By Kevin Zwick
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (Aug. 4) – Katie McGinty has made official what most expected: She’s running for U.S. Senate.
McGinty’s announcement, in which she didn’t mention her Democratic primary opponent – former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak – touches on some of the same themes of her failed gubernatorial bid last year, including her Philadelphia roots as the daughter of a policeman and restaurant hostess, as well as her upbringing in a large, working-class family.
“I am entering this race to stand with you, for the middle class and working families who want a chance at the American Dream,” she said.
She also criticized her possible future opposition, Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, saying he “has become part of a Washington mess that has middle-class families left out and left behind.”
McGinty’s announcement ends a long period of speculation that has ramped up since she recently quit as Gov. Tom Wolf’s chief of staff. The announcement also fulfilled the wishes of national Democratic Party leaders to have an alternative choice to Sestak, who’s known to go against the grain and has been seeking a rematch since he narrowly lost to Toomey in 2010.
But having the backing of party leaders doesn’t mean she’s a shoe-in. Sestak, in a statement that didn’t indicate to what he was responding, or mention McGinty, said: “The establishment has let us down – Washington has forgotten that it is about people above party, above type. I want to be held accountable to the people of Pennsylvania – not party insiders.”
Both Sestak and McGinty have solid arguments for their candidacies, said Dan Fee, a long-time Democratic operative not attached to either campaign.
In 2010, a bad year for Democrats, Sestak proved to be a formidable campaigner. In the Democratic primary, he defeated powerhouse U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who had switched from Republican to Democrat and received support from party leaders. Sestak then went on to nearly defeat Toomey in the general election.
McGinty is a new, exciting candidate that could easily ride Hillary Clinton’s coattails if she were the Democratic presidential nominee next year in what would be a historic election for women, Fee said.
McGinty’s first statewide run, in contrast to Sestak, earned her a last place finish in the 2014 Democratic primary among a field of four, where she collected fewer than 70,000 votes. But she didn’t partake in the mud-slinging during the 2014 primary and kept the campaign positive. That, coupled with her outreach efforts as chair of Wolf’s “Fresh Start” campaign committee, helped her make inroads with local party officials across the state.
But Sestak hasn’t stopped campaigning and has been building relationships too. And Fee says both McGinty and Sestak have the ability to raise significant national dollars.
McGinty could tap fund-raising connections from her relationship to the Clintons – she worked in the Clinton White House as an environmental adviser and on Al Gore’s presidential campaign. And Sestak likewise has the ability to attract national money.
Plus, national money will pour into the state in the general election.
“There will be significant national interest in this race,” said Fee. “The Democrats need to pick up Senate seats and Pat Toomey is vulnerable.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s spokeswoman, Andrea Bozek, released a statement after McGinty announced her candidacy, saying: “After failing to recruit Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, scandal-plagued Attorney General Kathleen Kane, Allegheny County executive Rich Fitzgerald, former Rep. Chris Carney, state Sen. Vincent Hughes, Philadelphia Chairman Bob Brady and after Ed Pawlowski’s campaign imploded, Democrats have now turned their attention to a candidate who came in last place for the Democrat nomination for governor in 2014.
“All of that work just to set up yet another bloody Democratic primary.”
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