Spotlight on 'ugly' contest between Specter, Sestak

POLITICO uses the Arlen Specter-Joe Sestak primary fight as an example of how ugly it's going to get for Congressional Democrats in 2010.

From an article by Alex Isenstadt:

The most closely watched Senate primary is in Pennsylvania, where Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joe Sestak are slugging it out in unusually personal terms.

Specter has cast Sestak as ineffective and opportunistic, attacking him for his failure to register to vote in Pennsylvania until shortly before launching his 2006 congressional campaign and labeling the two-term congressman as "No Show Joe" — a reference to the House votes Sestak has missed while pursuing the Senate nomination.

Not to be outdone, Sestak has assailed the party-switching incumbent's character, referring to Specter as a "flight risk" for Democrats and reminding the party rank and file of Specter's decades-long career as a Republican. Last month, Sestak launched a website dedicated to "The Real Arlen Specter," featuring quotes Specter would rather forget and past tributes to the five-term incumbent from a cast of GOP heavies including President George W. Bush, Sen. Rick Santorum, Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush adviser Karl Rove.

While Democrats are buoyed by polling that suggests either candidate would run competitively against presumptive Republican nominee Pat Toomey, Republicans are nevertheless enjoying the show, applauding Sestak's attacks on Specter's left flank in the hopes that both will be drawn further leftward in the battle to win over the Democratic base of activists.

"It's going to be beyond ugly," said Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College poll, speaking to the tone of the May primary. "I think it's going to be at a level that's virtually unprecedented."

Read the full story at POLITICO.com