By Sean Coit
PoliticsPA
sean@politicspa.com

In 1965, now-U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s legendary political career began when he ran successfully for Philadelphia District Attorney as a Democrat.

So it seems fitting for his career to end more than four decades later in the same city, barely one year after returning to what he has called “the party of his roots.”

Rep. Joe Sestak, Specter’s primary challenger, defeated the five-term incumbent after a bitter and divisive primary battle in which Specter boasted the support of the full Democratic establishment, including President Obama, Governor Ed Rendell, and the full weight of the state and city Democratic machines.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Sestak held a commanding 8-point lead over Specter. The difference represented roughly 80,000 votes — about 1.04 million ballots were cast in the primary.

Specter’s emotional concession speech came much earlier in the night than most had expected, and the 80 year old Senator immediately shifted the focus to the general election.

“I think it is vital that we keep this seat with the Democratic party,” Specter told the stunned crowd at his campaign  ”and I will support [Sestak] in the [general] election. ”

Specter won Philadelphia by 64 percent, beating Sestak by about 50,000 votes there. Turnout, however, amounted to only 160,000 strong, far below the 2002 Democratic primary turnout, when 280,000 people cast their ballots in the city. That was in large part because of Governor Ed Rendell’s presence, the former mayor of Philadelphia.

Statewide, Sestak dominated Specter, with the incumbent winning only two counties besides the city: Dauphin and Luzerne. And in those areas, Specter’s support didn’t even crack 51 percent.

As daily polls showed the race become a dead heat in its final week, it became clear that Specter would need significant voter turnout in Philadelphia, where he and his supporters are most popular.  But on a rainy, dreary day in southeastern Pennsylvania, the turnout in the city wasn’t enough to give Specter a shot at a sixth term.

Specter also went out of his way to thank Obama, Biden, Rendell, and Casey for their support throughout the race, comments that drew mixed reviews from disappointed supporters.

Specter’s campaign had hoped from the beginning that support from Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Rendell, and others would suffice to buoy him through the primary contest, but in the last stages of the race, both Obama and Biden decided not to travel to Pennsylvania to help Specter, casting serious doubts over Specter’s chances. Rendell, though, campaigned relentlessly for

“I was surprised to see that Joe Biden turned his back on his friend,” said Jordan Lieberman, Specter’s Political Director during is 1998 re-election campaign.  ”The Vice President used to be a reliable guy named Joe.  Now, not so much.”

Specter’s loss is yet another indication of the strong swell of anti-incumbency sentiment nationwide.  In Kentucky today, “Tea Party” candidate Rand Paul beat the establishment pick, Trey Grayson, in the GOP Senate primary, and incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D), also struggled in the Democratic primary battle in Arkansas.

For months in the early stages of the campaign, Specter maintained commanding leads of more than 20 points, but was not able to ward off the late surge of the two-term congressman from Philadelphia’s suburbs.  Sestak’s surge started in late April when his campaign began spending its multi-million dollar warchest on a statewide TV ad campaign, simultaneously introducing Sestak to new voters and hitting Specter on his decades with the Republican party.

The defining image of the campaign, though, undoubtedly appears in this Sestak ad, which shows Specter on a stage with former President George Bush and former GOP U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum.  Produced by the Philadelphia based Campaign Group, the ad’s release is considered by most observers to be the turning point in the election for Sestak.

Lieberman also said that Specter simply wasn’t compatible with the current political climate.

“Arlen Specter will no longer be a senator because he was not liberal enough to win a Democratic primary, nor conservative enough to win a Republican primary,” Lieberman said.  ”His loss means there is one less senator willing to tell the president of his own party to shove it.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Front Page Stories. 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.