Two questions for people in PA

[Lenape85]

1. Pennsylvania went for Gore in 2000. How is it that the good people of PA also re-elected Santorum that year.
2. Do you think Hoeffel has an honest chance against Ricky Santorum come 2006.

[flowomo]

1. 1) Santorum had a ridiculously weak opponent and 2) no....

Ron Klink was a jerk dubbed "Santorum Lite." Why vote for the imitation Dem when you could have the real thing? And no way Hoeffel beats Santorum in the present climate. Of course, if ideologies shift due to Bush disasters, new possibilities emerge.

[JM]

2. If the PA Dems are serious about taking Santorum's seat

they need find a serious contender. Hoeffel is not the contender they need. Hoffel came close because so many Dems were disgusted and voted straight ticket. That won't be enough in the next election.

Santorum is #3 in the Rpeublican leadership. They will throw SERIOUS national money into his campaign in order to make sure he comes back. At the rate the Dems are operating in PA, they will need a miracle to beat Santorum.

JM

[MASSAFRA]

3. My campaign against Santorum

would be simple. This is a person that does not believe that you have a right to privacy. He wants the government in your bedroom and every part of your life. I would hammer this home on every issue.
This came out when the Supreme Court was considering an anti-sodomy law in Texas.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. The problem is that a majority of Pennsylvanians agree with Santorum

on this issue. If the election comes down to Guns, God, and Gays, the democrat will lose. PA is a culturally conservative state.

[MASSAFRA]

7. Its how the message is delivered.

I was thinking of a series of commercials of a man looking like a KGB agent in the black coat, dark hat, and glasses showing up in places where we expect to be allowed privacy. He would appear in the couples bedroom, he would search their house after they leave, he follow them into the library to find out want books they read.

Even conservatives feel they have a right to privacy. Don't they? It would show a big brother government's intrusion into our lives.

[meow2u3]

9. We need a culturally conservative, otherwise liberal Dem

to run against Bobblehead Ricky. I think Bobby Casey or Mike Stack (Northeast Philly) would fill the bill

[Joy Anne]

10. too conservative

As in the governor's race, Casey won't get the nomination because we liberals will vote against his antichoice stance. I do otherwise like Casey and vote for him for positions in which he isn't making law.

[Momof1]

4. What about Chris Heinz?

He doesn't carry the same name recognition out here in "Alabama" but...a famous name against Santorum might win.

[Joy Anne]

5. why Santorum won

Ron Klink ran to the right of Santorum, and incompetently, too. His ads were that he grew up poor and couldn't afford to go to college (so why should anybody vote for an uneducated candidate who lacked the gumption to go to night school or community college like the rest of us did?).

[JPZenger]

8. Need to Motivate Phila. to Show Up for Senate Race

We need to again motivate Phila. voters to show up to vote against Santorum. They did show up for Kerry and gave Kerry a 400,000 vote margin. Without a high Phila. turnout, Kerry would have lost PA.

[devinsgram]

12. Just what I said in my other post.

If we can keep that structure going we can win. I have high hopes for getting rid of this scum of the earth.

[devinsgram]

11. Absolutely, Klink ran a terrible campaign

and Santorum started running ads way early, which is what he will do again. Now, the Club for Growth will pump money to Santorum, but if we keep the structure in place like we had for the past election, Santorum can be easily beat. Not all of us are stupid. The 2006 election needs to be started now. I really believe we can get rid of this scum if we keep our act together.

[EmmaP]

13. Help from MoveOn?

Do you think organizations like MoveOn will help in defeating Santorum?

[Patiod]

15. Klink may no effort at all to reach out to the Eastern 1/2 of PA

He was a complete unknown here - many people i know here in Eastern PA just didn't vote for that office.

[donachiel]

14. Santorum over Hoeffel not likely

I volunteered for the Lycoming County Democratic Committee during the campaign and I don't know about the rest of PA but from what we heard, most of our democrats were planning on voting straight ticket.

Joe Hoeffel is a great man. We heard him speak. His record speaks for itself.

Nobody likes Santorum???

[Patiod]

16. The Catholic Church is also going to mobilize on this one

So we're fighting Big Republican Money (remember, this is Scaife's own state) and the Catholic Church.

We're going to need a good candidate, a hook, and a huge mobilization effort to rid ourselves of this moran.