Paradegoers encourage Sestak to seek Senate seat

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, dodging through the marchers in the Springfield Memorial Day Parade, sprinted from one side of Powell Road to the other yesterday to shake hands, pass out his business cards - and feel the love.

"You should run," someone said. Such words of encouragement echoed in various forms along the route in Delaware County. "Good luck with that Senate race," a man said later as he shook Sestak's hand after a ceremony at American Legion Post 338 in Havertown.

For Sestak, a Democrat who represents the Seventh Congressional District in suburban Philadelphia, yesterday's round of holiday politicking offered a sounding board of sorts on his potential 2010 primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.), who had been a Republican for four decades until last month.

Sestak, who retired from the Navy as a rear admiral, did not bring up the possible Senate campaign, focusing instead on the sacrifices of veterans in a series of public remarks. Others did mention it, however.

"I can't say it's me," Sestak said in an interview. "I think people feel something's amiss. They're wondering, 'What's going on here?' "

Sestak said he was "leaning very much toward getting in" the race, even though Specter has the endorsement of President Obama and the two top Democrats in Pennsylvania, Gov. Rendell and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. Sestak said he would make up his mind in the next couple of months, adding that "odds are great" he will opt to run.

Sestak, who has $3.5 million in his campaign treasury, was considering seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate when Specter announced his dramatic switch.

He said he resented that the party elite was attempting to anoint Specter, a 29-year Senate veteran.

That stance has resonated with liberal Democratic activists and union leaders, angry at Specter's opposition to a bill that would make it easier to organize workers.

"Arlen's a good guy and he's done good things in the past, but I'm not sure he's the one to bring about change," Sestak said yesterday. "I can't see how someone who's been opposed to some of these policies can be relied upon to carry them out" through 2016.

Deane Clark, who attended the parade in Springfield, said he would back the two-term congressman if he made a Senate run. "There are many people who are much better Democrats than Arlen Specter is," said Clark, 65. "Sestak listens."

Last week, Vice President Biden sent e-mail touting Specter to 500,000 Pennsylvanians on the Obama campaign's list of supporters. And a poll conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was released, showing Specter crushing Sestak, 56 percent to 16 percent, in a hypothetical primary matchup.

But early polls measure name recognition, and Sestak is not well known statewide at this point. Pollster G. Terry Madonna at Franklin and Marshall College said Sestak would have to raise $10 million to have a shot.

"It would be an uphill fight, but it's not out of the realm of possibility; there could be Specter fatigue" in the Democratic electorate, he said.

Most analysts say it would help if organized labor put its muscle behind Sestak, but Specter is involved in negotiating a compromise on the pro-union legislation. He also has backed off his stance that he wouldn't support a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers.

Sestak said he was not daunted by the challenges. "We won because of the grassroots," he said of his first congressional race in 2006. But he also said he could be underestimating the difficulty. "I'm a new politician," he said.