennsylvania changed to Democrat) see the Democratic Party as a viable alternative. It was just a few years ago that if you dared challenge the very liberal orthodoxy you were drummed out – witness Lieberman.
So, what’s changed? I’ll offer more people see Pres Obama as more of a moderate figure. Even if his actual policies are not, when stacked up against the Democratic Party leadership of Pelosi, Reid and all, and given their disputes on the size of the stim package, handling Iraq and Afghanistan, not going for prosecutions, keeping a lot of the Patriot Act (wiretapping and all that) – well, I’ll offer that when compared to the farfarleft of the Dem leadership Pres Obama appears much more moderate.
So the disaffected switch. But they vote for representatives and senators. And those Dems answer to Pelosi and Reid- not exactly (well, Pelosi) the most tolerant of people. So we’ll see how it goes.
Interesting, too, there’s not a viable third party option. Of course, the two parties have structured it that way, so we’ll continue the “which of these two you gonna ask out” dating option.
Midori
April 28th, 2009
1:20 pm
let the G-O-Pig gnashing of teeth BEGIN!!
Susan Myers
April 28th, 2009
1:21 pm
Where are all the right wingers this afternoon?
Blue dog got their tongues?
Susan Myers
April 28th, 2009
1:26 pm
“I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation.”
Therein lies the reason Sen. Specter would have lost his seat in the GOP primary. No room for independent thinkers in today’s Republican party.
Great move. Win-win for both Specter and the Democratic party.
gttim
April 28th, 2009
1:27 pm
Merely a ploy to maintain his position and power. He was going to lose the GOP primary. Now we just have to make sure he loses the Dem primary. We don’t want him. We want a true and dependable progressive vote in that seat.
Dave R
April 28th, 2009
1:29 pm
Not a surprise, Susan. Nothing much here. Specter wasn’t very reliable when it came to the Republican agenda, so no loss.
Non-story, except that he has a better shot to get re-elected.
Copyleft
April 28th, 2009
1:31 pm
“Non-story,” Dave R? Really? So you’re unaware of the filibuster-proof majority this means for Democrats in the Senate, which in turn opens up a TON of legislative possibilities?
This is a “non-story” to you? Man, you need to broaden your awareness a bit… try reading something other than Drudge and TownHall, for example. The truth is out there! Don’t be afraid!
booger
April 28th, 2009
1:34 pm
The dems and repubs average IQ just increased 10%.
Taxpayer
April 28th, 2009
1:34 pm
A Zell Miller moment in reverse. Too bad the GOP bought into that line from Saxby that they needed him to keep the Democrats from getting 60 votes in the Senate. Now, the GOP is stuck with Saxby the Socialist.
Joe Matarotz
April 28th, 2009
1:36 pm
A filibuster-proof majority means the Democraps will have no means of restraint for carrying out their agenda. If you think they’re spending money like drunken sailors now, just wait. They will have the ability to bankrupt the planet. This is scary, scary shiznit.
Susan Myers
April 28th, 2009
1:36 pm
Copyleft,
Dave R seems to live in his own manufactured little world.
Mrs. Godzilla
April 28th, 2009
1:36 pm
A March 25, 2009 Quinnipiac University poll showed Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter running more successfully as a Democrat for reelection and receiving a 71 – 16 percent approval rating from Democrats.
Overall Pennsylvania voters have a 45 – 31 percent favorable opinion of Sen. Specter, but he gets a 47 – 29 percent unfavorable score from Republicans. He gets a 60 – 16 percent thumbs up from Democrats.
N.J,
April 28th, 2009
1:37 pm
With Franken this gives the Democrats 60 seats. The date that the Minnesota Supreme Court hears the Coleman appeal has been set for June 1st and after that all Coleman has left is the U.S. Supreme Court but even Coleman’s attorney has said that this is unlikely to happen as the Supremes are likely to simply take the same position they took in Bush v. Gore in 2000 that it is an issue of states rights to decided how they are going to run elections in their own state.
say what?
April 28th, 2009
1:38 pm
Fine dems, y’all take him! Specter has been a RINO for far too long now and it’s high time he let everyone know where he really stands so he can quit embarrassing real conservatives. The fact that specter hasn’t stepped up and helped the right is reason enough for him to go.
Only reason him and the other democrats out there keep referring to the GOP as an “angry white male party” or a party with “no room for independent thinkers” is because true republicans and conservatives know where they stand and don’t shift their principles with public opinion every other day. After all, “independent thinker” is just a fancy way of saying “liberal repeater”.
