MyDD :: PA Sen: State Party Tries To Close Senatorial Primary (Again)

PA Sen: State Party Tries To Close Senatorial Primary (Again)

by Chris Bowers, Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 11:51:54 AM EST

Casey is in. That is good, and fine with me. What is not fine with me are the ongoing efforts of the Democratic Party leadserhip in Pennsylvania to subvert party democracy:

Gov. Rendell and other top Democrats continued their efforts yesterday to squeeze a potential rival to state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. out of the 2006 U.S. Senate race.

A day after vowing to push ahead with her candidacy, Barbara Hafer, a former state treasurer and abortion-rights proponent, appeared to face increasing pressure from some in the party to move aside in favor of Casey, an abortion-rights foe favored by high-level national and state Democrats.

But Hafer did not signal much willingness yesterday to do so, and denied feeling pressure. She said calls have been pouring into her cell phone - from people pledging assistance. She also has support from some abortion-rights advocates, an important Democratic constituency.

"Is anybody talking to Bobby about not running?" Hafer said, adding that she takes offense at the focus on her. "Why do I have to be the one to back out? I've had five statewide races, tough ones."

Casey, who recently opened an exploratory committee to raise money for a possible campaign, has been weighing a decision on challenging Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. Casey was held up on making a decision this week while Democratic leaders made last-minute attempts to scuttle a primary challenge from Hafer or former U.S. Rep. Joseph M. Hoeffel of Montgomery County. An announcement from Casey - likely that he will run - could come as early as today, according to people close to him.

T.J. Rooney, the state Democratic chairman, called county party leaders in Hafer's home base of Southwestern Pennsylvania yesterday and asked them to stay with the party leadership.

"We restated our case that, as much as Barbara is to be respected, we have to have a united front," Rooney said.

My previous post on this subject was not an idle threat, and I have no idea where Rooney gets off talking about unity since he endorsed Fowler the day after Dean sealed the votes for chair. My list of questions to ask Reid, Rendell and others this afternoon are really piling up. I'll have a full report, with pics, in a few hours.

Update: Apparently, it worked. PoliticsPA claims that Hafer is out. From my personal sources, I also know that Joe Hoeffel won't be running either, meaning that it is just Casey and Pennacchio in the primary.

Tags: Senate 2006 (all tags)

Permalink :: 41 Comments :: Post a Comment

From across the state (none / 0)

My biggest concern is that thus far Casey has benefited from the enormous popularity of his father. I am still not sure how he would fair in a tough statewide race. Party leadership statements notwithstanding, I have heard some voice concern that he actually isn't that adept of a campaigner.

To this point I honestly don't know a lot about any of the prospective candidates. I'd be much more able to support someone if they came out of a meaningful statewide primary that gave me a glimpse of what their views are. The best way to strengthen the candidate is to act as mediator to encourage real respect between all the primary candidates.

by PghArch on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:01:21 PM EST

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

Who is pulling the strings for Casey? He's gone from a really bad candidate for Congress from Scranton to Mr. Shoe-in. Given the big push by the organized types to slide in Casey unopposed, I wonder. Is there a Karl Rove type pulling the strings here? Is the aforementioned Rooney the guy or someone else.

Haven't lived in PA since 99 but something stinks about this. Santorum was so beatable in 2000 but 1) we didn't run Rendell, easily the best candidate because he was too busy working for Gore and 2) no money was spent against sanctimonious Santorum. Like NO ads on Philly TV. Hey, Specter had a lot of friends around the state, all Rick had was the hard core fundies. Really ready for the plucking and we let him go through.

by David Kowalski on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:27:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

Pat Casey ran for Congress, not Bob. Bob won two auditor general races, lost a gubernatorial primary to Rendell, then won his treasurer's race this year.

by Adam B on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:30:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

Sorry about the Caseys but let's look at this guy more recently. Mr. automatic had the endorsement of the state party and unions and a 15 point lead over Ed Rendell in a primary for governor and he went down in flames by 15.

Mr. Wonderful is the drool boy savior for Righty Rick on Republican blogs. They talk about him having campaign skills that are so exciting he looks like he's heavily medicated.

Casey will be more than a non-entity when it comes to abortion. NARAL ean heavy commercials against the Boy Flub and I bet he still has a hard-on against them.

BOB Casey practiced law in Scranton for 6 years, basically his ONLY non-political, non-inherited job. Despite that, wonder boy valium is supposed to be handed this thing even though the previous governor campaign showed he was green arounf the edges, a bit nasty towards a lot of Democrats, and had zippo skills in a real hand-to-hand combat.

