Hillarysworld

Specter may have thought he was getting away from criticism on his health care vote when he changed from Pub to Dem.  It looks like it didn't do him much good in terms of being reelected, though.  A March 15 Rasmussen poll has him trailing his opponent for his current senate seat.  I'm guessing he's going down. lol

Specter says he still would've backed health bill had he stayed in GOP
By Michael O'Brien - 04/08/10 11:01 AM ET

Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) said Thursday he'd still have voted for healthcare reform legislation had he remained a Republican. 

Specter, who left the GOP in 2009 to pursue reelection as a Democrat, maintained that he still would have voted for the health reform legislation to have made its way through Congress this year had he remained a Republican.

"My vote would have been the same," Specter said in response to reader questions in a video series with the Montgomery County Times Herald. "As you know from my record, I frequently crossed party lines when I was on the other side of the aisle."

Specter, along with all Senate Democrats, voted to approve healthcare legislation as well as a bill making a series of fixes to the original bill. No Republican lawmaker in the House or the Senate voted to support the bill on final passage. 

The veteran senator is facing a primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), the winner of which is expected to face a tough general election race from former Rep. Pat Toomey (R).

Specter said his record in the past was consistent on healthcare, pointing to his work on funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and his vote in favor of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), among other things, as examples.

"I would have voted for the healthcare bill," the senator explained. "I have long been active from my position as chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on Health and Human Services on healthcare issues."

Below is an excerpt from the Rasmussen poll.

Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate
Pennsylvania Senate: Toomey 49%, Specter 40%
Monday, March 15, 2010


For the third month in a row, likely Republican nominee Pat Toomey holds a nine-point lead over incumbent Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Pennsylvania shows Toomey leading Specter 49% to 40%. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) more are undecided.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2010/elections