Specter vs. Sestak: My dilemma

Today I will vote in the primary elections here in Pennsylvania. Despite the fact that we're electing a new governor this year, 99 percent of the media attention has been focused on the race for U.S. Senator.

Incumbent Arlen Specter, a longtime Republican who recently turned Democrat, is being challenged by Congressman Joe Sestak. And the decision is not as easy as it might appear for this liberal/progressive voter.

President Obama and some other leading Democrats are supporting Specter. That's allegedly part of the deal for Specter's party switch which gave Obama's agenda a 60th Senate vote.

But the left-leaning Philadelphia Inquirer has also endorsed Specter with some compelling arguments in his favor. Ditto the Philadelphia Daily News, for which I used to be a contributing columnist. And several big labor unions support Specter.

While Sestak appears to be more progressive in general, he unfortunately supports our ongoing occupation of Afghanistan, which Specter opposes. And Specter has sponsored a number of important human-rights-related bills that I have lobbied for through the years on behalf of Amnesty International.

Hence my dilemma.

Specter and Sestak are running neck-and-neck in the polls, which show that they have an equal chance of beating Republican Pat Toomey in November -- or not.

So I keep asking myself things like:

• Does Sestak have the name recognition statewide -- or could he by November -- to beat Toomey?

• Assuming not, despite some of the good things that Specter has done, could I really vote for him today, given that he had voted for so many of George W. Bush's misguided policies?

Some say that Toomey is too conservative to win in November. But we have to remember that this is the same state that kept reelecting ultra-conservative Rick Santorum for so long.

So there is so much riding on this primary.

And, as I write this, I am still deciding -- sort of. My gut is screaming "Sestak!"

May the best man win -- today and in November.