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Arlen Specter may be opposed by Gov. Tom Ridge
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Tom Ridge/AP Photo
Sen. Arlen Specter may regret his decision to become a Democrat if popular former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge decides to run for the Senate. Specter has said that he switched parties because he could not win a primary against conservative Pat Toomey.
Ridge is a moderate Republican and well liked as already has a national profile. He was a six-term member of the House of Representatives and was governor from 1995 until 2001. He was President George W. Bush's first secretary of Homeland Security but retired in 2005.
Ridge was born in Munhall, Pennsylvania on August 1946. He attended the local Catholic schools, was an excellent student and excelled in debate. He won a partial scholarship to Harvard University and worked in construction to pay the rest of his tuition. He had planned to go to Pennsylvania State University School of Law but was drafted in 1970 and served as an Army staff sergeant in Vietnam and won a Bronze Star for leading an offensive.
He finally graduated from Dickinson with a law degree in 1972. After having a private practice, he served as an assistant district attorney in Erie County, Pennsylvania. He ran for Congress in 1982 and served six consecutive terms with a mixed voting record by voting for some Democrat bills such as increased spending for homeless veterans. He became the forty-third governor Pennsylvania in 1995 and served one and one-half terms before resigning to serve as Secretary of Homeland Security in after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
If Ridge decides to run, Specter may regret his oportunistic change to the Democracts.
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