Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) isn’t the only potential Pennsylvania Senate candidate meeting with senior labor officials. Sam Stein reports that earlier today Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)–the former Republican who’s been all-but promised an easy road to the nomination by establishment Democrats–met with SEIU Officials Anna Burger–Chair of Change to Win and Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU–and Eileen Connelly, the Executive Director of the SEIU Pennsylvania State Council.
These were Specter’s natural allies when he was a pro-labor Republican, but between the threat of a primary challenge by conservative Pat Toomey, and his sudden defection into the Democratic party, Specter has doubled down on more conservative positions, saying that he no longer supports the Employee Free Choice Act and opposes a publicly funded insurance option as a component of comprehensive health reform.
Those statements and others have drawn the ire of Sestak and labor officials, who say Specter better get in line, or his road to the Democratic Senate nomination in 2010 won’t be as smooth as he first expected. We’ll get you more specifics about these talks as they come in.
