bullshit story...specter AND sestak are incumbents

[spanone]

Primaries put incumbents on line

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/18/tuesday.primaries/index.html?hpt=C1

[stray cat]

1. Sestak is not a standing US senator?

[spanone]

2. he's a standing member of the house...a congressman

[NYC_SKP]

3. Article refers to Specter and Blanche Lincoln, not Specter and Sestak.

Sestak is in the house.

The article leads with Pennsylvania but goes on to Arkansas and Kentucky races.

I'm nut sure I see the problem.

:donut:

[spanone]

4. read on

Sen. Arlen Specter, a five-term incumbent and ex-Republican, is running neck and neck with Rep. Joe Sestak, a retired Navy admiral who at one time trailed Specter 2-to-1.
Specter was a Republican until he crossed party lines to cast a deciding vote on President Obama's stimulus plan.
Soon after, he crossed over to the other side in the face of plummeting GOP support in his primary battle against Pat Toomey, a former member of Congress and head of the conservative group Club for Growth.
Specter has the backing of Obama, but it's unclear whether that support will be enough to put him on top Tuesday.

[Obamanaut]

5. It reads to me that Specter (incumbent) is running neck and neck

with Sestak (challenger), who is currently a member of the house.

[zipplewrath]

6. Crappy, but no BS

Just a very lazy story. The "incumbent" angle has more to do with the reason Specter is in the democratic party to begin with, because he couldn't hack it in the GOP primary as an incumbent with an "imperfect" record. It has little to do with his race with Sestak. Actually, the whole "incumbent" thing is a GOP thing. There's some progressive backlash against specific congress critters over specific votes, but I've yet to see a case being made that there is a wholesale rejection of incumbents by democrats.

[terrapinwelcher]

7. It Doesn't Matter

The only "wholesale rejection" we need to be concerned about is in November. Stories like these are simply to fill the dead space from now until after Labor Day. However, I just don't see any coattail effect happening this year. In fact, it may be like 2008 when repug candidates didn't want Bush campaigning for them. Expect to see some of that this Fall with Obama.

[zipplewrath]

8. Inside Washington

It "matters" inside Washington. The perception of these primaries will influence everyone from Obama and Rahm to the House and Senate leadership, not to mention individual congress critters. If the perception is that there is a "shift left", both parties will be influenced (Crist could be involved in generating this perception). If the democrats perceive that there is a "shift left" in their own party, it will influence their positions on specific bills, and the willingness of conservadems to leverage GOP opposition to their own purposes.

Who it won't matter with is the general electorate. They can vote one way this week, and a completely different way next week. They feel no obligation towards any sort of consistency.