Democratic senatorial nominee Joe Sestak stopped Saturday afternoon in State College to deliver a nearly 20-minute campaign speech, telling voters that ‘this is going to be, and it should be, a close race.’
‘I just want to serve you,’ Sestak told an audience of more than 100 people outside Penn State’s Old Main. A former Navy admiral and sitting Delaware County Congressman, he said he wants to restore the public’s trust in leadership and bring accountability to the Senate. And he asked for his supporters’ help in getting out the vote Nov. 2.
Sestak quoted the late President John F. Kennedy, saying that ‘the hour is late, but the agenda is long. Please come out and help.’
Concerning his main opponent, Republican senatorial nominee Pat Toomey, Sestak said that he applauds Toomey’s business success, ‘but not to the point where you represent Wall Street.’ He said that he and Toomey, both running to succeed U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, are ‘men of different values.’
‘You have to know Pennsylvania,’ Sestak said. He lamented that ‘to a large degree, (American jobs) did go to China,’ where 11,000 miles of high-speed rail have been laid this year alone.
‘We’ve done zero’ miles of high-speed rail this year, Sestak said, urging a renewed federal focus on domestic education and economic development.
His stop at Old Main was among five campaign stops that Sestak made Saturday, as he crossed the state from Erie to Philadelphia. The Penn State College Democrats sponsored his local appearance, where U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ played when Sestak arrived. Bruce Springsteen’s ‘No Surrender’ marked the end of his remarks.
Speaking with reporters afterward, Sestak said youth engagement in the election process is key. He wants young people to know, he said, that hope by itself is not a strategy. Rather, effecting change also requires ‘hard work’ and persistence, Sestak went on.
He has visited Centre County roughly a half-dozen times in the last 18 months. He would like to visit once more before Nov. 2, though his schedule is still being finalized, Sestak said.
Some Toomey supporters brought several signs to the Democratic rally Saturday. At one point, someone yelled ‘Toomey for Senate!’ from the back of the audience. Sestak didn’t acknowledge the statement.
Recent voter polls have suggested that the Toomey-Sestak race is a dead heat, with the candidates within several percentage points of each other.
Samuel Settle, chairman of the Penn State chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, held two Toomey signs during the Sestak event Saturday. He said Sestak seemed to bring a blame-others mentality to his remarks. Settle suggested that the federal focus should be more on creating a business-friendly climate in the U.S.
He said he hopes that Toomey will focus his remarks on job creation and economic growth during a visit Wednesday. Toomey and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett are expected to visit for a rally between 10 a.m. and noon Wednesday at the HUB-Robeson Center.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato is scheduled to appear in the HUB for an educational forum on Monday. That will begin at 3 p.m.
Earlier coverage
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