Will Righty Rick be abandoned by the wingers because he along with Bush supported Specter to hold onto the Senate Seat? Did they abandon Bush? Get real, that's a smoke screen trying to fuel the Casy Express with a lot of smoke.

One lousy election does not make this inherited wimp a wonder boy or ready for prime time. We've gone through this before and always get snookered. Sure abortion voters are powerful because although a distinct minority they are one issue voters who vote against every personal need and advantage and interest on this one item. But they ain't leaving Rick Boy's stable for a whiff of Casey "purity." They've been bought and sold for 30 years of non-performance by the GOPers who continue to benefit from Roe v. Wade's maintenance more than anybody else.

To the true believers, only the GOP will reverse Roe v Wade (yeah, right). And abortion is somehow worse than war murder slavery or Hitler. Have the ingested from Roman Catholic dogma or some sort of GOP kool-aid a la Jim Jones. Does it matter? These creeps/freeps are bought and sold as long as the decision is never overturned. What a laugh! Like Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, or Bush II ever did much on these beauty. Why?? It's a guaranteed bloc of sheep to the slaughter.

Sons of Bushes!

by David Kowalski on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 01:14:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

What the hell is wrong with you? Why such hate? Can I suggest a drug for you Ativan.

Councilman Bill Painter

by Painter2004 on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 09:33:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

also, Rendell has no interest in being one of 100 legislators. He's an executive type. (So, too, we thought, was Casey.)

Ron Klink, the pro-life Dem nominee in 2000, couldn't fundraise a dime in SE PA.

by Adam B on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:31:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

We should have learned some lessons from the 2004 election. Time after time, Dems cleared a path for their perceived strongest Senate candidate, while the Reps had a tough primary. Guess what. The Rep contest filled the airwaves for months, got the candidates lots of publicity, and they ended up winning the general election. Obviously there were other reasons, but clearing a path and exempting someone from campaigning for the nomination didn't look like a great strategy in several states. Salazar and Obama won after pretty serious intraparty opposition. They emerged stronger and better known.

So even apart from the taint of bossism, it doesn't seem to be a very successful strategy.

by Mimikatz on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 01:29:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From across the state (none / 0)

First off, Mike Miles was not serious intraparty opposition for Salazar. Second, Obama didn't have an opponent for half the campaign. Third, in Oklahoma the Republicans delivered the best possible candidate for us in Tom Coburn and we still couldn't beat him, its unlikely had there not been a primary it would have been any different. Fourth, in South Carolina Tenebaum ran a great campaign and nearly killed DeMint on the flat tax issue, but he brought it back to social issues to win, where Tenebaum couldn't compete regardless of the Republican primary. Fifth, in Florida where the was actually a competitive Democratic primary, we still lost despite the fact that in the Republican primary Martinez nearly fell off the spectrum he went so far right. And Sixth, in Louisiana there was one Republican and 3 Democrats, the Democrats spent all their time attacking each other and Vitter slide into the win unharmed.

by upstatenydem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 01:45:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Competitive Primaries (none / 0)

The thing is that the Democrats particularly thrive on being more disparate. The Republicans can survive having a token primary system but I suspect it will really cripple the Democrats long term. I think the real reason that John Kerry seemed so unconvincing is that McAuliffe was so eager to get a nominee, any nominee by February 1....and look what that got us. Bush stacked the line, and John Kerry refused to go deep. Eventually the Dems lost the field position battle, with Kerry-Edwards's ineptitude doing most of the work for them.

I do agree that token primary opponents might not achieve as much as one might think...but you are right that as long as the primary season is racing along, it sucks out a tremendous amount of oxygen if the other side either has an incumbent or no competition.

by risenmessiah on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 03:33:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

We learned it here in AZ (none / 0)

In CD1, the Dem party wanted a nice clean primary so they'd be ready to go against Renzi in the general. Weeeeeell, it didn't work out too well. Paul Babbitt is a nice guy, but he never had a chance to hone a message, figure out what he stood for, and get his face and name out to the district. The primary allows that. Yes, it can get bloody. It's especially ugly as our primaries are so late (September) and there's not a lot of time to turn the guns on your Republican opponent. When's the PA primary? Early enough?

by Erin in Flagstaff on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 04:39:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PA Primary (none / 0)

Primaries are in April/May timeframe. This year's is May 17th, 2004 primary was Apr 27th.

by phillydem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 05:12:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PA Primary (none / 0)

Shoot, have a primary battle for god's sake! This will help in the general. I hate it when the party heads don't learn from these kinds of mistakes.

by Erin in Flagstaff on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 05:33:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: PA Primary (none / 0)

There won't be a true contested primary on either side, so IMHO, it's a wash. A contested primary would've helped Hoeffel last time because Specter got so much good press from Toomey's challenge, but every election is different.

by phillydem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 05:46:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hoeffel did incredibly well (none / 0)

Against Arlen Specter, who is an institution.

