is Rick Santorum seeking re-election to Senate for sure ?

[JI7]

if he decides to run for president he might put off running for re-election, especially if it looks like he will have a tough senate race since the party might make him promise not to run for president since they will be putting so many resources into helping him get re-elected to Senate. and of course if he is defeated in his senate race that wont help at all if he wants to run for president.

assuming he does run for re-election i think we can beat him this time. from what i hear he won the first time 1994 on the "angry white male theme" of the republicans. and i think 2000 was a close race and his opponents campaign wasn't all that well organized so he got lucky. Joe Hoeffel who ran against Specter would be a good choice although there might be others. Specter is more moderate and he got the important labor endorsements which helped. but Santorum will not have these things on his side.

i see the Pennsylvania Senate seat as one of our best chances to pick up a seat.

[NewJeffCT]

1. did the fundies turn out for Specter?

They will for In-Saneotorum...

[JI7]

2. Kerry won Pennsylvania

and i'm sure that's WITH the fundies turning out for Bush.

Specter mostly won because he got a lot of votes from people who voted for Kerry also.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. A 3rd party conservative candidate ran who

pulled a few percent. Specter still won by about 11%.

[Dr Batsen D Belfry]

3. Hoeffel? Be serious!

Hoeffel got close to Specter for two reasons, neither of which is because he was a viable candidate.

1) So many people voted straight ticket Democrat
2) Specter was not right-wing enough

Santorum will not win, and here is why. He is an arrogant ass. That may fly elsewhere, but people in western PA do not like arrogance. If you need proof, look at Barry Bonds when he was here. Top player, and arrogant. Fans did not particularly like him.

Santorum came out of the south hills of Pittsburgh. He won the suburban vote. Then he left, and stiffed one of his constituent suburbs out of over $100,000. Then he had the balls to tell one of his home constituencies that they were not getting a government handout from Hurrican Ivan, while millions were going to Florida.

He forgot you fight for your constituents when you are a representative of them. You don't screw them and you don't kick them when they are down.

If he thinks he will run for President, he won't even carry his home state.

DBDB

[salin]

6. I think that whole residency, stiff the tax payer thing

will be his political death. Suddenly other hypocracies tied to him will be red meat... like being for "tort reform" while his wife files a HUGE law suit...

[tsuki]

7. I have faith in the Peoples of PA. Anyone who

will bring a dead fetus home for his children to hold is nuts. I think most people from PA would agree.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Hoeffel did NOT get close to Specter

He only got 42% of the vote.

[Hippo_Tron]

18. 42% is close against somebody running for a fourth or fifth term...

Not to mention that he wasn't expected to win so I doubt that the DSCC poured money into his campaign.

[No Mandate Here.]

4. We can win this seat handily, if...

1. we keep up the talk about the arrogance of Li'l Ricky. His statement about "will you all remember that my kids were educated for free in two years?" will come back to haunt him.
2. we help expand the cybergate issue statewide. It was technically an abuse of state funds for these Virginia residents to use this money for cyber schools. This is because the $ 100,000 was deducted from the state subsidy that would have been given to Penn Hills, not actual Penn Hills taxpayer receipts. Yes, it did lower the amount of money that PH would have been able to use in the district, but it was money from ALL of our pockets.
3. * continues to screw things up, and we get something resembling a real media. There are already stirrings, with the Kerik debacle. I don't think that one will be quickly swept under the rug.
4. We don't trash ANYBODY who would be able to gather momentum against him. I have seen too many words that trash Hoeffel and other potential candidates. I am not saying this isn't healthy, just thinking there may be better forums and/or choice of language in this discussion. Some of the choices of words are no easier to deal with than *'s "yer either with us or agin us" black or white polarization rhetoric.

Discussion is possible with at least two mouths and four ears. Let's use them.

[blue neen]

20. You made some excellent points.

The Penn Hills School District is already expanding cybergate statewide, so this issue will be staying alive.

The Pittsurgh Post Gazette's coverage and editorials about Santorum have been AMAZING. I am impressed with them.

The people of Etna and communities hit hard by the flood from Ivan are really, really pissed at Santorum. He will never be able to get into their good graces again.

He has burned an awful lot of bridges in western PA that he could ill afford to burn.

[Paradise]

5. Seems like ANYONE can run for President, nowadays!

Well, why not, * did it. The Dems have many qualified candidates, like Kerry, however how many qualified do the repugnants actually have. Oh well, they just have to be qualified at election-fraud-suppression coups, and we know they're highly qualifed at that.

[MAlibdem]

8. woah, woah, woah

"i see the Pennsylvania Senate seat as one of our best chances to pick up a seat."

we're going to have to believe we can pick up more than "a seat" we need 5-6, we better get the resources together to take 10

[JI7]

9. i agree

i just meant that it will be one of the easiest seats to pick up.

the others will be a bit tougher but not impossible.

[MAlibdem]

10. right on

[Eric J in MN]

12. It's very difficult to defeat an incumbent Senator, and

the only 2 Senators who announced they're retiring are Trent Lott of Mississippi and Bill Frist of Tennessee, both Republican states.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. Both of which we do actually have a good shot at

Mike Moore (no relation to Michael Moore), former Democratic Attorney general is very popular and is considering a run for the US Senate. Is he a DINO? Without looking at any of his positions my first assumption would be yes, or very close to a DINO. But I'll take what I can get in Mississippi. As far as Tennesee goes, if Harold Ford Jr. runs, the race will recieve serious national attention.

[Eric J in MN]

15. "Receive serious national attention," yes, but

that isn't the same as saying Harold For, Jr. can win a statewide race in TN.

[Hippo_Tron]

17. It'll be tough, but consider these factors

Tennesee went to Clinton twice. It's a red state only of late.
It's a midterm election, which are almost always bad for the white house (they found a way to make 2002 good for them with the IWR). Whoever runs against Harold Ford will not have Bush's coattails helping them out. Without so many people punching straight tickets GOP tickets, all of the southern races this year, including Oklahoma and Kentucky would've turned out much better for the democrats.

[liberalpragmatist]

19. What about Rep. Gene Taylor?

I've seen him on CSPAN a couple times and I read about him in the American Prospect. He's a rip-roaring populist who keeps winning in a district that voted for Bush by a 30-point margin.

[Name removed]

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