Democrat Drops Primary Bid Against Specter

ABC News’ David Chalian Reports: Sen. Arlen Specter’s path to the Democratic nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania just got a tiny bit easier. The former head of the National Constitution Center Joe Torsella faced up to the political realities of Sen. Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party and announced today that he is ending his candidacy for the United States Senate.

“As we’ve all learned, campaigns can be unpredictable,” said Torsella in a video message sent to supporters. “At first, I was reluctant to quit something that so many people have thrown themselves into with their whole heart and soul,” he added.

Mr. Torsella said the campaign would have likely been “negative, personal, and more about Sen. Specter’s past than about our common future” and that he did not want to run that kind of campaign.

The day after Sen. Specter announced he was switching parties to try to save his Senate career, President Obama and Vice President Biden welcomed him to the White House and endorsed his candidacy. Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) has also rounded up support among Pennsylvania Democrats all in an effort to clear the primary field for Sen. Specter and work to get him elected as a Democrat in 2010.

A potential Democratic primary challenger still exists, though. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) remains undecided about challenging Specter.

Mr. Torsella had originally issued a statement in the aftermath of Sen. Specter’s party switch that he was going to remain in the race, but taking on the president, the governor, and the bulk of the Democratic establishment proved to be too daunting a task for the largely unknown Democrat.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Torsella said toward the end of his video message as he made clear he would be seeking other political opportunities in the future. Mr. Torsella does not, however, endorse Sen. Specter — for now, anyway.

2010 Begins: Specter Attacks Toomey — Already

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Pat Toomey hasn’t even formally announced his candidacy for Senate yet, and 2009 is only three months old — but Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is already attacking his expected 2010 primary opponent in a new TV ad.

The ad — launching as Congress is set to begin a two-week recess — attacks Toomey as a “Wall Street trader [who] sold risky derivatives called credit default swaps — the same swaps that have now plunged us into this financial crisis.”

Toomey, a former House member, came close to knocking off Specter in a 2004 primary race, and polls show him up early among Republican primary voters in 2010. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found Specter trailing Toomey by 14 points among GOP primary voters,

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the new ad will run statewide in Pennsylvania.

Toomey said last week on ABC News NOW that he was “very likely” to announce is candidacy soon.

Toomey: ‘Very Likely’ to Challenge Specter

ABC News’ Rick Klein and Jonathan Karl report: Former congressman Pat Toomey said today that he’s “very likely” to mount another bid to defeat Sen. Arlen Specter next year in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, and said that he doesn’t believe Specter’s newfound opposition to the union-backed “card-check” bill is “reliable.”

Appearing on ABC News NOW’s “Politics Live,” Toomey, a former House member who now heads the fiscal conservative group Club for Growth, told us: “It’s very likely that I will get into this Senate race very soon. I’ll leave it at that for now.”

On card-check, Toomey pointed out that — despite Specter’s vow this week to join a Republican filibuster of the bill — the senator left himself the out of supporting the union-backed legislation in the future.

“Well, let’s see. Sen. Specter was several years ago a co-sponsor of this legislation,” Toomey said. “Last year on the Senate floor he was the only Republican to join all the Democrats to vote to pursue this legislation. Then all of a sudden he sees he’s got very likely a very serious primary challenge, and he decides he’s opposed to this legislation. But even in his comments . . . he says if the economy improves then he might support this after all, denying workers a secret ballot.

“So, you know, I’m glad that Sen. Specter is at the right place on this bill at the moment, but I wouldn’t consider that very reliable,” Toomey said.

Toomey said he’s not concerned that Senate GOP leaders would back Specter in a primary, as they did when he challenged Specter for Senate in 2004.

“That’s a club, and that’s what that club does,” Toomey said. “The more important thing is what are the voters and what are the citizens of Pennsylvania think, and I think — and I know this from talking to dozens and scores and hundreds of people — there’s a huge worry about all the bailouts, the massive spending, the stimulus spending, the liabilities that this government has taken on in such a short period of time.”

“It’s just frightening. Sen. Specter, of course, has made this possible by helping to defeat the Republican filibuster, and voters of all stripes are really worried about the amount of debt and the deficits and just out of control spending. So I think somebody who’s got a message of fiscal discipline and some common-sense restraints on the size of government, I think that’s gonna really resonate.”

Toomey also showed no indication that he’d change his longstanding support for private accounts to be included in the Social Security program, despite recent gyrations in the stock market.

“Someone who gets a chance to save a little bit of money and invest a little bit regularly over and entire working life is gonna accumulate some real savings,” he said. “More importantly, the design of this plan always contemplated that as a person gets closer to retirement age, their investments would shift away from stocks and towards less volatile instruments like CDs and bank savings and Treasury Bonds. That kind of mixture insulates a person very, very well and someone who was doing that over the course of recent years would be fine today.”

Don’t miss our new daily political show, “Top Line,” hosted by Rick Klein and David Chalian, starting Monday, March 30. The show will stream live at ABCNews.com.

Sen. Specter’s Apocalyptic Explanation

ABC News’ David Chalian reports:

Sen. Arlen Specter R-Penn., found himself yet again explaining his decision to break ranks with his party and support President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package last month and he used dramatic language to do so.

“I think we’re on the brink of a depression,” Sen. Specter said to reporters in Harrisburg, PA on Monday. “I think that if we had turned it down it would have been repercussions world wide,” he added.

The moderate Republican was one of three members of his party in the Senate who crossed the aisle and voted in favor of the president’s plan. Sen. Specter, however, is the only one of the three up for reelection next year and facing the prospect of a serious primary challenge from fiscal conservative Pat Toomey of the Club for Growth. Mr. Toomey gave Specter a run for his money in the 2004 Republican primary when he narrowly lost to the incumbent by roughly 17,000 votes of just over 1 million cast.

Sen. Specter is fully aware of the vulnerability on his right flank which may be why he painted such a dire and mysterious economic outlook when speaking with reporters today. “I knew that it would be politically perilous and I’ve been very blunt about it,” he said.

“Our economic problems are enormously serious, more serious than is publicly disclosed,” Specter said without shedding any further light on what is being shielded from public view.

ABC News’ Lindsey Ellerson contributed to this report.

After ‘Considerable Thought,’ Specter Supports Holder

ABC News’ Ariane de Vogue reports: Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has decided to publicly express his support for Attorney General-designate Eric Holder in advance of the committee vote Wednesday to give his Republican colleagues “some notice as to my thinking on the subject.”

In a press conference today, Specter said that after “considerable thought” and “analyzing a lot of factors,” he decided to support Holder despite concerns about some of the actions Holder took as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

In particular, Specter took issue with Holder’s role in the controversial Clinton pardon of financial fugitive Marc Rich in 2001. Holder had made a recommendation, “neutral-leaning-positive” to the White House, going against the recommendation of the Department of Justice’s pardon attorney.

“Mr. Holder was candid in conceding, with respect to the Rich pardon, that he made a mistake,” said Specter.

Specter added he also met with Holder privately and discussed the concern of some of his Republican colleagues that Holder should publicly address whether he would prosecute military or intelligence officials who had engaged in enhanced interrogation practices against detainees.

“I do think that President Obama has the right approach when he said that it is preferable not to look backwards but to look forwards,” Specter said. “If every administration started to re-examine what every prior administration did, there would be no end to it. This is not Latin America.”