With Rendell's backing, dad's name, and an anti-Bush trend that helped Hoeffel ride Kerry's coattails . . . Casey's probably in business against a much more vulnerable opponent in Santorum.

That said, if it's Chuck P vs Casey, then it's time to at least use Chuck P to extract some promises from Casey.

#1 priority is we need to make sure Casey is water-tight on SocSec. If not, Chuck P becomes MUCH more popular in book.

by jcjcjc on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 11:24:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hoeffel did not do incredibly well (none / 0)

As I've said, Hoeffel was my rep and I volunteered
with his campaign at the Philly hq, but Joe didn't do "incredibly well" against Specter. Hoeffel got 42 percent of the vote, which is pretty close to the base state Democratic vote. Joe lost even his home county, MontCo, where he served 2 terms as its
congressman and previously as county commissioner.
In fact, Hoeffel lost all 4 Philly suburban ring counties. This should have been Hoeffel's base. Specter's a Philadelphian, yet he carried the SE Pa 'burbs.

by phillydem on Sat Mar 05, 2005 at 05:31:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hoeffel did not do incredibly well (none / 0)

And, Hoeffel was a throw-away candidate running against a cinch to win. Specter wins because he does a good job of keeping enough PA Dems voting his way.

by jcjcjc on Sat Mar 05, 2005 at 09:33:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

From Right Here (none / 0)

"Gov. Rendell, how do you expect Bob Casey to win over pro-choice voters in the general election if he can't persuade them that he's worthy of their support in a contested primary?"

"Sen. Reid, has Bob Casey expressed to you his opinion on how he'll evaluate judicial nominees like Leon Holmes?"

by Adam B on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:09:17 PM EST

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

I completely agree with the above comment. Are we, as Democrats, unwilling to back our core beliefs (of which CHOICE is a key one)just to have a contender that some party chair thinks can win in their district? Jeez, I hope Dean can prevail in his desire to have us forge and then adhere to some basic Democratic principles--enough of Republican Lite!!!

by A70MOMO on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:23:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

Did you forget that Dean invited pro-life Dems to grow more involved in the party?

How is this any worse than what Republicans advocate, which is single-issue voting?

by GaDem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 02:01:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

To answer your first question, most pro choice voters will do anything to beat Santorum and that includes voting for Casey. Also many pro-life voters could vote for Casey over Santorum because they have not forgiven him for backing Specter last year and can accept Casey as a viable alternative.

by THE MODERATE on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:26:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

um, 2000? More PA'ns voted for Rick Santorum than Al Gore.

by Adam B on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:29:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

So what that was six years ago, and Al Gore lost his home state that year which says his campaign was not that good. And the pro-life voters were very fond of Santorum but that was before he gacked Specter or Toomey something he may live to regret.

by THE MODERATE on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:32:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

Gore took TN for granted, Santorum is more popular than you'd expect, and pro-choicers didn't finance a pro-life Democrat in the general election.

The conservatives will come around and support Santorum. They even came back to Specter, with less than 4% going to Clymer in the general.

by Adam B on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:44:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: From Right Here (none / 0)

Gore took Tennessee for granted?

Hardly. The man had no prayer in that state, or almost anywhere else in the South (outside Florida). As of late, all most voters in the South do - something which infuriates me being a Southerner - is look for the (D) or the (R), and that's it.

Gore had a weak campaign and wasn't popular in his own home state.

by GaDem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 02:03:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Santorum ran as a moderate (none / 0)

In 2000, Santorum saturated the airwaves with
commercials touting himself as a MODERATE. I can
still recall watching them and thinking how can anyone believe that. But, evidently Rick fooled plenty of people.

by phillydem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 02:00:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Nah. Klink just sucked. (none / 0)

He was a very weak campaigner.

