Mistake in the Specter race!!

[PCIntern]

They misreported Bucks County's 83000 votes and gave Specter a wide lead. This is not gonna be finished early tonight!

[PittPoliSci]

1. I'm pullin' for Toomey!

Cause Hoeffel will trounce him in the fall.

[Gman]

2. That makes a lot more sense

either this or labor and other democrats that cruised under the polls' radar turned out in bigger numbers than anyone would have thought.

[loudsue]

3. Don't you guys GET IT??

Another "skanky" election result? You don't think the votes are being tinkered with to bring the neocon up? And you REALLY think a Dem can go up against the voting machine tinkerers?

:shrug: What don't you understand about supporting (for chrissakes) a NEOCON??????

:kick:

[yardwork]

5. It's not clear who the tinkerers would be in this case....

Chimpy has thrown his weight (all 7 ounces or so) behind Specter.

I see this as a win-win for Democrats. If Specter wins, it's the victory of a moderate over a right-winger.

If Specter loses, it's pie in the face for Chimpy's team, and a good likelihood of getting another Dem in the Senate.

Either way, the Republicans are spending lots of money on this race, and that's money well-spent on something other than beating up on Democrats.

Since PA is still using paper ballots and old-fashioned machines, it's not likely that Diebold has any hand in this contest.

[AP]

9. Rove wants Specter to win because they think Dems will win if he doesn't.

[chookie]

13. There were disagreements about strategies here

Pat Toomey is totally bonkers -- at least as, or even surpassing, Rick Santorum. He ran originally as a self-described "Bush and Santorum-style Republlican" -- so least he was up front about being a wacko extremist.

To show you how political life in America has become so distorted -- when you have Pat Toomey accusing *Arlen Spector* of being a lefty -- well, that's just plain f***ing nuts.

Toomey is the ideological soul mate of Rick and George -- but I guess they were ordered by the RNC to back the encumbent Spector.

His Chimperial Highness came to Pittsburgh for an event to help Spector's campaign -- but not without starting his little presentation with some snide remarks about how "independent-minded" Arlen can be, and made some stupid jokes about how Arlen still wears the same suit as when he met George W 12 years ago -- just snide, stupid, remarks -- party designed to thrown the "wacko" mantle onto Spector's shoulders to persuade the wacko-leaning undecideds to go for Spector. There was also a kind of Mafia-don feel to it -- like, Arlen, if you don't start doing the things that Rick and I tell you to, things are going to start breaking in your office. OH! Look at that! Sorry I just broke your late mother's portrait."

If I had been Spector, I would have kneed that simpering frat boy right then and there on the stage in front of all of those people for daring to pull that shit on me. It was simply humiliating for this long-serving Senator to be insulted in public as he was, by His Chimperial Highness.

Back to the main point: some people said it would be great to have Looney Toomey running against Hoeffel, who, being sane, would stand a great advantage to win. On the other hand, if George W's friends hand Toomey over say, $35 million for his campaign against Hoeffel -- Pennsylvania will have not one, but two TOTALLY bonkers, utterly psychotic, stupid, religiously insane fanatical ideologues representing us.

I am going to work for the Hoeffel campaign and want him to win the election. But I would rather have him lose to a guy like Spector, who is merely a traditional conservative with the occasional wacky take on things, than Toomey, who would simply be a disaster for PA and our nation.

Gee -- the Repukes ran some plug-ugly NeoCons this primary! YIKES! None of them seem to be doing well though, thank Heavens. This comes as a surprise as I have been informed that turnout was very light, which would have lead me to think that the wacky fundamentalists were the only ones braving the rain and hailstorms to vote for another crusader leading us to Armageddon.

[tigereye]

15. good point

our state might just be crazy enough to elect Toomey over Hoeffel.

sigh.

[lupita]

14. Conservatives always win in the primaries...

The Fundamentalists always move their right wing base.
This happened in Oregon 2 years ago.
This could be good for us.

Lupita

[napi21]

4. Please keep up up to date with yur news. I've not heard anything

about the Pa. race since I'm in Georgia!!!

[orwell]

6. Diebold or Die

Diebold to the rescue!

O

[aquart]

7. WHO made the mistake? HOW did they make it?

Just wondering.

[mouse7]

8. self-delete n/t

[Dookus]

10. I disagree

it will be finished tonight. Specter is maintaining a 52/48 lead.

There was a short-term glitch where the results were reported wrong, and quickly fixed. It's not a Diebold scam - it's just the normal things that go wrong when humans are trying hard to record complex information for public consumption in a very short period of time.

The Bucks County problem was fixed very very quickly. Specter is still ahead with 74% reporting. 52/48 is NOT terribly close in the big scheme of things.

NOW... that being said... if we're still waiting on a whole lot of rural counties, then things could change. But Specter has held his lead the whole night, and it would have to change drastically for him to lose at this point.

[PCIntern]

11. It has not been made clear

what happened here - I will call a patient of mine who works for the Inquirer tomorrow and find out what the powers claim is going on...

Very weird...I haven't see that before even here in philly...

[PCIntern]

12. 13th District here is interesting...

Hoeffel's old district that was re-districted to get me personally out of the region so I can't vote for Hoeffel. We now have this Dr. Brown (female) who is a nurse, a doctor, and a well-known 'moran', who is claiming victory although she only got 39% of the vote running aginst two other schmecken - she almost beat Hoeffel last time. she talks like this: "My - our President Bush's war is my war..." you get the idea. There is a close race for the Dem nominee incl alyson Schwartz and this interesting fellow Torsella who was head of the Constitution Center - you will recall that that was when the proscenium almost killed Sandra Day O'Connor. He's pretty bright.

We'll see - the district now convers Montgomery County and NE Philly. The latter used to be Repub, now Dem, the latter used to be Dem, now somewhat conservative.

I'm really confused...

[tigereye]

16. so tell me a little about Hoeffel

what is his deal? Is he known other than on the eastern side of the state. Is he known enough to beat Toomey if it comes to that? What is he most known for?