Some Incumbent Senators Seem To Get No Respect

[Purveyor]

(07-25) 05:40 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

When it comes to next year's primaries, three senators probably are feeling a lot like Rodney Dangerfield: They can't get any respect.

As veteran lawmakers, Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky., should be coasting, under normal circumstances, to the general election. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., appointed in January as Hillary Rodham Clinton's successor, has the White House's backing.

Yet each has party challengers clamoring for a primary fight in 2010. That's unusual in the Senate, where incumbents typically sail smoothly into the November vote. It's created awkwardness and tension for party leaders who like to avoid contentious and expensive primary contests.

Specter, a five-term senator, cut his decades-long ties with the Republican Party in April and became a Democrat in a state that Barack Obama won handily in the presidential election. Bunning is a Hall of Fame pitcher with two terms under his belt. Gillibrand, 42, is the Senate's youngest member.

Hard economic times, however, are stirring discontent about politics as usual, which opens the door for challengers, said Clay Richards, who recently retired as a pollster at Quinnipiac University.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/25/national/w054012D89.DTL#ixzz0MIEorA3Z

[Vincardog]

1. Cry me a river for the poor Little incumbent Senators. Spector needs to go and take the rest of the

blue Cross Dogs with him.

[Donnachaidh]

2. One of the real problems in this country is the *incumbent* mindset

We'd have far more equitable laws, and a better social safety net, if these incumbents were held to the promises made while running. ALL of them - either party.

They ALL need to be reminded that they were voted in - they can be voted out.