Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties to avoid one tough primary, but all of Obama's and Ed Rendell's promises were for naught, as he now faces a tough primary in the Democratic side against a real Democrat -- Rep. Joe Sestak. Why is he challenging the Specter?
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak drew a comparison Saturday between his decision to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in next year's Democratic Senate primary and Specter's calculated choice to leave the Republican Party.
"Pennsylvanians should have someone that's in it for them, not their own legacy," Sestak, 57, told The Sunday Voice during an hourlong interview on the city's Public Square.
Sestak said he had already been deliberating running against Specter in the 2010 general election for months before the five-term senator announced his party switch three months ago, days after a poll showed Specter, 79, trailing the more conservative Republican challenger Pat Toomey in a hypothetical primary showdown.
Specter's switch, after he voted to support the policies of Republican President George W. Bush more than 80 percent of the time, solidified Sestak's decision to enter the race.
"It's about Pennsylvanians, it's not about your job," Sestak said of Specter. "We Pennsylvanians have lost too many jobs in this recession to worry about his job security, particularly since he voted with President Bush on the economic tax policies that sent us over the precipice into this recession."
Sestak, who retired as a three-star admiral after 31 years in the Navy, is in his second-term representing the state's Seventh Congressional District, which includes parts of Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties.
On the web: Joe Sestak for Senate