Alexander And Corker Want Money Back From Specter
Posted on April 28, 2009 at 3:35 pm
In a statement earlier today on his party switch to the Democrats, Sen. Arlen Specter said he would return any monies donated to his campaign as a Republican upon request.
Sen. Lamar Alexander who just hours ago rebuked Specter for his actions will be taking him up on that offer.
Alexander was one of a group of Senators supporting Specter financially in his expected primary with conservative Pat Toomey. Now that Specter is no longer a Republican, Alexander will be asking for a refund of that money.
“Sen. Specter said he would return contributions made to him in this cycle, upon request. That’s the right thing for him to do, and we will request a refund,” Alexander said in a statement released by staff.
Tennessee’s other Senator, Bob Corker, will also be asking for a rebate on the money he has given the Senator from Pennsylvania. As point of fact, he already has.
When asked if the Senator would be asking for the campaign cash back, Post Politics was provided with a letter sent by Rock City PAC treasurer Kim Kaegi to the Specter campaign.
“[Rock City] PAC solicits funds to support Republican candidates and because Senator Specter in will no longer be running as a Republican in this election, we ask that the contribution be returned as soon as possible,” Kaegi says in the letter.
Specter’s primary challenger-to-be, Pat Toomey, is now expected to win the Republican nomination for Specter’s seat. It is unlikely that Specter will receive much of challenge in the Democratic Party primary although there have been rumblings to that effect.
Comments
21 Responses to “Alexander And Corker Want Money Back From Specter”
Yeah, let me know how that works out!
Dang it - when you buy people you expect them to stay bought!
[...] Two Republican senators said they would take up Specter on his offer to return campaign contributions. Corker and Lamar Alexander, both of Tennessee, said they wanted their money back, Post Politics reported. [...]
This petty vindictiveness from Corker and Alexander will come back to haunt them, if they ever decide to work on any bills which they want passed, while in Congress.
I honestly can’t say I blame them …
give me my money back, i want my money back, you bitch.
God, I hope he loses the election.
Spector has been a RINO for years. If he doesn’t return the money take a page from the Democrats playbook and sue him.
I’m taken aback that no one sees a party switch while in office as anything other than reprehensible. It is absolute fraud.
If a party switch is truly a matter of a politician’s changing his mind on principle, rather than a cynical grab for power, the honorable would resign the position and run again under his true colors.
That such an act is considered unremarkable and is tolerate without retribution speaks ill of anyone who goes along.
Umm … freedom of choice. No law requires you to be a member of a party, and we always stress at election time to vote principle *above* party, the man/woman and the message and not the party … so one assumes Specter was elected by PA voters for his stances, not the letter in parenthesis by his name.
Truthfully, It cuts both ways, and doggone few Republicans take this position when a Democrat switches - but, oddly, a lot of Democrats do …
A contribution is just that…if otherwise, it would be a contribution with restrictions. I agree he should pay back funds raised by fellow partyers, in theory as I wonder what happened to my twice contributions to Fred Thompson before he decided to “drop out” of the 08 runoffs! What’s the bigger fraud? Getting off your own horse then renting another to finish the race or getting off the rental horse and walking off the trace before completion? This isn’t about Dems and Repubs..it’s about ethics(what? in politics?) If I accept your money in a government controlled event then go to Jim Reed and buy a new car, I would likely be charged with fraud by deception……but it shows Speculum’s real intent, job security over voter’s interests……It is time for him to go!
[...] Alexander And Corker Want Money Back From Specter [...]
If you switch parties you should do what Phil Gramm did when he switched from being a Democrat to a Republican. He immediately resigned his seat in the House of Representatives, and ran for it as a Republican in the special election that followed.
Obviously Specter cannot run for reelection in a special election (because Senate special elections are held during the general election), but if he had any decency, he would resign his seat, and allow Pennsylvania’s governor to appoint a successor. Since that governor is a Democrat, Specter would be an obvious choice . . . but . . . Specter lacks the cojones to give the Governor the option to appoint someone else.
This isn’t a parliamentary system. We don’t vote for parties but for individuals.
-”This isn’t a parliamentary system. We don’t vote for parties but for individuals.”
Hahahahahahah! Funniest thing I’ve read in a political forum in years.
“This isn’t a parliamentary system. We don’t vote for parties but for individuals.”
True.
However, political donations are quite often given due to the party to which the candidate belongs rather than due to the candidate’s own merits.
Specter is doing the right thing (ethically) by offering to give donations back to people who gave him money based on him being “a republican”.
And in my opinion, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any donor taking Specter up on his offer. If you donate money to the JADL, you have a right to be offended if your money is used instead to purchase Easy-Bake Ovens.
You may find it funny but it’s true. The closest thing we have to a “party” vote rather than an individual vote (beyond primaries) is the Presidential Election and that’s because we pair President and Vice President typically by party. We don’t vote for the party on election day but rather for individual candidates in individual races. If you want to see a “party vote” look at any number of parliamentary systems where there are no candidates listed — only parties.
Bowman, I agree with you about the money. Specter is doing the right thing by giving it back.
Many people donate to a candidate as part of a larger strategy. For example, many people donated to the campaigns of various Republican Senate candidates so that Democrats would not get a filibuster-proof majority. For Specter to solicit funds as a Republican and then switch to Democrat shortly after the election is a misrepresentation. That’s like getting people to give you their money to invest and then deciding they gave you the money to go on vacation instead. If Specter didn’t give back the money on request on the grounds that everybody knew his political positions, that’d be like if you said “Well after all that work raising money, you could have guessed I’d really need a vacation!”
I agree that if an ethical person wants to switch parties, he should either resign and run again, or serve out his term in one party and run for re-election in the other.
Specter’s had these positions of his for quite some time, but some Republicans were still willing to vote him into office because he has an R after his name. At the next election, the coward will find out just what percentage that was.
Request? How about a demand, and a vociferous one at that?
Nothing like a visual display of displeasure to get the point across nice and clear…
[...] a statement to the Nashville Post, Alexander indicated he would do the [...]