Friday, March 04, 2005

Casey in, Santorum on the Way Out

Andrew Sullivan reports that Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert Casey Jr is going to challenge incumbent US Senator Rick Santorum in 2006. Casey is a pro-gun, pro-life Democrat who will be difficult to tar with the "out of step liberal" label. Santorum, by contrast, is reviled by decent human-beings across the nation for his stridently anti-gay rhetoric, culminating in his infamous comparison of gay sex to sex with a "box turtle" after the Lawrence v. Texas decision. The poll data is looking very good for Casey. He has the same approval ratings of Santorum with only a third of the disapproval ratings (twice as many people haven't heard enough about Casey to form an opinion, however). Santorum has struggled in recent elections, with a relatively unknown Democratic challenger taking 47% of the vote against him in 2000. This time, with a high-profile name on the ticket, topped by popular Governor Ed Rendell and prominently absent the presence of GOP ticket-topper George W. Bush, liberal prospects here look much better. Indeed, the Quinnipiac poll cited claims that Casey's main problem might be a divisive Democratic primary. And lo and behold, according to PoliticsPA (the same site that broke his bid), Casey's main Democratic challenger, former Treasurer Barbara Hafer, has dropped out of the race. The stars appear to be in alignment, and the Democrats might be able to knock off one of the most prominent Conservatives in America. If only we could get a certain exterminator to join him...

UPDATE: The Pittsburgh Channel has a permalinked edition with the basics.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Come on, be nice... thats my boy Santorum you're talking about. Dont worry about it though, he could be running for President one of these days anyways. Oh and it sort of surprises me that anyone in the Casey family still has a D next to their name after the disrespect paid to Jr's father by the Democratic party. But I had to post, I havent in a while. Talk to you soon. Later David

-J Daniel Sheehan