Last night, York County Democrats held their annual fall dinner at the Valencia Ballroom in downtown York. Just from walking around the room, you'd never guess they're still the minority party in York County.
The 150 or so people seemed to still be nursing a collective endorphin buzz left over from last November. Not only did they see their party win the presidency and both houses of Congress, but the local party also picked up thousands of new registrations.
The keynote speaker was Joe Sestak, the congressman and former admiral from the Philly burbs who plans to take on Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary next year. I couldn't help but reflect on the irony of seeing him get pretty much the same reception that Pat Toomey always got at Republican gatherings.
The Republicans liked Toomey, who was a decided conservative -- too conservative, some would say, to win Pennsylvania state as a whole.
A lot of them would tell you they weren't crazy about Specter, but backed him out of sheer practicality as the best chance for maintaining a Republican occupant in his Senate seat. I'm getting the impression that a lot of local Democrats are similarly torn.
Sestak was subtle in his remarks, perhaps recognizing that it would be awkward for party leaders such as local Chairman Mike Johnson to blatantly endorse one candidate or the other.
Sestak never directly attacked Specter. But he did repeatedly blame the recession equally on President Bush and on the legislative leaders who made his policies possible, clearly implicating his long-serving opponent.
After Sestak's speech, I spoke to him a little about the race.
Specter says that having candidates like Toomey hound him in the primaries led to his decision to switch parties, ultimately depriving Republicans of a majority in the Senate. By taking on Specter from the Democratic side, could Sestak be setting his party up for a similar fate?
Sestak replied that Specter's party switch was a transparent act of self interest, and all the more reason why Democrats should support him instead.
"We need a real Democrat," he told me. "Not one out of convenience, but one out of conviction."
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