Bloomberg for Sestak
Mayor Mike Bloomberg went to Philadelphia today to support Democrat Joe Sestak's bid for the US Senate from Pennsylvania. David Bronston and I were there.
Sestak defeated Arlen Specter for the Democratic party nomination after Specter switched his affiliation from Republican to avoid a party challenge from the right. He's in a tight race with Pat Toomey.
Both the Mayor and the candidate mentioned that they had not met until today, and that Bloomberg had greeted him by saying that they didn't agree on every issue. Although he touched lightly on issues where they did agree, and more heavily on Sestak's management experience gained moving up the ranks to his retirement rank of three star Admiral, the Mayor seemed most enthusiastic when he talked about Sestak acting from political conviction and not convenience.
He took several shots at legislators who "lead from behind" by jumping on the issue of the day whether they care about it or not. It seemed that he admired Sestak's willingness to give up his Congressional seat to take on a Senator to change parties solely out of self preservation. Of course, he did acknowledge that he himself had some experience with Republicans, Democrats and Independents, having been all three at some point in his life.
