This story in the Philly
Daily News quotes state House Democratic leader, Bill DeWeese giving credit to Kate Michelman for helping to get Rick Santorum's Senate career started.
According to DeWeese, "She's the gal who gave us Rick Santorum."
More below ....
It was a very close race when Santorum first ran for Senate in 1994 against Harris Wofford ....
Wofford was pro-choice. De-Weese called Michelman, then head of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), asking her to run radio ads for Wofford in the Philadelphia region.
Michelman refused. Wofford's voting record was below the 80 percent threshold required for NARAL support. Wofford, who favored parental notification and a waiting period for an abortion, wasn't sufficiently pure.
"The result was the razor-thin election of Rick Santorum, an implacable and obdurate foe of women's rights," DeWeese wrote in a letter sent to newspapers last year, a view he holds to this day.
So now, Michelman is contemplating a run for Senate from PA in November as an independent, which could spoil Bob Casey's chances and put Ricky back in for another term. I find it a stretch to think that she was responsible for Santorum's first win, but the story sure does raise the specter (pun fully intended) of a Ricky redux. Clearly, DeWeese would like to spoil her plans, and I'm all for that.