Arlen Specter seizes the day - again
SENATOR Arlen Specter is a Democrat - again. As Democrats contemplate the possibility of a "filibuster-proof" Senate majority and Republicans savor their ever-increasing ideological purity, few realize that Specter's dramatic announcement Tuesday actually brought his career full circle. A political pragmatist, Specter started political life as a Democrat, and the story of his initial change 44 years ago could signal the possible consequences of his return.
In early 1965, Specter was an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia and a rising star in the local Democratic Party. A 35-year-old Yale Law School graduate and Warren Commission veteran, Specter appealed to the reform liberals who had captured the Philadelphia mayor's office and city council from a decrepit Republican organization in the early 1950s.
By 1965, these liberals needed a new champion. The first reform mayor, Joseph S. Clark, served one term before running for the US Senate. The second, Richardson Dilworth, resigned during his second term to run (unsuccessfully) for governor in 1962. His successor, James H.J. Tate, alienated the city's still-influential liberals, representing a return to the urban patronage politics they despised. Senator Clark suggested Specter as a possible reform candidate for district attorney - a traditional stepping-stone to the mayor's office.
But party politics blocked Specter's advance as a Democrat. Incumbent District Attorney James Crumlish (who had recommended Specter to the Warren Commission) would not step aside, and Mayor Tate, embroiled in a bitter struggle with both liberals and a rival faction of ward leaders, could not risk a fight with the district attorney. Specter found himself relegated to the Democratic sidelines.
Unwilling to wait his turn among the feuding party regulars, the ambitious Specter accepted the overtures of Republican US Senator Hugh Scott and Governor William Scranton to run for district attorney. Initially, he didn't even change his party registration.
Specter's campaign showed just how far he would go to seize the opportunity. He attacked Crumlish for failing to pursue allegations that Tate had misused city funds, and ran television ads showing a white woman fleeing down a dark city street, heels clicking, as a menacing pursuer advanced from behind. Thus, Specter became one of the first Republicans to seize upon white urbanites' fears about urban crime - and urban racial change. It worked. Specter became the first Republican to win a major Philadelphia office in 14 years.
After Republicans' crushing defeat the previous year, his victory garnered national attention.
But Specter's 1965 strategy wasn't about liberalism or conservatism; it was about winning. He adopted a tough anti-corruption, anti-crime stance - which, ironically, partly failed him in the 1967 mayoral race. Tate endorsed Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia's interim police chief, whose aggressive and often racially divisive police tactics appealed to white ethnic voters. Although Specter drew Democratic liberals' support, he lost by 11,000 votes - the closest mayoral contest in city history.
During the 1970s, Specter's gubernatorial and senatorial bids met defeat - but those losses only strengthened his inclination to seize political opportunity. After he finally won election to the Senate in 1980 as a Reagan supporter, he generally adopted centrist positions.
Specter's career has never been about party or ideology - and his history of pragmatic opportunism is good news for Democrats. Although he is unlikely to face a strong primary challenge from the left, he must reinforce his new (or old) Democratic credentials. And while he may be unable to back away from his position on card-check, Specter is likely to find his fate tied closely to Obama's policy agenda on healthcare, cap-and-trade, and other budget priorities. As Specter pursues his own electoral interests once again, just as he did in 1965, the Democrats may well have found the elusive 60th vote in the Senate.
Guian A. McKee is associate professor at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs and the author of "The Problem of Jobs: Liberalism, Race, and Deindustrialization in Postwar Philadelphia." 