By Kevin Ferris - Wall Street Journal
How the former GOP senator became a salesman for ObamaCare
Im out there fighting for President Obamas health-care plan and nobody in the Democratic caucus has been out there with four town-hall meetings. I put my neck on the line. Sen. Arlen Specter
Philadelphia
Pugnacious and aggressive Arlen Specter has an approach to town-hall meetings that makes for interesting video highlights. One clip on the Web shows him going toe to toe with a constituent who warns him that some day hell have to account for his decisions in front of God. Voters can also watch him being booed after admitting he doesnt read every page of legislation he votes for and desperately pushing back against a tide of anger by telling jeering constituents to hold on.
But the line he delivered nearly two weeks ago about defending the presidents health-care plans is the most revealing. The senator isnt so much out of touch as he is intent on grabbing hold of health-care reform in hopes of winning his Democratic primary next year.
The next several months will determine whether he is right to believe that close association with an issue popular with core Democrats will save him. But the tide of public opinion has been shifting of late which poses a potentially dangerous dilemma for the five-term senator in the 2010 general election.
Mr. Specter switched parties in April when polls showed hed lose the GOP primary to Pat Toomey a former congressman and president of the Club for Growth. And now conservatives in his former party upset over Mr. Specters support of the $787 billion stimulus package and his general agreement with Washingtons big spending have been energetically organizing to take their revenge.
Mr. Toomeys challenge initially caused some angst among Republicans. When he announced in April his plans to run the GOP was still reeling from November losses and worrying about being too conservative. Mr. Specter was one of the few Republicans still in power northeast of the Mason-Dixon line. Yet in a few short months polls fund raising and endorsements have turned in Mr. Toomeys favor. The issues most on voters mindsspending taxes the economy and health careplay to his strengths as well.
Even before the town halls began Jane Peronteau a 44-year-old Republican in East Vincent Township Pa. had high hopes for Mr. Toomey. Mr. Specter was a big disappointment she told me. I wasnt a fan of his before but I voted party. Now she has no plans whatsoever to support him.
I interviewed her last month at a picnic sponsored by the Chester County Young Republicans. She and about 80 others turned out to hear Mr. Toomey. Her comments foreshadowed what would be heard in this months town halls. Id like to see a push on economic issues right now she said. As a libertarian Ms. Peronteau would also prefer conservatives to ease up on social issuesa common refrain among Republicans outside Philadelphia including party leaders.
Bob Asher a national committeeman from southeast Pennsylvania agrees. He told me The party has to moderate to the point where we appeal to people in the suburbsand we were harmed all over the country not just in the Philadelphia suburbs.
At the picnic Mr. Toomey railed against government bailouts and spending on a breathtaking scale. He warned of coming tax increases a pending government takeover of health care and of the Employee Free Choice Act which would allow unions to organize employees without secret-ballot elections. He also said that while the Obama agenda is cause for despair for conservatives it also opens a door for Republicans.
This lurch to the left is unacceptable to voters including lots of Democrats and an overwhelming number of independents he told the crowd. This wildly ambitious agenda is their Achilles heeland our opportunity.
Indeed what is different this time is that Democrats in Congress are going out of their way to provide grist for Mr. Toomeys millcooking up thousand-page trillion-dollar helpings of reform and bailouts and pushing health-care legislation thats driving independents into the GOP camp.
The most recent Rasmussen poll shows Mr. Toomey leading Mr. Specter 48-36 among likely voters. Just two months ago Mr. Specter was up 50-39. The same poll has Mr. Toomey beating Mr. Specters Democratic primary opponent Congressman Joe Sestak of the 7th district in suburban Philadelphia in a general election matchup 43-35. In June Mr. Sestak led Mr. Toomey 41-35.
In the second quarter of this year Mr. Toomey raised $1.6 million just shy of the $1.73 million raised by Mr. Specter. GOP leaders have taken notice. Last month the National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed Mr. Toomey a switch from its early stand-offishness. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and others encouraged Tom Ridge the former governor and first director of the federal Department of Homeland Security to run for the seat. But Mr. Ridge took a pass and no other serious candidate emerged.
The GOP unity is in part due to Mr. Toomey who has spent months building bridges within the party and in part due to the political environment. In 2005 state legislators rammed through a pay raise for themselves that unleashed a torrent of voter hostility costing some lawmakers their seats in 2006. Now no Republican wants to be on the wrong side of a tax-and-spend issuewhich is one reason state senate Republicans killed a Democratic income tax hike this summer.
All of this presents Mr. Specter with a dilemma. To be on the ballot in November he has to first win over Democratic primary voters who have doubts about his loyalties. Hes apparently decided that the best way to burnish his liberal bona fides is to become the face of ObamaCare in the state in order to win the affection of core liberal Democrats.
What this means at least for now is that Messrs. Specter and Sestak will go on pushing each other to the left to win their primary election. Meanwhile Mr. Toomey is free to focus on his general election campaign by working to unite his party and win over Democrats and independents who are wondering whether all the change they are seeing coming out of Washington is good for their pocketbooks or the nations economic future.
Mr. Ferris is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
