Casey hopes for no senate primary
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
By: Shai Ben-Yaacov
sben-yaacov@whyy.org
Pressure is mounting on a Democratic congressman from Philadelphia's suburbs to not run a primary challenge against Senator Arlen Specter next year. The recently-anointed Democrat has gotten backing from his new party's hierarchy, including President Obama and Governor Rendell. Now, Pennsylvania's other senator has joined the chorus trying to prevent a Democratic primary.
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Senator Bob Casey has already thrown his support behind Senator Specter. But now Casey is saying other Democrats mulling a run should rethink their plans.
Casey: I hope we don't have a primary. I'm urging anyone who might be considering or who may have already made a decision about that to try to come together and unify.
Casey says hard-fought primaries deplete campaign war chests and often weaken the winning candidates heading into the general election.
The one candidate still saying he will challenge Specter in a primary, so long as his family supports the idea, is Congressman Joe Sestak of Delaware County.
Specter cited the prospect of a difficult Republican primary against Pat Toomey as the driving force behind his party switch.
[...] our other (real) Democratic Senator… Casey: I hope we don’t have a primary. I’m urging anyone who might be considering or who [...]