The Hill, one of the two leading authoritative newsletters intended for Congressional staff and members of Congress, has this article saying U.S. Senator Arlen Specter could conceivably run as an independent next year. He has irked many Republicans because he voted for the stimulus package. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this link.
Thanks to ThirdPartyWatch for this link.
TPW has not been updated since February 11.
Thank you. I corrected the post. I meant to say Independent Political Report. I make that mistake frequently (must be freudian).
Specter has reportedly been lobbying the Pennsylvania legislature to change to open primaries, so Democrats will be able to vote for him in the GOP primary.
I don’t see this as being successful. Neither party now invites independents to vote in its primaries, and the parties will use their clout to keep closed primaries.
Actually, the effort is to enact a Pennsylvania law requiring the parties to let independents vote in their primaries. I don’t see this as being successful either.
The piece linked above says Specter has ruled out switching to the Democrats. He laments that, if he loses the GOP primary, he can’t then run as an independent, as Joe Lieberman did.
Senator Spector should run as an independent!