In light of the new polling data on the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary today, I thought that Daily Kos readers would like to hear more about an amusing event in the campaign that took place back on Sunday. At a conference for the United Steelworkers, at the urging of the union’s membership, Arlen Specter was dumped as the keynote speaker, and replaced by Joe Sestak.
Details in the extended entry.
I first wrote about the event yesterday:
At first glance, Joe Sestak reiterating that he is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act while speaking at a United Steelworkers conference doesn’t seem like much of a news story. As the title of this post implies, however, there is something that made it very interesting:
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak keeps increasing the likelihood that he'll challenge Sen. Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senate nomination next year.
On Sunday, he told the United States Steelworkers Legislative Conference in Atlantic City that he backs the Employee Free Choice Act, the proposed law that would make it easier for unions to organize.
The catch is that Senator Arlen Specter did not speak at this event. In fact, he was disinvited.
In case anyone doubted the veracity of this claim, Jim Savage, President of the Steelworkers local here in Philadelphia, came by in the comments to this post provide the full details on the event:
Since I'm the Jim Savage mentioned in Bowers' post, I think I can fill in some of the blanks here...
- Senator Specter was actually invited back in February.
- A few of us happened to find out he was going to be there about two weeks prior to the conference.
- A mini-revolt among the rank-and-file delegates who were attending the conference ensued.
- Specter was uninvited.
- Sestak was invited to speak in his place.
- Sestak was greeted warmly and the response to his remarks was thunderous.
- Regardless of what the "leaders" do wrt to the primary, the rank-and-file will be working for Sestak.
- Specter sent a whiny-ass letter to be read to the delegates, which was greeted with jeers.
- Fuck'm
Oh, and...
- There is no doubt Sestak is running.
What do you think—should we make #9 the grassroots rallying cry for this campaign?
More
Bad blood between Specter and Pennsylvania Steelworkers has been building this year. Back in February, local Steelworkers chapters delivered petitions and letters from their membership urging Specter’s support for EFCA. In response, Specter staff promised to throw the letters away:
Specter’s staff grew increasingly aggressive at every event, Pennsylvania union members report. At Specter’s Wilkes-Barre office, where union members and allies delivered thousands of letters and petitions, United Steelworkers (USW) member Tim Waters reports that they were told by a staffer, "as soon as you leave, your letters will go straight in the trash."
Stay classy, Specter staffers.
Also, as I argue in my analysis of the polling on the Pennsylvania Senate campaign, Specter is in a noticeably worse position than that faced by other incumbent Senators at the start of major primary challenges over the past four years. He already trails among voters who know both Sestak and Specter, for example.
I’m still wondering if Specter will even run as a Democrat in this campaign. At this rate, Sestak might take a polling lead before mid-February of 2010, which is when campaigns are allowed to start collecting signatures to appear on the primary ballot. If that does happen, Specter might end up running as an independent. After all, he has already shown his willingness to switch parties if his primary poll numbers are weak.