Holden vs. Santorum

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Klink lost because he didn't win socially liberal, economically conservative voters in the Philly suburbs. If nominating a socially conservative candidate didn't work in 2000, why would it work in 2006?

And Hoeffel lost because he was nuked in Western and North East PA.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

CNN has a map:  http://us.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/PA/S/01/index.html
My remark was mostly hyperbole: Hoeffel did pretty badly everywhere. He won a grand total of four counties... although he did win 71% in Philly.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

But since he didn't really receive much support from the national party you can't really use that race as a good marker of anyone. Not to mention Specter is not an extremist nutcase.

Also true, but using Klink (who IIRC also did pretty badly in NE PA) as an example of why a socially conservative Democrat "can't" beat Santorum is equally useless.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Klink lost just because he was an overall poor candidate who ran a lousy campaign. It's possible to beat Santorum with different types of candidates who can appeal to different areas. Just beat him.

Klink came out of a pretty bloody primary as well IIRC

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Luzerne is a swing county (unless Kanjorski is on the ballot o/c) and local level corruption didn't stop Kerry carrying it in the Presidential election but seeing as in the Senate election, Hoeffel couldn't even carry Lackawanna county...