By PETER JACKSON
LANCASTER — U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter picked up the endorsement of Pennsylvania’s Democratic State Committee on Saturday – a political prize that should bolster his campaign for a sixth term in a party that he joined less than a year ago.
“Thank you ! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” a jubilant Specter told the committee after receiving 229 votes – 28 more than the requisite two-thirds majority.
Specter’s foe in the May 18 primary, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, garnered just 72 votes in the secret balloting at a snow-blanketed hotel in the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country.
In the volatile race for the gubernatorial nomination, the committee failed to agree on an endorsement.
Specter, who will turn 80 on Friday, said he has always been “an independent voice in the Senate” and defended a 30-year voting record that he said was often in sync with the Democrats, including abortion rights, increases in the minimum wage and helping to sink Robert Bork’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sestak, 58, a retired Navy admiral who has attacked Specter’s votes for GOP positions and questioned his loyalty to the Democratic Party, said the outcome burnishes his role as a political outsider.
It showed “I was a little too independent” for the committee members, who hail from all corners of the state, the second-term congressman from the Philadelphia suburbs said as he vowed to stay in the race. “This is going to be a great fight.”
The committee also endorsed former Philadelphia city controller Jonathan Saidel for the nomination for lieutenant governor.
But a consensus on a gubernatorial endorsement proved to be elusive.
Four people competed for the endorsement: State Auditor General Jack Wagner of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, former U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel and state Sen. Anthony Williams of Philadelphia. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty has declared his candidacy, but did not compete for the endorsement Saturday.
Hoeffel was eliminated on the first ballot as the low vote-getter. On the second and final ballot, Wagner received the most votes – more than half of those cast, but far short of a two-thirds majority.
Onorato, who has led the field in fundraising, finished second and attracted only half as many endorsement votes as Wagner.