And while it’s not good that this could bring the dems close to a filibuster-proof majority, the silver lining is that a democrat-controlled congress who can push their agenda through without debate will only expose their socialist propagandist agenda even faster. Heck, might help them go away even faster!
N.J,
April 28th, 2009
1:40 pm
I hope the Democrats simply do what the Republicans did after the 2000 election and simply exclude Republicans from having any part in the committees making decisions. The Democrats were quite incensed at this because when they had a majority when the Senator from Vermont left the Republican Party, they basically made rules that allowed the Republicans to take part in decision making, when Republicans did not return the favor when they took the majority.
The latest method by which Obama intends to create health reform in the United States is a good sign because he is using a procedure by which the Republicans cannot filibuster this legislation. He has given them a few months to either get on board, or get out of the way.
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
1:41 pm
Good lord, I take a nap and wake up to a world where hell hath frozen over.
Maybe I should go back to sleep and see what else happens.
Specter to switch parties? My eyes! My eyes!
Actually, I hate this kind of crap. A few years back when the Dems were the toxic party, there were all kinds of switchovers. People knew they couldn’t win with that albatross around their neck and they switched over.
Why can’t people just stick to their guns and their party – why not take back your party Arlen?
Jennifer E
April 28th, 2009
1:43 pm
Listening to Fox on my satellite radio, they are spinning themselves into a tornado. It is hilarious. They are just mad because now they have to stop talking about the president’s plane flying over NYC yesterday! They have been acting like President Obama was flying it himself.
Anyway, good call by Sen. Specter, with only 21% of voters willing to identify themselves as Republicans, it doesn’t take a genius to make this move.
Mrs. Godzilla
April 28th, 2009
1:43 pm
say what…
There is another option I suspect you don’t want to consider.
60 Dems plus Snowe and Collins now, and 2 or 3 more seats in 2010,
will bring this country into the 21st century.
Americans will be delighted and the Republican party will go the way of the Whigs and the Mugwumps.
booger
April 28th, 2009
1:44 pm
Ms. Meyers,
First thing I think of when I hear the word Democrat is “Independent Thinker”
ty webb
April 28th, 2009
1:47 pm
Bosch,
nice post. I couldn’t agree more.
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
1:48 pm
Daedalus,
The two lovely ladies from Maine (Snowe and Collins – [sigh]) – who are personal heroes of mine – would never do such a thing. They are true women who are the only reasonable voices the GOP has in the Senate at this time.
KCJ
April 28th, 2009
1:48 pm
Jennifer E,
You mean Obama wasn’t flying the plane? LOL
Broke
April 28th, 2009
1:48 pm
I like what Hillbilly said about him being a career politician watching out for his career. Kind of funny how all of the people that are elected can relate to us “common” folk. We already know they think we have body odor and need to be herded into a room so they cannot smell us.
Basically.. if you voted for anyone that is in office right now.. You are a MORON..
Reebok
April 28th, 2009
1:48 pm
Republican Step 1: Scream that this shouldn’t be legal, talk about how Specter was never a ‘real’ republican, hint darkly at terrible secrets he’s keeping, and throw around phrases like ‘traitor,’ ‘benedict arnold,’ and ‘betrayal.’
Step 2- Try to recruit some Dems to jump to the GOP.
N.J,
April 28th, 2009
1:49 pm
What conservatives mean by “Socialist propaganda” is doing what both the election mandated as well as polls indicate. Things like a national health plan have the overwhelming support of the vast majority of the electorate according to polls, and it is the Republicans who continually get in the way of what the majority of American voters have wanted for more than a decade. In the latest poll taken, a bit less than a third of all Americans oppose a national health plan. 49 percent want national health that covers ALL health care, another ten percent want national health that will cover only emergency or critical health care with 32 percent still beleiving that health care should be left to private insurance companies. So 59 percent of Americans want some form of national health insurance.
Republicans are now basically getting in the way of what the majority of the electorate wants on many issues.
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
1:49 pm
ty,
Did that hurt much?
Just kidding.
ty webb
April 28th, 2009
1:50 pm
All this reminds me of the line from “The American President”(Not the biggest fan of the movie), “I was to busy trying to keep my job that I forgot to do my job”
Susan Myers
April 28th, 2009
1:52 pm
First rule. The 180 degree rule.
Whatever a GOP operative says, the truth is opposite.
