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Last Updated June 22, 2005
Arlen Specter, one of the nation's most durable career politicians, has held public office and has been an important national figure off and on for more than four decades. Specter grew up in Russell, Kansas, also the hometown of Bob Dole; his father was an immigrant who worked as a tailor, owned a junkyard and sent four children through college. Specter came to Philadelphia at 17 to attend the University of Pennsylvania. After college he served in the Air Force, went to Yale Law School and practiced law in Philadelphia. In 1964 he was a top staffer for the Warren Commission investigating the Kennedy assassination and helped develop the single-bullet theory; at one point, he held Oswald's weapon and aimed it out the Texas Schoolbook Depository window toward Dealey Plaza. After the Warren Commission, he returned to his law practice, switched to the Republican Party, and was elected district attorney in Democratic Philadelphia in 1965 and again in 1969. As D.A. he gave his first job to a Penn law graduate from New York named Ed Rendell, who is now governor of Pennsylvania. Specter lost the race for D.A. in 1973, and was beaten in Republican primaries for senator in 1976 and governor in 1978. In 1980 he ran for the Senate again. He narrowly (36%-33%) edged a former state Republican chairman in the primary and beat a low-spending Democrat 50%-48% in the general. In 1986, he won reelection by a 56%-43% margin; in 1992 he was reelected 49%-46% after he became a target of feminists for his questioning of Anita Hill during the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas. He ran for president in 1995, but withdrew before the first caucus or primary. Throughout this career of narrow victories and numerous defeats, Specter's assets have been brains and hard work. He is respected by colleagues and constituents, though not always well-liked. He sides with conservatives on some divisive issues, with liberals on others, building up no permanent credit with either. He is aggressive and prosecutorial, well-prepared and persuasive once he takes a stand. These traits are both his strengths and weaknesses; they explain why he was vulnerable in 1992, and why he won; why he ran for president, and why his campaign went nowhere. His voting record is almost precisely at the midpoint of the Senate, and he has played key roles on a variety of issues. Though he switched and voted to override Bill Clinton's partial-birth abortion veto, he is generally pro-choice on abortion--an issue he featured in his presidential campaign, infuriating many Republican activists. He pushes tough penalties for crime and supports capital punishment. On a closely divided and rancorous Judiciary Committee, he played a key role on several Supreme Court nominations. More than anyone else, he defeated Robert Bork in 1987 and, more than anyone but John Danforth, he secured the confirmation of Clarence Thomas in 1991. He opposed George W. Bush's $250,000 limit on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases, arguing that there should be no limit for egregious cases of severe bodily impairment, disfigurement or death; his son Shanin Specter is a Philadelphia malpractice lawyer who won a $49 million settlement in 2000. In 2003 he hired a former federal appeals judge to draw up specifications for a trust fund to handle asbestos claims. On many issues, Specter has been one of the few Republicans voting with Senate Democrats--on the Republican tax cut in August 1999, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in October 1999, the minimum wage in November 1999, on the federal tobacco lawsuit in July 2000, HMO regulation in July 2000, on overtime regulations in September 2003 and March 2005. He voted against school choice in the District of Columbia. To foreign policy he often brings a legalistic approach. His May 1999 amendment to the defense authorization bill, invoking the War Powers Act to prevent the deployment of ground troops in the former Yugoslavia, failed 52-48. In July 2002 he called for a congressional vote on military action in Iraq. "We have a responsibility institutionally under the Constitution to declare war, and we have a responsibility to acquaint the American people as to what is involved." In debate on the resolution in October, he expressed doubts about whether Congress can delegate authority to president, but he voted for the resolution. In January 2003 he said it was not necessary for the United States to go back to the UN Security Council before taking action, but "realistically we should." He favors the International Criminal Court opposed by the Bush administration. Specter has played a major role in encouraging medical research. In 2002 he sponsored one of the two major competing bills on stem cell research. Specter's bill would allow embryonic stem cell research but ban cloning for reproductive purposes; his chief co-sponsors were Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch. For most of the year he skirmished with Sam Brownback, sponsor of a bill that would ban embryonic stem cell research. In September 2002 Specter claimed he had 60 votes for his bill, but it was not brought to the floor. Specter is not shy about using his place on the committee to funnel money into Pennsylvania, from the Philadelphia Navy Yard to Lake Erie; he has traveled indefatigably to all over Pennsylvania's 67 counties and promoted projects in most or all of them. He pressed the Defense Department to declare Philadelphia a strategic military seaport, which it did in February 2004, and worked to get $40 million in federal funding for a Philadelphia terminal for high-speed cargo ships; he has worked, against objections from New Jersey's Rob Andrews, for dredging of the Delaware River. When Citizens Against Government Waste listed him in its "Pig Book," he said, "If they left me out, I'd be worried." After Jim Jeffords left the Republican party in May 2001, Specter was given a position in the leadership as a representative of Republican moderates. Specter also is known as one of Capitol Hill's sternest taskmasters; a PoliticsPA.com poll of opinion leaders rated him the hardest politician to work for and a Washingtonian poll of Capitol Hill staffers rated him the third "meanest" senator. The Washington Post reported Specter is notorious for his demands on overseas trips, which include daily squash matches at 5:00 p.m., English-speaking drivers, "customs expeditors", and planned excursions for his wife. Specter has always had opposition in Republican primaries, but his most serious challenge came in 2004 from Lehigh Valley Congressman Pat Toomey. In 1986 he was renominated 76%-24% over a social studies teacher who said he had entered the race at God's urging; in 1992 he won 65%-35% over a state representative who opposed abortion; in 1998 he won with 67% against two candidates who won 18% and 15%. In February 2003 Toomey, who promised to serve only three terms when he was first elected in the House in 1998, announced he was running as an advocate of tax cuts