Sestak Staffing Up For Senate Race Against Specter
In yet another sign that Joe Sestak is dead serious about taking on Arlen Specter in the 2010 Pennsylvania Dem primary, Sestak has started building a campaign staff for a Senate race, according to a Democrat with direct knowledge of the conversations.
Sestak has interviewed a number of people who would work for his statewide communications operation and online outreach effort, and has talked to candidates for his field operation, the Democrat says.
Meanwhile, three chief media consultants on Sestak’s 2006 and 2008 House races — J.J. Balaban, Doc Sweitzer, and Neil Oxman of the Philadelphia-based firm The Campaign Group — have signaled to Sestak that they’ll work for him if and when he enters the Senate primary.
“My colleagues and I were very pleased to help Joe defeat a longtime Republican in 2006, and we’d be happy to do so again in 2010,” Balaban told me, in a puckish reference to Specter.
Hmmm, this won’t sit well with the Dem establishment, given its uniform backing of Specter. Looks like this race really could happen. What an amazing contest it would be.
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OK, I’m in. Just threw $50 into the pot here: http://www.sestakforcongress.com/
I’m with you jzap. Time’s are tough but I’ve just threw in $10. Go Sestak!
I’ve ran statewide races in Illinois, worked for the Godfather Emil Jones and would love to help out Sestak. If my wife wouldn’t kill me I’d do it for free, that and if I didn’t have bills to pay.
Sestak is an egotistical maniac who is drivin by his desire to hold higher office. He is not a public servant, but rather a serpant who gets his thrills in being defiant. Pennsylvania dosen’t need a Freshman inexperienced Seantor that was fired from his post in the Navy. Come on people, save your money.
Bart:
Who told you this? A big ego and being a politician go together. I am more concerned about your public servant comment. Considering that Snarlin’ Arlen admitted that he left the Republicans because he would have lost the primary. What does that tell you about Specter? Especially considering this is his second switch.
Campaign Group is not just a major name in political consultants that happens to be based in Philadelphia. They are the folks credited with delivering Ed Rendell to the Governor’s office and more recently Michael Nutter to Philadelphia’s Mayor’s office. Although they have worked with Sestak previously, seeing them sign on for Sestak days after Rendell bluffed “What in God’s name is [Sestak] thinking?” has to feel like a small twist of the knife around the Governor’s mansion.
FWIW much of PA’s Dem establishment much preferred the ever reliable Casey family name when the Campaign Group ran Rendell’s upset primary campaign for Governor.
Bart – He served his Country and its citizens for over 30 years in uniform, and now does so as a Congressman, and you have the nerve/gall to say he is not a public servant. So I’m curious, what exactly have you ever done for your Country?
Egotistical maniac, hmmm, doesn’t sound like it to me. “He has one of the most impressive resumes, kindest hearts and smallest egos of anyone I’ve met in Congress or Washington,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense and foreign policy specialist at the Brookings Institution, a centrist-to-liberal think tank. “He’s exactly the kind of person the Democratic Party should be delighted and proud to have running for Senate.”
Yeah, I haven’t really seen or heard anything to indicate that Sestak is any more egotistical than all politicians are. His voting record is very compassionate. Seems like a good guy and that’s not when you put him next to Specter. Next to Specter, Sestak is the second coming.
I wonder just how upset the Democratic leadership will really be if Specter gets shot down. I strongly suspect that they promised him their support if he switched parties, but given his subsequent behavior and voting record, I would doubt that they would feel too badly if he lost the primary. Since they did promise him support, and they are not going back on their word, obviously they are supporting him until after any election.
This crowd was around in 2006. They got Sestak to spend TONs of money in TV. As I understand it, they got a few tons of their own in commissions. Even though Sestak won, he spent a lot more money than he had to listening to people to had a vested interest/commission.
This is going to be an expensive campaign and a total waste of Democratic $$$.
“smallest egos” HA!
Sounds like Mr. O’Hanlon was looking through the wrong end of the binoculars.
“a small twist of the knife”??
These guys are in it for profit. If Specter isn’t going to hire them, then of course they are going to go for the other guy with a ton of money to throw away. They get paid either way.
The Campaign Group’s Veterans ad for Sestak and their ad with Nutter’s daughter in it are two of the best political ads I’ve ever seen, especially in this state.
They aren’t working with Specter because they only work with real Dems.