I would imagine that when Arlen Specter switched his party affiliation ahead of the 2010 Senate primaries that he believed to some extent he would be a shoo-in candidate. The support of top Democratic Party leaders was in tact, and Pat Toomey was considered far too conservative to have cross state appeal in the increasingly blue state of Pennsylvania. The story of the fight for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat has taken the ultimate twist beyond the wildest fantasies of most political dorks including myself. Today, Politico has reported that former popular Pennsylvania Governor turned first ever Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge is “seriously considering” a run for Senate. He is being courted as a moderate alternative to the very conserative Pat Toomey.

Honestly, it is my guess that Tom Ridge could easily defeat Pat Toomey in a primary. Obviously, it’s too early to have any numbers on a potential Tom Ridge run against Pat Toomey, but this story literally came out of nowhere and I imagine will have many speculating this week the future of that Senate seat. Assuming Specter and Ridge would both win their potential primaries it would be one of the strangest Senate races in contemporary history due to the fact that both of them are essentially moderate Republicans. They are both considered pro-choice conservatives who would  have pretty similar positions on most of the issues from what I can gather.

One thing is for certain, this will make Specter’s run for Senate quite difficult if Ridge runs and wins a Republican primary, certainly it would be an uphill climb especially since there will be a heavy notion in the air that Arlen Specter seems to be somewhat of a political opportunist. Not only that, it would be two candidates running against each other that were both closely affiliated to President Bush. All of this being said, we will be following all developments on this story very closely.