Specter Becomes Reliable Democratic Vote

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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July 26, 2009

Specter Becomes Reliable Democratic Vote

Nate Silver notes that since Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) announced he would almost certainly challenge Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, the formerly Republican senator has voted with his new party on 28 out of 29 contentious votes, or 97% of the time.

"Specter's overall party loyalty score since becoming a Democrat -- counting votes both before and after the primary challenge -- is 87%. This contrasts with the 44% of the time that he broke ranks to side with the Democratic on contentious votes while still a member of the Republican Party. He's basically been behaving like a mainline, liberal Democrat."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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July 26, 2009