Who will run for Dem nomination against Santorum in '06?

And who do PA DUers think would have best shot at winning?

She'll be attacked by the Repunks for living in Massachussets!! We can't afford to pull the same stunt Sanitation is pulling.

because she is not dignified. What can I say, some Pa women are shallow as hell. But that is how they think.

HE certainly has name recognition, everyone seemed to really like him when he was campaigning for Kerry.

He'd be a virtual lock to win.

In the red part of this blue state Rendell doesn't have much of a reputation-and this is where Rickie wins. I don't think Hoefel can do it either. It was a good run against Specter but Arlen didn't have the Religious Money behind him that Rickie will have. What we need is national monies coming in to oust him. I'm clueless on candidates but wish getting Santorum out was a Natl. Party priority-like Daschle was.

I think Chris is more interested in politics than Andre. Any of the Heinz boys could run against Santorum and WIN...after all, Santorum is in their father's Senate seat.

I called the PA Democratic party to suggest the Heinz name...apparently I wasn't the first.

Don't think Hoeffel can do it. Rendell is a good Governor but I'm not sure he has that "smooth" factor for the DC arena...I could be wrong.

As far as I can tell he's got his eye fixed on a governorship.

Did you see where Phil English (Rep. Representative from Erie) is looking to get a fellow Repub from Pittsburgh on the Ways and Means Committee in the House so that if Chris Heinz runs against her for Congress, she'll have more to run on? I actually saw him quoted as saying that they're worried her seat would be in jeopardy if he challenges her.

I haven't heard about him wanting the governorship. That's cool. I'd volunteer and vote for any Heinz, or anyone, over Santorum!

He's a former head of the DNC, isn't he? But I do think he prefers running something to being one of 100.

I'm hoping Santorum's shortcomings have been so publicized by 2006 that anyone can beat him. I've heard gossip that he was quite the drunken rowdy before he decided to run for office.

He did pretty good this time against a 4-term moderate in Specter and he didn't have much name recognition. This time he'll be running against a 1-term freephead who is now in a big scandal. Chris Heinz would also be an interesting choice.

Remember Hoeffel had ZERO union support which is a rarity for Democrats. He will get it against Sanatarium or at least I hope. For some reason though unions have been selling out to the Repugs as of late. Specter was seen as more labor friendly and Hoeffel didn't do bad considering. I would keep Hoeffel on constant run mode at tell the other Dems (Hafer,McGinty) to bow out.

One thing about Hoeffel I particularly like is he has little charisma. Not a prim and polished poltiican. He seems like he's in this to reprsent the people fo Pennsylvania, not be a darling of corporate America and the religious right and call it a day like Santorum.

I found him personable in person.

Think about this...

In 2004, liberal democrat Kerry was able to beat ultraconservative *, thus carrying the state of Pennsylvania.

Thus, if liberal democrat Hoeffel runs against ultraconservative Sanitarium, he could have a chance of winning

This could be the race to look out for in 2006

He only won 51%-49%. Gore won the state 51%-47%. And PA doesn't often elect Democrats to the US Senate.

Interesting point... you could be right.

But also keep in mind the PA senate race was really weird this year.

The Constitution party and Libertarian party candidates seemed to have an impact. Clymer (Constitution party) had 4% of the vote against Specter(a decent percentage given how tough its been for the 3rd parties)and Summers (libertarian)had 1% of the vote.

Clymer definitely stole votes from Specter, claiming that Specter was too moderate. And regardless of the small percentage, I think Clymer's attacks on Specter helped Hoeffel as Specter seemed to sometimes have difficulty dealing with attacks from different directions.

Given that Santorum seems further right than Specter, my guess would be that third party candidates would have less of an effect if they ran...and Santorum would get more votes from the right.

The question is whether or not Hoeffel can overcome the "ultraconservative" Santorum easier than "moderate" Specter. The trick to all this may simply be the political landscape after 2 more years.
I liked Hoeffel a lot ... seemed very personable at events, in person etc. Yet his ads/campaign seemed to run on the Kerry message and aligned Specter with the Bush message. Now I have no idea whether this helped or hurt him... and this is not a criticism in any way (cuz after all, I was on board with Kerry too).... but I, as someone who voted for Hoeffel, still would have liked to, at times, heard more of Hoeffel's voice and ideas as opposed to the coat-tails of Kerry.

And depending on how things play out in the next two years, if Hoeffel runs in 2 years, the message will probably need to change for him.

I believe her name is Hafer.

Casey Jr, even though he's anti-abortion would be a good choice. We need to knock Sanitarium out.

I've heard about Hafer too. She's the treasurer now, or something like that. Anyway, I've also heard that she is Rendell's choice because of the crossover factor and I guess he figures he could help her raise money easily.