Sestak Conference Call

Congressman Joe Sestak held a media conference call today. These are my rough notes. It is not intended as a transcript. I apologize in advance for any errors or misconceptions. I am hitting the broader points; your local newspaper may have items specific to where you live.

In his opening remarks he talked about his visit to all 67 Pennsylvania counties in three weeks. On his travels he said he met wonderful people who are terribly challenged and concerned for the commonwealth; there is a reluctant acceptance that the federal government will have to do much to take us into the future. People generally don’t know Sestak outside his congressional district but he said he found great acceptance and interest and a reservoir of query that can be raised into asking if there is anyone else [implied meaning – besides Specter to run for Senate].

There were a number of questions. I’ll hit the main topics and his responses to each. Some questions were raised more than once, in different ways or with a varying nuance.

Has he formally announced his Senate run or filed papers for a Senate campaign?

No, but he is running and is going to win. At one point he said he wanted to spend time with his daughter before going out on the campaign trail and have a final conversation with his family. To answer another question he said that before he announced he wanted to visit all 67 counties. This is similar to something he did in the Navy, going to all the ships he would have command over before taking command.

While these visits were short, he did make a point of meeting with the print media and the head of the Democratic party or a representative in each county. Sometimes he met with just one party official but in another he met with 180 people. This was a courtesy visit and he intends to go back to county fairs, etc., in August and September.

Senator Menendez of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee contacted him in February about running but he was not interested. Menendez got back in touch in April. He knows that Patrick Murphy and Josh Shapiro were also approached. There should be a choice.

Is he worried his House seat will be won by a Republican?

“If we only let those in safe seats run for higher office where will the audacity come from?” He cites not having to spend a dime on media buys for his second House campaign because his constituents knew him. His office is open 7 days a week until 10 at night or later. If another Democrat is willing to work that hard then a Democrat will win. Specter can run for his seat if he wants.

Campaign matters

His legislative spokesman is now working half time for the congressional office and half time for the campaign. He ran this by the ethics office some time ago and got the okay.

In response to a question as to whether the campaign has gotten very personal very early he said we should ask Arlen about that as he, Sestak, had only been in politics for about three years.

Recent polls showing him trailing Specter and Toomey reflect his lack of name recognition more than anything else. There is a lot of room to grow. He then compared himself to Ned Lamont as far as early polling goes.

In response to criticism about his poor record of voting before he ran for office, he said you could not count primary elections as he was not registered in a party and therefore could not vote in primaries and that while in the Navy he asked for absentee ballots that were not always counted. As a jab at Specter he said Specter had been in favor of a bill to help fix the military absentee ballot process.

On Specter and other issues

When asked about missing House votes to campaign he said the one vote that should be missed is Specter’s, given how often he voted with Bush. He also said that he had missed procedural votes but not important votes and that on one particular day there were an unusually large number of votes that later had to be revoted on so it looks like he missed more than he actually did. Sens. Obama and Clinton also missed votes while campaigning but that was perceived as being for the greater good.

As to why it would be better to be a senator than a congressman he said that one senator has so much more impact than a congressman. As an example he mentioned the Thune amendment

He said often that his initial inspiration to run for congress was to repay the health care his daughter received when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He also said that politics was his passion and his conviction not a career.

On Health Care

Doing nothing is not an option, delaying means harming out health and economy.