Interesting story in the L.A. Times about Joe Sestak's campaign to win the Democratic nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania. Looks like the campaign is inoculating themselves about the single biggest negative about Sestak - the nagging rumor that he's impossible to work for: Sestak is, at times to the chagrin of his staff, unfailingly accommodating -- to the media, to lobbyists and to constituents....
I was a little surprised to read Susie Madrak writing about Joe Sestak's potential conflicts with other Senators as a negative: It's a legitimate question since, as Howard Dean pointed out, the Senate is a gentlemen's club and your effectiveness is closely tied to your ability to build relationships. I can certainly confirm what Susie writes about Joe Sestak expecting his staff to work very hard, and...
Congressional Quarterly 's Shira Toeplitz has a good rundown on all the ways in which presumptive Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Pat Toomey has moved to the center ever since Arlen Specter bolted for the Democratic Party. Which makes me again wonder whether it was a mistake for Obama to encourage Specter's defection.** If Obama hadn't welcomed Specter with open arms and Specter had been forced to...
Timothy McNulty | November 23, 2009 Here's Politico on what we already know -- that Specter/Toomey is going to be a hard-hitting and personal affair: The most closely watched Senate primary is in Pennsylvania, where Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak are slugging it out in unusually personal terms. Specter has cast Sestak as ineffective and opportunistic, attacking him for his failure to register...
In her short time on the public stage, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has proven to be an enormously polarizing figure both in her own runs for office and other Republican campaigns. Now, she's being pulled into a Democratic primary as well. On Monday, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn) released a web advertisement tying his opponent, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn), to the provocative former vice presidential...
Interesting story in the L.A. Times about Joe Sestak’s campaign to win the Democratic nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania. Looks like the campaign is inoculating themselves about the single biggest negative about Sestak – the nagging rumor that he’s impossible to work for: Sestak is, at times to the chagrin of his staff, unfailingly accommodating — [...]
Politico chronicles the growing popularity of Sen. Jim DeMint among the legion of tea-party inspired challengers to Republican incumbents. One point is that the vacuum created by the NRSC's decision not to spend money in primaries has allowed DeMint's own Senate Conservatives Fund to fill the gap. Now -- it's true that the NRSC is staying out of the primaries -- but it has never spent money on open-seat...
I was in DC over the weekend for a conference and a friend, who knows my proclivities, gave me the 3 vol. July - Sept. Statement of Disbursements of the House. I'm told this information will be going online in the vaguely near future but for now is only available in paper. The quarterly spending is spelled out in detail (Paul Kanjorski is leasing a car? really'), down to what bottled water companies...
The Democrat has arguably the hardest-working staff on Capitol Hill scrambling to meet requests from constituents, lobbyists and the media. Now he wants to beat Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator. Rep. Joe Sestak needs a comb. His wavy, graying hair has been through a hectic morning, and the Pennsylvania Democrat is racing toward his third interview of the day, this time with ABC News.
As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (most of last week's votes had to do with health care, which I realize I've posted on ad nauseum already - the vote to begin debate in the Senate happens tomorrow evening). House Democrats' health bill . Voting 220-215, the House passed a bill (HR 3962)]...
Democrats are headed for a primary war between Sen. Arlen Specter (D) and Cong. Joe Sestak (D) while former Cong. Pat Toomey (R) awaits the winner. Earlier in the year, many people weren't giving Toomey a shot at winning statewide, but he could benefit from the Democratic primary and a potentially favorable political environment and is now running even in general election polls. We're moving the Pennsylvania...
Just finished participating in a call with Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) regarding Afghanistan. I imagine Senator Specter was a bit surprised by my questions from the more hawkish view on Afghanistan. Senator Specter's position is that he opposes troop increases in Afghanistan and even questions maintaining troops in Afghanistan unless the effort is "indispensable" to the conflict with al...
A previous post attacked the apparent political hypocrisy of Congressman Joe Sestak so turnabout is fair and balanced play. Here's Rudy Giuliani, a former SDNY prosecutor and mayor of New York, condemning Obama for bringing the Gitmo Five to the Big Apple...But here's the mayor talking about the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui: "At the same time, I was in awe of our system," the former mayor
It's been over two months since we last took stock of the open seat situation in the House, so, once again, our crack team of open seat forensic analysts down at SSP Labs have put together a new edition of the 2010 House Open Seat Watch. As always, we've compiled three separate lists: one of confirmed vacancies/retirements, another of potential open seats, and a third - available below the fold - of...
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