Dem Drops Out, Field Clear for Specter... For Now

The first Democrat to enter the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race, Joe Torsella, dropped out last night, saying the addition of Arlen Specter to the Democratic field had changed the race too much for him to keep running.

"Now that the dust has settled, it's clear to me that the kind of campaign this would become is not the kind of campaign you or I signed up for," Torsella said in a video posted to YouTube (see below). "It would probably be negative, personal, and more about Senator Specter's past than about our common future."

Torsella also said he will return the money donors had given him (he had raised nearly $600,000 in the first quarter of 2009), and added that nobody asked him to drop out of the race. "It simply feels like the right thing to do."

Torsella is a former aide to Governor Ed Rendell, but the Philadelphia Inquirer notes that Rendell has now endorsed Specter, along with President Obama, Vice President Biden and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).

Torsella's departure from the race clears the Democratic field of the highest profile opponent to Specter, but Rep. Joe Sestack, (D-PA), a former Navy admiral, has said is still considering a primary run against the party-switching senator. P.D. has asked Rep. Sestak's office when he'll make an announcement about whether he'll join the Senate race, and will let you know when we hear back.

In the meantime, here is the Torsella video: