Ridge won't run for Senate

Spurning the seduction of moderate leaders in his party, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge declared yesterday that he would not run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate next year.

Some in the GOP have been looking for a less-conservative alternative to Pat Toomey, the former congressman whose primary challenge drove Sen. Arlen Specter last week to become a Democrat. These Republicans believe only a centrist candidate, such as Ridge, can recapture the seat for the party.

"It was the toughest decision I ever had to make," Ridge said on MSNBC's Hardball yesterday. It was "humbling and gratifying" to be encouraged to run, Ridge said, "but at this point in time I decided it's just not what I wanted to do."

Ridge's announcement was the latest turbulence to follow Specter's switch.

Also yesterday, Senate Democrats gave Specter the chairmanship of a Judiciary subcommittee on crime, after the caucus voted against crediting him for the 28 years of seniority he built as a Republican. And U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak continued to talk of taking on Specter in the Democratic primary.

Public and private polling had suggested that Ridge, who also was the nation's first Homeland Security secretary, would have a better chance of defeating Specter in a general election than Toomey would.

National Republicans also had heavily recruited Ridge.

With Ridge out of the picture, GOP leaders are discussing moderates such as former Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton; U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach of Chester County; former U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan, of Delaware County; and State Sen. Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi of Delaware County.

Meehan, who has been pursuing a campaign for governor, appeared to open the door a crack to a Senate run, saying he expected to "participate in the conversation."

The GOP still needs to "fill the ideological void" by finding a Senate candidate who can attract a broad swath of voters in a general election, said pollster Chris Borick of Muhlenberg College. Pennsylvania has a long tradition of electing centrists.

"Gov. Ridge was tailor-made," said Borick. "There is no one on the horizon with that much cachet."

In a statement announcing his decision, Ridge said the GOP should rally around principles of limited and competent government and lower taxes.

"That is exactly the message I will carry to the people of Pennsylvania in my campaign for the U.S. Senate," Toomey said. "It is a message that will not only unite the Republican Party, but more importantly, it is one that a majority of our fellow citizens can rally around."

Ridge, 63, has run an international security-consulting firm since he left the Bush administration in 2005.

A decorated combat veteran of Vietnam, Ridge was elected to Congress from Democratic-leaning Erie in 1982, and was elected governor in 1994. He was tapped by President George W. Bush for the cabinet after the attacks of Sept. 11.

"It was not easy for him to disappoint folks," said Mark Holman, a Washington lobbyist who was Ridge's chief of staff in Harrisburg. He said Ridge reached his final decision yesterday morning.

In the end, Ridge did not want to be pulled away from his business and believed that he was better suited to executive positions than the Senate, Holman said. "He's consistently said over the years that governors and big-city mayors have the best jobs in politics."

Ridge also would have faced a difficult fight in a primary against Toomey. While he is a fiscal conservative, Ridge, unlike Toomey, supports abortion rights, a position that helped cost him chances to be the GOP's vice-presidential candidate in 1996, 2000, and 2008.

Conservatives had already been trying out lines of attack on Ridge, noting that he lives in a mansion in Chevy Chase, Md. - far from Erie, where he still owns a home and is registered to vote. Critics also dredged up government reports questioning the awarding of Homeland Security contracts to politically connected GOP contributors.

Toomey and antiabortion activist Peg Luksik of Johnstown are the only announced candidates in the GOP primary.

Specter, who staved off Toomey by a mere 17,000 votes in the 2004 primary, said polling convinced him he could not survive a rematch.

Since then, he's had one of the worst political weeks imaginable.

First, he said he had a deal to keep all his seniority, but earlier this week Democrats voted to make him the most junior member of the party in the Senate. Seniority determines leadership positions and committee assignments.

Specter also said that if "justice prevails," Republican Norm Coleman would win the disputed Minnesota Senate race over Democrat Al Franken. Later, he said he forgot which team he was on.

After denying he would be a "loyal Democrat," Specter proved it by voting against Obama's budget proposal. He continues to oppose legislation making it easier for workers to unionize, as well as publicly financed health insurance - a key component of the White House plan for health care.

"Specter's showing of arrogance and disrespect for his new party is painting a primary target on him," said Markos Moulitsas, publisher of the influential DailyKos blog.

A DailyKos poll, conducted by Research2000 and released yesterday, found Specter leading by large margins both Sestak and civic leader Joe Torsella, who has announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination. The poll did not measure State Rep. Bill Kortz of Allegheny County, who also is running.

But about a quarter of Democratic primary voters would be less likely to support Specter if they knew of his positions on Obama's budget, the union legislation, and health insurance, the poll found.

Yesterday, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D., Ill.) threw Specter a public-relations lifeline, agreeing to give up his chairmanship of the Judiciary Crime and Drugs subcommittee.

Specter told reporters he was grateful for the gesture, and remarked, "This is a territorial place." The chairmanship will give him the ability to hire loyal aides who were displaced when he gave up his place as the top Republican on the full Judiciary Committee.

Staff writers Angela Couloumbis and Mario F. Cattabiani contributed to this article.