The announcement by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that he was switching parties and becoming a Democrat leaves no Republican Jews in the Senate, and just one in the entire Congress.
“Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right,” Specter, 79, said in a statement. “Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”
Specter, who announced the switch at a news conference April 27, made the move in time to compete in Democratic primaries for the 2010 election.
The veteran senator’s switch means that for the first time in decades, a moderate GOP Jewish voice — embodied over the years not only by Specter but also Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire and the late Jacob Javits of New York — will be absent from the GOP side of the Senate.
It brings Democrats one vote shy of a filibuster-proof quorum of 60 senators. It looks increasingly likely the Democrats will pick up the remaining seat in Minnesota where Al Franken appears favored to win a court battle with Norm Coleman, until last November the only other Republican Jew in the Senate.
In the wake of President Barack Obama’s resounding victory among Jewish voters last November — some 78 percent — Specter’s move also raises questions about the Jewish role in a Republican Party that until recently was believed to be making strides in the community.
Matt Brooks, who directs the Republican Jewish Coalition, said an effort is under way to promote the Republican Party as more moderate. He is upset that Specter is “leaving precisely at the time the party is embarking on an effort to remake the party.”
In recent months, Specter’s best-known dissent from the GOP was his vote — along with two other Republican moderates — clinching passage for Obama’s economic stimulus package.
Specter acknowledged that he had a poor showing in polls among Pennsylvania Republicans, which was a factor in his decision. He remained bitter that in 2004 he came within a hair’s breadth of losing the primary to Pat Toomey, a conservative who again has set his sights on Specter’s seat. — jta