Senate battle will boost primary election turnout

Today's ballots include one statewide issue and six U.S. House district battles.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- At least two out of three Pennsylvania voters are expected to skip today's primary election despite a competitive race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and statewide battles within both parties in the campaign for state attorney general.
For voters who plan to go to the polls, their motivations vary widely, according to random interviews with about a dozen voters in different parts of the state Monday.
Some wanted to make sure a particular candidate is nominated. Others wished the opposite for a candidate they dislike. Several said they view voting as a duty of citizenship in a democratic society.
"It's so easy to vote, no reason not to," said Todd Perry, 38, a financial adviser in Harrisburg.
"I vote in every election," said Ronald Coder, 75, of State College. "I used to work at the polls for several years."
Democratic State Chairman T.J. Rooney and his Republican counterpart, Alan Novak, predicted turnouts of between 25 percent and 30 percent of the state's 3.6 million Democrats and 3.2 million Republicans, who will separately vote on nominees for offices ranging from president to the state Legislature.
That would be higher than the 2000 primary, when the combined turnout averaged 20 percent, and potentially higher than the 2002 primary, when a hotly contested Democratic governor's race pushed the overall turnout to 25 percent.
Senate battle
Probably the biggest draw on today's ballot is the GOP nomination battle between incumbent four-term U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate who has been endorsed by President Bush, and U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, a conservative who has a mounted a strong challenge.
On Monday, Quinnipiac University released a poll of 617 likely GOP primary voters, taken over a five-day period that ended Saturday, showed Specter ahead, 48 percent to 42 percent, with 10 percent still undecided. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Among voters informally polled by The Associated Press on Monday who cited the Senate race as a reason for voting, none picked Toomey, a third-term congressman from the Allentown area, as their favorite.
"Specter's been around for a long time," said Ed Calhoun, 44, a human-resources manager from Pittsburgh. "I've really not heard anything about Toomey."
Other races
Two other statewide races that will be decided today are for the Republican and Democratic nominations for attorney general.
The Republican match between Tom Corbett, a former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh and the party-backed candidate, and Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor is most notable for the dueling attack ads that both candidates have aired in recent weeks.
On the Democratic side, three candidates -- Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, Philadelphia attorney Jim Eisenhower and former U.S. Attorney David Barasch -- have waged a lower profile campaign.
Today's presidential balloting is largely symbolic, since President Bush is unopposed for the nomination that the GOP will award in late summer and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry has already won more than enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination in July. As a practical matter, the balloting will elect scores of additional Pennsylvania delegates to both national conventions.
Issue
The only item on today's ballot that is open to every Pennsylvania voter, regardless of party affiliation, is a proposed $250 million bond issue for water and sewage treatment systems.
Six of the state's 19 U.S. House districts feature nomination battles today.
The most crowded House primary race is the Republican contest in central Pennsylvania's 17th District, which takes in Dauphin, Lebanon and Schuylkill counties and parts of Berks and Perry. Six Republicans are vying to take on six-term Rep. Tim Holden in the November election.
In the Republican-dominated Legislature, all 203 House seats and 25 of the 50 Senate seats are up for grabs this year. Most incumbents are seeking re-election, and only a few face primary opposition.
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