Question about the Chris Mathews Possible PA Senate Run: PA DU'ers respond

[RollWithIt]

I'll be 125% behind Mathews if he's the Dem Nominee in PA, especially with the Obama campaign team connections, but I'm just wondering aren't there any other PA Dems to run against an 80 year old Specter or a hardcore right winger?

[AllentownJake]

1. Sestak

Sestak would have the best chance against either Specter or a conservative Goper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Sestak

He's from suburban Philly plus his long military career would play well in North Eastern and Western PA.

[RollWithIt]

4. Can't really argue with the military record, what's his voting record look like?

Socially I mean.

Plus for him: Highest ranking ex military in the history of Congress. Wow.

Minus: The part where he works his staff 14 hour a day, seven day s week, and expects them to maintain military discipline. WTF? Huh?

[AllentownJake]

6. Well the RW blog I just got off of google

calls him extremely liberal :rofl: so he probably is left leaning dem.

Yeah he has a reputation for a terrible temper as well.

[RollWithIt]

9. It's amusing to see his voting record for last two years....

He is essentially, a whole lot of yes. He supports everything, lol.

http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=58333

There are some nice no votes in there when you look it all over, but essentially he's a Democratic Party Man. He votes for bills proposed by Pelosi. He understands the power of committee assignments, don't ruffle feathers on floor votes and grab committee chairs. Lots of emotional discipline.

[polichick]

2. I've heard Joe Sestak and Allyson Schwartz, PA Congresscritters, might run.

[globalvillage]

26. I heard that about Sestak.

He'd be my first pick.

[AllentownJake]

29. He's got money in the bank

His challenger was weak this year. I've heard he has around 3 million he was able to roll over.

[femmocrat]

3. Sure there are, but they are running for governor instead.

I was thinking of Dan Onorato and Jack Wagner both of Allegheny Co. And there are probably some congress people considering it!

[PCIntern]

5. A person I know who worked for Allyson years ago

sez she's not running.

FWIW...

Sestak's a winner...he's got VP/Prez written all over him...

[AllentownJake]

7. He'll be 65 in 2016

If he runs for Senate in 2010 and wins its highly concievable.

Wouldn't be able to attack his foriegn policy or military creds. Hard to attack an Admiral who became a Senator.

Plus it would take PA off the table immediately as a swing state. Which greatly helps dems.

[tigereye]

8. too bad Rendell is Gov - I bet he would have been a cool Senator

no one comes to mind who has the name recognition to motivate eastern and western PA at the moment. I can see Wagner eventually running for Gov. Not sure I think he's Senate material....

[AllentownJake]

10. He's a fucktard

I do not like Ed Rendell. He left Philly in the hands of Street.

[RollWithIt]

11. Gotta disagree with you, from an outsider point of view...

Rendell now has deep national ties going into his last two years. That means federal funding in a large way. A governor like that doesn't get recognition for 3-5 years when the money has already funded him statewide programs. The job of a good state governor is to make sure his state is getting paid by the Fed. Especially in the rust belt.

[AllentownJake]

12. He was an absolute ass during the PA primary as well

Besides the only reason Govenor's move into the Senate is to become President...there are some exceptions of course. I can't see Rendell from running the 5th largest city in the country and the 5th largest state move into running nothing but a staff smaller than he had when he was DA of Philly.

[RollWithIt]

13. I refuse to continue the primary fight.... many people on both sides were asses.....

Including some Obama people. Hell, I was an Obama guy towards the end of the primaries and I said a lot of shitty things.

We won. You have to let it go. Just my 2 cents.

[AllentownJake]

18. Abuse of Power

I would never threaten another elected official with budget cuts to their areas if I chose to endorse another inter-party candidate. I've been more than fair and an outspoken critic of attacking Hillary over a possible VP nomination or SOS.

[Beacool]

16. Oh yeah, how dare Rendell support Hillary and not Obama

during the primaries.

:eyes:

[AllentownJake]

17. You've seen me be somewhat fair here

However threatning mayors and other elected officials with budget cuts if they endorse Obama is bad pool and an abuse of power.

[Beacool]

19. Did he really do that?

:(

[AllentownJake]

21. Yes

I was not happy with him before that but some of the old school democratic machine tactics in the Primary were really sad.