and an opponent of abortion. White House political strategist Karl Rove made it clear to Toomey that George W. Bush would support Specter; White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card in February 2003 attended a fundraiser for Specter in Toomey's district. On Toomey's side was National Review (which called Specter "the worst Republican senator"), former Judge Robert Bork and former Attorney General Edwin Meese, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes and longtime conservative strategist Paul Weyrich. The Club for Growth raised $1 million for Toomey and spent $1 million of soft money on advocacy ads. But Specter had much more: in March 2003 he had $7 million in his campaign treasury and he spent $15 million up through the April 2004 primary. Specter campaigned on his seniority and his seat on the Appropriations Committee; his campaign slogan was "Courage. Clout. Convictions." "I would say it's an election to see if there's going to be any place in the Republican party for a big tent," he said. "It's more than the soul of the Republican party; it's to have some balance within the party and within the two-party system." Toomey's framing of the issues was directed at conservative Republicans. "Today we have complete control. And the question that I'm posing to Republican primary voters all across Pennsylvania is a simple one: Are we going to seize this opportunity to govern with a common sense conservative agenda, or are we going to let it slip away by reelecting a liberal who will fight our agenda?" Toomey's message was undercut by frequent appearances for Specter by his conservative colleague Rick Santorum and by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. Specter had not backed Santorum in his 1994 primary, but had provided him critical help in the general election that year; the Bush White House has made it clear that it supports all incumbent Republicans and hopes that moderate incumbents will keep that in mind when casting key votes on priority issues. Toomey started off little known outside his own congressional district, but spent enough money to get his message across, and nearly won. After 24 years in the Senate Specter won the primary by only 51%-49%. He carried metro Philadelphia 57%-43%, but Toomey carried metro Pittsburgh 58%-42%. Toomey won 2-1 in his 15th District and carried Lancaster and York Counties in the Pennsylvania Dutch territory and several industrial counties in the ring around Pittsburgh. Perhaps decisive were Specter's large majorities in most of the state's small counties. "They know my footprint all over the northern tier," he said. "I have a very strong bond with the people of Pennsylvania. It comes from having visited every one of the counties." And certainly he would not have won without the vigorous support of Bush, Cheney and Santorum. Even so, immediately after the primary Specter trumpeted his differences with the Bush administration on issues like overtime pay, vouchers and stem-cell research. The Democratic nominee, suburban Philadelphia Congressman Joe Hoeffel, protested, "He's been meek, a supporter of the Bush program, which has alarmed a lot of moderates, with the budget deficits growing and the deceptions in Iraq and all the rest." He claimed that Specter had voted 89% for positions taken by Bush which have "taken the country down the wrong course." But Specter had much more money to deliver his message of clout and convictions. Overall Specter spent $21.6 million to Hoeffel's $4.6 million; in the last three weeks of the campaign Specter outspent Hoeffel by $1.2 million to $450,000. National Democrats were reluctant to pour money into an iffy race in a large and expensive state. In September Specter was endorsed by the Philadelphia Black Clergy and the state AFL-CIO. In debates Specter relished taking the center position between Hoeffel, who had a very liberal voting record, and Constitution Party nominee James Clymer, who attacked him from the right and ended up winning 4% of the vote. In 1998, against a very low spending opponent, Specter won 61%-35%. In 2004 Specter won 53%-42%, trailing 53%-47% in metro Philadelphia and leading 51%-49% in metro Pittsburgh. Specter won 25% among blacks, 48% in union households, and 23% among liberals. But his overall percentage of 53% was not much above Bush's 48%; though he ran 6% ahead of Bush in metro Philadelphia and more than that in the counties containing Scranton and Erie, he ran behind Bush in most of Pennsylvania west of Harrisburg except for the sparsely-populated northern tier. Two days after the election Specter enraged many cultural conservatives when he warned Bush not to nominate judges who would try to overturn Roe v. Wade. Senate Republicans impose six-year term limits on their committee chairmen and committee members elect them by secret ballot. The term limit meant that Orrin Hatch would no longer chair the Judiciary Committee and seniority put Specter next in line. Suddenly the Concerned Women of America, the Family Research Council and Dr. James Dobson were demanding that Republican senators deny Specter the chairmanship. Specter immediately sought to clarify his statement. "I did not warn the president about anything and was very respectful of his constitutional authority," he said. "I voted for every one of President Bush's nominees in committee and on the floor, every last one of them." Two days later White House chief strategist Karl Rove said, "Senator Specter's a man of his word. We'll take him at his word." But Majority Leader Bill Frist pointedly declined to endorse Specter for the chairmanship and said he would have to make his case to Republican senators. With his usual assiduousness, he did. On November 18 all the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee appeared with Specter and endorsed him. Specter read out a statement, "I have not and would not use a litmus test to deny confirmation to pro-life nominees. I have no reason to believe I will be unable to support any individual President Bush finds worthy of nomination." He met with leaders of cultural conservative organizations and said that there were "relevant recent precedents" to require only 51 votes to end the Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees. In early 2005 leaders of conservative groups were still grumbling at Specter's staff appointments and the fact that he called for delay in the renomination of judicial appointees whose confirmations had been denied by filibusters. And business groups were worried about Specter's stand on the asbestos trust fund. But he did shepherd to passage the class action bill in February 2005. And he did commit himself to bring all Bush judicial nominees to the floor and not to oppose a rules change to stop filibusters, though he seemed less than eager to see such a move. A bit of history: Specter is the first Pennsylvania senator to be popularly elected to five terms and in November 2005 will break the record tenure for a Pennsylvania senator, set by Boies Penrose, who served from 1897 to 1921.
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