Second Rule.
The GOP propaganda machine will always spin the facts.
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
1:53 pm
Reebok,
Actually, I don’t think this should be legal. I think if you were elected as a Republican or a Democrat or a Space Alien from the Zithist Party from the Planet Bjork, you should carry out your term as such. If you want to switch parties then do it when you are running for re-election – and vote your conscious or what your constituants (?sp) want instead of what your party tells you too.
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
1:53 pm
Planet Bjork – anybody get that? She’s one weird chick.
Paul
April 28th, 2009
1:55 pm
NJ
[[the Supremes are likely to simply take the same position they took in Bush v. Gore in 2000 that it is an issue of states rights to decided how they are going to run elections in their own state.]]
?!!? I believe the Supremes overturned the state and said voters have the right to have their votes considered equally throughout the state.
Bosch
If all this happens during a nap – hey, could you go to sleep for the rest of the day? No telling what would happen!
Oh, had a t-shirt idea downstairs.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 28th, 2009
1:55 pm
Sadly, Arlen says he won’t change his vote on EFCA.
But has he promised to vote against cloture? That’s the real issue. I suspect that vote just became a whole lot less reliable.
N.J,
April 28th, 2009
1:55 pm
What has changed is that while the Democrats have moved to the center since they reinvented themselves in the early 1990’s (Clinton was not the choice of the long time Democratic leadership), the Republicans have moved to the far right, very far away from the position of the vast majority of the electorate.
For all their whining about Obama and his socialist programs, Obama is the quintessential centrist. His largest error is his efforts to save Anglo/American free market capitalism rather than to completely scrap it. No “Socialist” would take hundreds of billions of dollars and give it or loan it to large banks and automakers.Give it to the “capitalists”.
They would simply scrap the entire system, raise corporate taxes through the roof so no large business could succeed and only small businesses, those that provide most jobs in the United States, could thrive.
Wes
April 28th, 2009
1:56 pm
All the Democrats might want to temper your enthusiasm for the moment. I know that a lot of the things that Republicans wanted went by the wayside when they took power. They came in talking about term limits, smaller government, and pro-life. They gave us career politicians, huge debt and abortion that is legal in all 50 states. Given that health providers and insurance companies gave a lot of money to both sides I’d hold off on celebrating health care just yet. The same Specter that voted against the card check might not be quite as reliable a Democrat as you’d think.
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
1:56 pm
“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans”
And please tell us – what is that philosophy exactly? Does anybody know what the political philosophy of the parties are anymore?
DB, Gwinnettian
April 28th, 2009
1:58 pm
If you want to switch parties then do it when you are running for re-election
Given that the 2010 primaries are only a year away, that’s basically what he’s doing anyway.
LAB
April 28th, 2009
1:59 pm
republicans (I refuse to dignify them with a capital R, even if starting a sentence with the word) will no doubt rage, spew, and foam at the mouth about this news, but they will not recognize that it is because of their tendency to rage, spew, and foam at the drop of a hat that was the reason Specter left in the first place.
Being in the gop is like having an abusive boyfriend, screaming, “B*tch, you better come back to me and let me beat you up, or so help me, I’m gunnah beat you up!”
Bosch
April 28th, 2009
2:00 pm
Paul,
I could go to sleep right now and sleep the rest of the day. Hey, guess what? I found out my liver works yesterday – that’s always good news.
I saw your t-shirt idea – I got so wrapped up with the Specter news I forgot to mention it. I’m tellin’ ya’ with our t-shirt ideas and my new keyboard cleaning system (I figured out it’s more of a “system” than a tool) we are on the brink of riches beyond our wildest dreams!!!
N.J,
April 28th, 2009
2:02 pm
It has never been illegal to switch parties in midstream nor should it be. Spector went back to his own state before switching parties and what he gathered from his visits back home is that a large number of his constituents have SWITCHED parties and are rather intensely opposed to the extreme right wing positions being taken by the Republican leadership. His constituency abandoned the Republican Party, and the Republicans no longer represent that constituency.
The same sort of thing should be illegal when it comes to voting on legislation. If it sould be illegal to switch parties midstream it should be illegal for Democrats to vote AGAINST something that the majority of their party supports, as did many conservative Democrats with the presidents stimulus package, or as Lieberman did when he voted FOR funding the Iraq War instead of against it.
Sissy Saxby
April 28th, 2009
2:04 pm
Georgia’s representatives in Washington just got even more irrelevant.