Midterm elections are never sexy and this year is no different. The headline act is going to be the Senate race between Rick Santorum and Bob Casey Jr.. The Democrats need to beat Santorum to have any chance at winning back the Senate. A defeat for Santorum would be an important piece in an overall effort of discrediting Bushism. Tom DeLay is indicted and not seeking reelection. Bill Frist is not seeking reelection. Santorum is the third ranking member of the Senate. If he loses, it will further cement the end of an unhappy era under a outrageously corrupt Republican leadership. Unfortuantely, Santorum’s opponent offers little opportunity for Democrats to truly embrace the battle. It didn’t have to be this way.

The stage was set for this campaign after the 2004 election, when Democrats were still reeling from their losses in the House, the Senate and the White House. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was busily recruiting candidates for 2006, and quickly settled on Mr. Casey, a former state auditor general who had just won election as the state treasurer with a record-setting statewide vote.

Mr. Schumer said he “got some real flak, particularly in the pro-choice community,” when he began advancing the Casey candidacy…

But Mr. Schumer, himself a stalwart supporter of abortion rights, argued, “Democrats have learned that when you have a good candidate, good in so many ways, that because he or she doesn’t agree with the general Democratic Party position on every issue doesn’t mean they should be kept outside the tent.”

Democrats have also learned, through the exemplary examples of Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, that letting every camel inside the tent can be a frustrating and dangerous exercise. Bob Casey Jr. is likely to be an unwelcome voice not just on the issue of reproductive choice, but also on stem-cell research, judicial appointments, the war in Iraq, and gay rights. It is very likely that Bob Casey Jr. will promptly supplant Lieberman as Bush’s favorite Democrat.

That is, he will likely do that if he wins. And if he wins it may send a message to Chuck Schumer that he should recruit more anti-woman, anti-science, anti-peace, anti-gay candidates. Both parties are taking a close look at this race.














G. Terry Madonna, director of the Keystone Poll and a political scientist at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., said that Mr. Casey was a threat to Mr. Santorum because he cut into Mr. Santorum’s strength among traditional blue-collar voters in Western Pennsylvania and the more socially moderate voters of the Philadelphia suburbs.

“Those suburban voters are more upset with Santorum than they are ‘for’ Casey,” Mr. Madonna said.

He attributed the suburban disaffection, in large part, to Mr. Santorum’s high profile on hot-button cultural issues, including abortion, gay marriage and the intervention of Republican Congressional leaders in the right-to-die case of Terri Schiavo.

I don’t know whether Casey will succeed in attracting ‘traditional blue-collar voters in Western Pennsylvania’. I am sure he will do better there than a truly progressive candidate would. But the real key is for Casey to pick up the votes of the disaffected voters in suburban Philadelphia. These voters are primarily motivated to vote against Santorum over his Alabamanesque positions on social issues. They will not be excited to discover Santorum’s opponent shares his views on choice, science, and gays. Fortunately, the Governor’s race will be on the ballot as well, and that may entice suburban voters (who generally love Rendell) to the polls, where they may cast an anti-Santorum vote.

It’s a tragic race for those of us that live in Pennsylvania and would like nothing more than to go to war against Rick ‘Man on Dog’ Santorum. For now we are focused on sending a message in the Democratic primary by voting for either Chuck Pennacchio or Alan Sandals. They are both progressive on the issues, and they were willing to run on a progressive platform even after the Governor and Schumer asked more prominent Democrats to drop out of the race.

As for Santorum:

Mr. Santorum is scornful of his opponent, arguing that Mr. Casey is “just hiding behind the name.” Once the race is fully engaged, he said, “You have to get on TV, you have to put sentences together.”

“He’ll have to tell people what he’s for,” he added, “and at that time, I feel very good.”

He said that Mr. Casey had a strong lead in 2002, in the Democratic primary governor’s race against Edward G. Rendell, only to see it disappear in the final stretch of the campaign.

I’m afraid that might happen again.