NRSC targets Specter with early attacks

Hell hath no fury like a party scorned. That’s what Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) is learning two days after bolting the Republican Party in advance of a difficult reelection fight next year.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has launched robo-calls associating Specter with former President Bush and kicked off a website attacking the Pennsylvania senator, who this week became the first Republican ever to switch directly to the Democratic Party.

{mosads}On Thursday, the committee launched a second round of automated calls aimed at disgorging Specter, this time by trying to egg another candidate into the Democratic primary.

The target is Rep. Joe Sestak (Pa.), the two-term Democrat from the Philadelphia suburbs who had contemplated running for Specter’s seat before the switch. Sestak “voted for President Obama’s budget which contained spending increases for Democrat priorities like housing and environmental protection. But don’t Pennsylvanians deserve an independent voice in Congress?” asks the narrator in the call.

“Our new Democrat, Sen. Arlen Specter, has been that voice. Last night Sen. Specter stood with conservative Senate Republicans in opposing the Obama budget,” the call continues. “Tell Joe Sestak that Pennsylvanians want an independent voice. Not another vote for the Obama agenda.”

Senate Republicans, angry that Specter left even after NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas) pledged to back him in a GOP primary, have no inclination to let Specter skate through a Democratic primary. The call will go to Democratic households, a move sure to generate support for a potential Sestak bid.

“A strong democracy is an informed democracy, and as part of our continued effort to educate Pennsylvania Democrat primary voters we thought it was important to highlight last night’s vote on the president’s budget,” said Brian Walsh, the NRSC’s communications director.

“It appears that despite the rhetoric from liberal interest groups like MoveOn.org, the Democrats’ new Senator Arlen Specter may not be prepared to rubber-stamp the Obama agenda like other Pennsylvania Democrats, such as Joe Sestak,” Walsh added.

Sestak has been publicly noncommittal about backing Specter even though top Democrats have signaled they would support the senator. Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who has known Specter for decades and once worked for him in Philadelphia, and President Obama have both pledged their support.

Though Republicans have expressed more disappointment than anger in recent days, the level of commitment the committee has already had in Pennsylvania is evidence that the party was particularly wounded by Specter’s defection. Sources insist the calls and website aren’t personal, but the race has clearly captured the committee’s attention.