Pennsylvania Democrats Must Allow A Contested Senatorial Primary
by Chris Bowers, Mon Feb 28, 2005 at 10:00:48 AM EST
"Clearly the other side is better organized," Mr. Santorum said. "They got people to all these events. They had seniors lined up to ask questions, they had staff people running up passing them notes."
And that wasn't even the half of it. At the Santorum event at Drexel, the combined forces of local DFA, Drexel Democrats, and Chuck Pennacchio supporters managed to agitate Drexel Republicans into an idiotic chant that we caught on video and that will prove embarrassing to Santorum for some time. The video spread far and wide, as it was linked by over sixty blogs (including almost all of the big ones), mailed out to supporters by MoveOn, and was mentioned by Paul Krugman. By now, the video has probably been seen by more than two million people, including at least 150,000 in Pennsylvania alone.In other words, the events of the past week demonstrated what was previously demonstrated with Ginny Schrader's campaign: grassroots and netroots Democratic activism is alive and well within Pennsylvania. We did all of this ourselves, without any help from the party leadership or elected officials. Politicians and party leaders should take notice of this, for they fail to take us seriously at their own peril. This is why the ongoing movement to stop the Pennsylvania Democratic Senatorial primary before it starts is utterly unacceptable, and I promise will be met with strong resistance. Here's the story:
Among state party leaders, the conventional wisdom is that a primary fight, which could leave the party fractured and fund-raising impaired going into the general election, must be avoided."It's going to be a very tough race, and it's going to be one where all resources are needed," said Penny Lee, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's communications director.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York are hoping to recruit Robert P. Casey Jr., who won more votes than any candidate in Pennsylvania history when he was elected state treasurer last fall.
Casey met with Reid and Schumer, chairman of the DSCC, on Feb. 1. He agreed to consider running for Senate and said he would try to give them an answer by the end of the month, which is Monday.
This article is not the entire story. Many people with connections on this issue have insisted to me that the state and party leadership are in fact trying to clear the field for Casey and preempt the primary. This must not be allowed. As Democrats who are working hard, and succeeding, in damaging Santorum's re-election hopes, we deserve to be included in the selection of the candidate who will oppose and defeat Santorum. If, after the primary, that candidate ends up being Casey, then he would immediately find me among his biggest supporters. However, if the Democratic Party wants to continue to build its extremely fragile bridge with the Pennsylvania netroots and grassroots, it cannot shut its members out of the selection process, period. Many of us here in Pennsylvania are already suspicious of the machine-like tendencies and backroom-heavy characteristics of the state party, and something like this could very easily become the straw that broke the camel's back in that relationship.I also fail to see how a contested primary, no matter what combination of Casey, Hafer, Hoeffel, and Pennacchio it contained, would be damaging to our chances to defeat Santorum. Sure, it would cost money, but that money would also be spent on bashing Santorum, raising name ID for all candidates, and giving the party a wider profile across the state. Rendell and Specter both had hotly contested primary battles in their recent statewide campaigns, and both went on to comfortable victories (8-10%) afterward. The same can be said for many Republican Senate candidates this year. I just don't buy that tons of free media exposure for Pennsylvania Democrats will somehow hurt Pennsylvania Democrats. By contrast, I can see very clearly how pre-empting the primary would go a long way toward hurting Pennsylvania Democrats.
Let the primary run its course. It will be to the benefit of us all.
Tags: Senate 2006 (all tags)
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