Sestak to Challenge Specter
Roll Call Staff
Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) intends to run for Senate against newly minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) in the 2010 primary, confirmed the office of the two-term House Member on Wednesday evening.
“He intends to get in the race,” Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said. “In the not too distant future, he will sit down with his wife and daughter and make the final decision.”
When Specter announced he was going to switch parties to run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010, the 29-year incumbent proclaimed he had the backing of Senate Democratic leadership and the White House. And since Specter’s announcement, Sestak has been vocal about his interest running against the former Republican — even if it means running against the preferred candidate of President Barack Obama, Gov. Ed Rendell and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Sestak’s sister, who is also a campaign official, first confirmed that the Congressman intended to run for the seat to a left-leaning news Web site Wednesday afternoon.
According to recent poll results from the DSCC, which supports Specter, Sestak has an uphill battle to defeat the new Democrat in the primary.
In a Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group poll obtained by Roll Call, Specter led Sestak, 56 percent to 16 percent, among a sample self-identified Democratic primary voters in the Keystone State surveyed during the first week in May.
Sestak, a fundraising powerhouse, had more than $3 million in his campaign account at the end of March.
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