Click the above image to go to the straw poll page. I don't know about you, buy I don't think the Democratic party should be handing the keys to the kingdom over to Arlen Specter when he's started off by shooting down important health care and union legislation. We'll see where he goes from here. And it also dictates to the people who and where some one gets a golden parachute into the party as well.
I've joined up with several other bloggers and the PCCC to hear what you have to say about this issue.
The poll, which will remain open for five days, asks whether a "Draft Sestak" movement should be created to take on Specter. The possibility of a Sestak run has been lighting up left-leaning blogs and provoking debate among Pennsylvania Democrats ever since Specter changed his party affiliation last week.
For his part, Sestak appears to be inching closer toward jumping into the race, and on Tuesday said on Fox News Radio that Specter’s switch was at least part of the reason. “I think that even before Arlen got in I hadn’t made a final decision yet, and I haven’t,” Sestak said. “But I got to tell you that I’m a little bit more concerned now than I was then.”
--
Adam Green, a co-founder of the five-month-old organization, said that his group’s goal was to “call the question on a primary in general and whether Sestak’s the candidate in particular.”
“Our hope is that this will have an impact on the political environment in which Joe Sestak makes his decision and in which the larger political world makes their evaluation,” Green said. “If it turns out that it’s 50-50, that would be very informative. If it’s 90-10 in favor of Sestak, that would be very informative too.”
You can also get to the poll by clicking here.
I back this effort. At this point, we don't know how the netroots feel about Sestak or Arlen and it seems like something we should find out. My personal opinion is that the end run the Party made in getting Specter to sign on was undemocratic and antithetical to the bottom-up democracy Obama ran on.
The party does not get to promise people that they will not be primaried, period. The do not choose our leaders for us. If we had wanted that we would have kept the smoke filled rooms. It is insulting that they would promise such a thing to a Republican apostate (even if it's just a wink and nod that Obama will campaign for him in the primary) particularly one who promptly goes on TV and declares that he is not a loyal Democrat and never will be.
