Arlen Specter portrays himself as a moderate but his appeasing positions on many of George Bush's extreme policies demonstrate just how conservative a voter he can be. Part of this is a response to a challenge from the right by Patrick Toomey. Nevertheless, watching Specter defend Bush's extreme judicial nominees was more than I could bare.
Joe Hoeffel has appeared as the sole candidate for the Democratic nomination to challenge Arlen Specter next year. Now, I am a bit disappointed that his opponent bowed out to allow for a bloodless primary but I'm pleased with Hoeffel's potential. If his announcement speech is any indication I think he may have the fight necessary to run a good campaign. But I've never seen him speak and would appreciate input on whether or not he can generate some fire in his stump speeches.
I like Hoeffel. I am not a single issue voter but if there is one single issue that is most important to me Hoeffel is on the right side as a co-sponsor of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act. This Bill would end commercial logging in our national forests and is a good measure of a Representatives strength on conservation issues.
I encourage folks to help jump start Hoeffel's campaign. I tried e-mailing the campaign and encourage them to link up with meetup.com and to establish a campaign blog. We'll see how it goes from here but I think the Dean model is definitely the best means to have even a chance in 2004. I'm still holding out on whether or not to long-term commit to Hoeffel's campaign. If it doesn't take off and the Greens have a better candidate I will probably support the Green. But I think Hoeffel has the credentials to succeed in Pennsylvania. Only time will tell.
I wrote a little bit more on this on my blog if you are interested. Please nag the campaign to get some sort of on-line network activated!