Also, his timid response on the gun issue hurt.

by jcjcjc on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 11:27:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re. Klink campaigned hard (none / 0)

Actually, Ron Klink went practically door-to-door
across the state, but he had no money for media
advertising which is why the notion "he ran a crappy campaign" persists. During that campaign I happened on an interview Klink was giving to a newspaper in Bloomsburg, IIRC, that was broadcast on PCN or maybe CSPAN. I didn't know much about Klink and figured he was more style than substance, but after listening to him talk very knowledgebly and in depth about the issues the reporter brought up, I changed my mind.
Klink turned out to be an old school, populist Democrat.

by phillydem on Sat Mar 05, 2005 at 05:39:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Good ridens to Hafer (none / 0)

She's a Republican on taxes, education, health care, etc... Talk about not stand up for the Party's core values, this would be the worse thing for the Democratic Party if she ran against Santorium.

Councilman Bill Painter

by Painter2004 on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 12:38:24 PM EST

uh, pardon me, but. (none / 0)

Haven't we already had the final words on this issue?

by blogswarm on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 01:47:24 PM EST

Post-Gazette reports Hafer withdrew today (none / 0)

Link:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05063/466443.stm

Apparently the guv sweet-talked Hafer out of the
race. We shall see if he offered her the 2006 LtGov slot or support for her against one the western PA US Reps that are serving in Democratic or Democratic-leaning districts like Phil English, Melissa Hart or Tim Murphy. IIRC, Hafer's orginally from Erie, English's district.

by phillydem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 02:08:11 PM EST

Gotta be something (none / 0)

Otherwise, withdrawing is the end of her political career. She takes a hike to John Edwards Land.

by jcjcjc on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 11:28:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Looks like I will be spending some time in PA ... (none / 0)

Over the next 2 years. U.S. Senator BOB CASEY JR!!!

by nickshepDEM on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 02:16:09 PM EST

Decide how seriously you think it... (none / 0)

If you guys are really serious in thinking that a contested primary is important for the Democrats because (a) they need to recognize the new reform/grassroots efforts and (b) they need the visibility that the coverage would give, then make something happen!

Chuck Pennacchio is a candidate I don't really know, and I suspect that he has little chance in a statewide primary. However, (a) he's totally into the grassroots movement and wants to be its spokesman, and (b) if enough people put their efforts where their mouths are, we could make him into enough of a candidate that the party would have to sit up and take notice. At the least, they would realize that "we" are not a force to be trifled with, and that today's activists aren't willing to live with a wink-wink backroom system. At best, the media would get interested in the unknown candidate story and start covering the primary. Bam! Both goals!

Don't wait for the machine to become something it isn't; make that happen!
acm

by redfox1 on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 03:56:52 PM EST

Re: Decide how seriously you think it... (none / 0)

I like your idea. If the grassroots and netroots in PA wants to get organized, there's no easier way to do it than around a candidate. However, I think it would be extremely detrimental if it was done in an antagonistic way, running against Casey. This is what we wanted to do with Crystle in 2002, but he didn't really want to do it at the time, unless he could win, and he did do it long enough to establish a network around the state. So just build un the grassroots network, learn when the local party elections are over the next couple of years, and concentrate on using the candidacy to carry the movement, realizing that its about more than just winning this Senate nomination.

by Jerome Armstrong on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 08:24:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Casey for Senate website (none / 0)

Casey's website is up here:
http://www.bobcaseyforpa.com/

Check out his accomplishments as Auditor General.
They aren't chicken feed. Remember that up until
Rendell was elected governor, ALL state row offfices, the governor and the state legislature were controlled by the GOP. Bob Casey, as Aud Gen, was the ONLY check on them and he did his job well.

The website doesn't mention it, but Casey played a big role in exposing the close ties between Ridge, Education Sec Zogby and Edison Corp. Had he not gotten that publicity, Zogby and Ridge would have handed over the entire Philadelphia School District to Edison. As it's subsequently turned out Edison cannot even handle the few schools it did get to manage and is on the verge of being fired by Paul Vallas and the School Reform Com.

by phillydem on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 05:17:44 PM EST

Re: Casey for Senate website (none / 0)

Where are the issues? How come it doesn't have a section for his positions on the issues? Why should a voter vote for him if they don't know where he stands on the issues?

by craverguy on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 05:51:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Casey for Senate website (none / 0)

No one's casting a vote for 14 months. Be patient.

by Adam B on Fri Mar 04, 2005 at 06:37:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]