Shameless Specter

My latest post on Open Source Politics, discussing the Pennsylvania Senate race, is ready for your enjoyment.

Having talked mostly about the Republican candidates in the post, I thought I'd look around and see where the Democratic candidate, Joe Hoeffel, stands. On his website, he describes himself as a "deficit hawk on the budget" who wants to "eliminate corporate welfare" and says:

Joe works hard to promote fiscal restraint, balance the federal budget, pay down our national debt, reform education, improve international relations, protect the environment and expand health care.

So far, so good. He seems to be taking a Toomey-esque perspective on wise and responsible use of our nation's finances, without Toomey's commitment to shrinking government. Then I read a little further:

And Joe works hard to bring millions of federal dollars back to Pennsylvania. He’s secured new economic development projects; established a new public health center in his district; brought home millions of dollars in public transportation and public school teacher funding; established a new center for land use planning and sustainable growth at Temple University; and restored critical education funding to schools in his district.

For all his nice words, he's not above promising a big slab of pork. At least he'd have a tougher time getting it, being a rookie Senator and probably in the minority party.

On another topic, the League of Conservation Voters gives Hoeffel a 95% rating for 2003 (consistent with his past performance), with Specter clocking in at 32% (a little better than average for PA's congressional Republicans, and down substantially from past years when he hovered around 50% -- perhaps due to a desire to stand with President Bush last year in preparation for the election). Toomey gets an impressive 0%, though in past years he broke into the double digits.