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Specter Gives Refunds, Loses Bragging Rights

Arlen Specter’s party switch has cost him some cold hard cash and perhaps a battle in a long political war.

When Senator Specter of Pennsylvania switched parties last year to become a Democrat, he offered to refund campaign contributions from anyone who felt betrayed by his leaving the Republican Party.

The total amount he has refunded was about $850,000, according to the Specter campaign.
About 900 people requested refunds, his campaign said.

It’s not a huge amount and does not alter the fact that Mr. Specter, always a prodigious fundraiser, has far more cash on hand than Representative Joe Sestak, his Democratic challenger in the May primary, or former Representative Patrick Toomey, the all-but certain Republican nominee in November.

But it means that Mr. Specter raised less in the last quarter of 2009 than Mr. Toomey raised. Mr. Specter raised $1.15 million, while Mr. Toomey raised $1.67 million. Mr. Sestak raised $650,000.

Of the $850,000 that Mr. Specter returned, the bulk of it was in the fourth quarter.

If Mr. Specter had not had to refund those donations, he might have won an important public relations battle over the weekend when the candidates made public their fundraising totals for the last quarter of 2009.

For Mr. Specter, falling behind Mr. Toomey in his quarterly report, for whatever reason, is bad news by itself but also because it followed a poll last week from Franklin and Marshall College that showed him trailing Mr. Toomey by double-digits in a hypothetical match-up.

The good news for Mr. Specter is that he overwhelmed Mr. Sestak, his immediate challenger, in the money race and has more cash on hand than either rival.

Mr. Specter has $8.66 million in the bank, compared with Mr. Sestak’s $5.1 million for the May primary and Mr. Toomey’s $2.8 million.

He has also been spending more. Mr. Specter spent about $1.2 million in the last quarter _ $100,000 more than he brought in, whereas Mr. Sestak appeared to be husbanding his more limited resources.

More . . .

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