(cross-posted at Young Philly Politics)
Joining this group does not make you anti-Specter or pro-Specter. Just means you think we need to keep an eye on him and keep pressure on him on the Employee Free Choice Act, on health care reform, you name it.
I can't claim this idea. But as a Pennsylvanian, I'd like to help spread it. Sen. Specter is still against the Employee Free Choice Act. Let's keep the pressure on him so he votes like a PENNSYLVANIA Democrat and not a "conservadem" (to use Rachel Maddow's term) from Nebraska or the South.
According to the Atlantic:
The same labor unions which hoped to dog Sen. Arlen Specter in his Republican Primary are now thinking about using the money -- about $100,000 -- to "keep Specter honest" when it comes to the principles of his new party, top Democrats said. The money might be used to support a Democratic challenger, the Democrats said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
First thing I'd like to do is encourage Joe Torsella to stay in the race for now. As far as I know, he's a real Democrat, and he's certainly been working for the nomination. He's raised more than $600,000. I am going to try to find an email address for Torsella, among other things.
Fortunately, Torsella doesn't seem to be doing an insta-drop-out, according to Politico:
I decided to run for the United States Senate from Pennsylvania for one simple reason: I believe we need new leadership, new ideas, and new approaches in Washington. It’s become obvious that the old ways of doing business might have worked for the special interests, but they haven’t worked for the rest of us.
Nothing about today’s news regarding Senator Specter changes that, or my intention to run for the Democratic nomination to the Senate in 2010 - an election that is still a full year away.
Congressman Joe Sestak also doesn't seem 100% sold yet:
In a sense he's shifting parties because he found it hard to run against someone. So I'm interested to see what he's running for.... I'm going to have to wait because if the alternative is Toomey, that's one issue. In my mind this is an extremely important moment in the sense of accountable leadership. Their decision has been made that it's easier to run somewhere else and so we've got to make a decision: Is that the type of individual we want to take us forward?
Good for Sestak.
What else? For starters, when's Specter's next town meeting in PA or press conference? Among many unanswered questions, he needs to be asked for the record if he'll support Obama in 2012 and not pull a Lieberman. Remember how Obama supported Lieberman in the 2006 Senate primary? (By the way, that should indicate to Specter that he is not yet home free in the 2010 primary.)
For now, please feel free to join 'Keep Specter Honest' Facebook group.
And please recommend this diary :-)
I'll probably be updating this post later...