Ed's time is over in 2010 and hopefully after he leaves that machine will die as well. Alot of the problems here are related to the party machine politics on both the GOP and DNC side.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. I will add to the chorus of Fast Eddie disgusting shenanigans

He threatened Pittsburgh with cutting off funding for their stadium if they didn't deliver their vote for Hillary.

[MrSlayer]

14. I'd like to see Chuck Pennacchio run again.

I voted for him in the primary against Casey. He's a genuine Progressive.

[Beacool]

15. I can't stand the sight of the sexist creep

and the thought of that jerk anywhere near the senate is appalling. If he does run, I'll make it my mission to travel to PA every weekend to campaign for whichever candidate runs against him.

:puke:

[AllentownJake]

23. Come to Allentown if Sestak runs

We'll be on the same side for the primary :-)

[AlinPA]

31. Once PA voters see the slobbering loudmouth fool they will reject him.

[JimGinPA]

20. One Reason I'd Like Tweety To Run For The Senate Here...

Because then I wouldn't see his dumb ass on M$NBC anymore. He has absolutely no chance to win though.

[AllentownJake]

22. If he wins the nomination

I'll fight like hell for him. If Joe Sestak runs I'll fight like hell against him in the primary.

[ShadowLiberal]

24. The problem is PA elects a governor in 2010, hence many democrats are running for that instead

The reason why Matthews is the front runner is because many of our best candidates to run are running for governor, Ed Rendell is term limited. It's much easier to get elected to an open post rather then facing a 6 term moderate incumbent who has gotten many cross over voters in the past.

More then Matthews wants to run though, Pat Tooney is almost certain to run against Specter from the right again, all of the PA insiders believe he'll be back. Tooney came within one or two percent of beating Specter in the primary, and Specter was probably saved by an endorsement from Bush. Now however there will be no republican president to endorse Specter.

Part of the reason why Specter is so hard to unseat is because he was once a democrat, but switched parties to run for attorney general I believe when the republicans didn't have a candidate to run. He did win that election, but lost later on when running for it again, but I mean who can name their state's attorney general? It's because of how Specter is a moderate and a former democrat that he's able to get quite a few people who usually vote for all democrats to vote for him. That often causes stronger challenges to pass up what they see as a losing fight against Specter in the GE.

In my opinion governor Ed Rendell would be the obvious choice to run for the seat, he could probably win, or at least put up a VERY good fight against Specter. The problem with that however is that Rendell has said he wants to retire from politics after his second term as governor is up, he's not interested in running for the senate.

That's where Matthews comes in, with Rendell not running, and other democrats running for governor, Mathews doesn't have any competition that I know of on the democrats side.

In my personal opinion I think Matthews is doomed to lose if he faces Specter in the general election. Matthews is just too controversial, and has said stupid things in the past that have angered groups, like womens rights groups. Celebrities who has run for public office in PA have also done very bad historically. The most recent example is 2006, Rendell faced a former NFL player last election, and creamed him by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.

Against someone like Tooney however, a radical republican who I think stands more then a 50/50 shot of unseating Specter in the primary if he runs again, I think Matthews has at least a fighting chance. Matthews and Tooney are much more evenly matched then Matthews and Specter are.

[AllentownJake]

27. If Toomey runs and their is a democratic primary

Specter will lose. The margin of victory for Specter in 2004 is less than the number of Republicans who have become democrats. People haven't switched their registration back. PA is not an open primary so Specter would have to run a republican for a day campaign and if there is a competitive race for Govenor and Senate on the Democratic side where there will be at least one than Specter will not be able to convince enough democrats to switch parties and vote for him.

Also Specter does not have W and Santorum to run in and save him with conservatives anymore.

[JVS]

25. I think Matthews is a disaster in the making. Rendell or some kind of Philly pol would be good.

Casey is the west pa senator

[AllentownJake]

28. Casey is the North Eastern PA senator

Casey is from Scranton which is about 45 miles north of Allentown. Allentown is 50 miles due north of Philly.

Rendell would win but he wouldn't be happy in the senate.

Joe Sestak is the best bet for that seat. He also has 3,000,000 of left over funds from his 2008 congressional race.