ABSTRACT
The drama of the 2010 Senate race in Pennsylvania actually began in the 2004 Republican primary for the same seat. The incumbent at the time, Republican Arlen Specter, eked out a victory over a younger, more conservative U.S. House member, Pat Toomey. This early warning was not lost on Arlen Specter, who spent the next several years wondering whether he could prevail in another Republican primary despite his 25 years in the U.S. Senate. At the time, Specter was one of the very few moderate Republicans left in Congress, and his anachronistic position led him to switch parties and become a Democrat in April 2009 in order to better position himself to hold on to his seat for a sixth term. Specter’s 2004 experience and his 2009 party switch helped create the context for a battle over his Senate seat, but not the battle anyone originally envisioned.
Known as the Keystone State, Pennsylvania, and especially its largest city Philadelphia, were very important in the nation’s founding. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed in Philadelphia, and the state’s political moderation and location in the geographic center of the country led to its nickname and pivotal status in the new nation.
