PA-Sen: Michelman won't make an independent bid

She did the right thing:

Abortion-rights activist Kate Michelman won't run in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race.

Despite pressure from abortion-rights supporters, the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America said she would not be an independent candidate in the November election, which will likely feature two candidates who oppose abortion: Democrat Bob Casey Jr. and incumbent Republican Rick Santorum.

"Despite profound and fundamental differences, I have decided that Pennsylvania will be better served by electing Bob Casey to the U.S. Senate than giving his opponent another term," Michelman wrote in an op-ed to be published in The Inquirer on Sunday. "I do this knowing that I may forever regret not responding one more time to the clarion call of principle."

I don't agree with Casey on choice, and South Dakota is reminding us that the issue isn't an abstract one -- it's a real battleground with real repercussions in today's political landscape.

But Michelman understands that Choice isn't served with Santorum sitting in the Senate. It'll be best protected by having Casey help Democrats take over the chamber. And as long as Casey is kept off the judiciary committee, he wouldn't be able to do much damage to abortion rights in a Democratic-held Senate.

(Singer has more at MyDD.)

Update: Previous diary on this topic here.

And Meteorblades says in the comments:

Now the question is whether ...

...Michelman will be able to persuade her old pals at NARAL to switch their endorsement of Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee to Democrat Matt Brown, whom she supports, if he wins the Democratic primary in Rhode Island.

In 1994, Michelman refused to do radio ads for Democratic Senator Harris Wofford because he was just under NARAL's 80% standard for his votes on reproductive rights issues. (Wofford lost to Rick Santorum, one of the worst anti-choice Republicans, who NARAL rates a 0%.) In 2005, Chafee registered at 65% on NARAL's voting gauge, 15 points below the standard that cost Wofford the organization's support 12 years ago.

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