By Alex Roarty
PoliticsPA Staff Writer
roarty@politicspa.com

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak has repeatedly invited Democratic opponent Arlen Specter to a series of six debates before the primary, requests the incumbent has denied.

So Sestak decided Thursday to ask someone else: Republican Pat Toomey.

“If Arlen Specter won’t fulfill the most basic duty of a public servant to state and explain his views, I’d be happy to have Pat Toomey take his place,” said the Democratic congressman said in a statement.”Pat and I already had a debate after I offered to discuss health care reform on his home turf in Allentown. It was the only bipartisan town hall on health care in the nation, and despite our very different views we had a constructive discussion that I think was important for the people of Pennsylvania and, I believe, demonstrated what democracy should look like in our country.

“Pat and I even had a beer afterward,” Sestak said. “This time, Pat, it’s on me.”

Specter has said he would participate in one debate, in Philadelphia, before the May 18 primary, although the two opponents unexpectedly tangled in Lancaster the day before the Democratic Party’s endorsement meeting.

The Toomey campaign signaled it is interested in the proposal.

“It is an interesting offer and we look forward to finding out more details before we make a decision,” said Mark Harris, Toomey’s campaign manager.

Tags: Arlen Specter for Seante, Joe Sestak, Joe Sestak for Senate, Pat Toomey, Pat Toomey for Senate, Specter Toomey

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 4:25 pm and is filed under PA Reports, PoliticsPA Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.