PHILADELPHIA – He saw it coming and he wasn’t surprised, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell told Fox News Tuesday night after Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter delivered his concession speech having lost out the Democratic primary to opponent Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.
The ballroom never filled for Specter’s post-vote party and it quickly emptied after the senior senator’s brief remarks.
“To some extent, it was both a challenge convincing Democrats who knew he’d only been in the party a year, and the anti-incumbent mood,” Rendell said.
Despite the many labor endorsements, the party couldn’t mobilize and get that vote out for Specter.
Rendell called the defeat a message to incumbents of both parties.
While the national trend this season seems to be leaning towards putting incumbents in the endangered species category, specific to the Sestak-Specter match-up, Specter’s thirty-year incumbency as a Republican was the main factor at play in Pennsylvania.
Specter changed from the Republican party to the Democratic party last year.
Sestak will face off with Republican Pat Toomey in the fall.