United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1998

United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1998

November 3, 1998

Nominee Arlen Specter Bill Lloyd Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,814,180 1,028,839 Percentage 61.3% 34.8%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Arlen Specter Republican Elected U.S. Senator Arlen Specter Republican

The 1998 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 3, 1998. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter won re-election to a fourth term.

Major candidates

Democratic

• Bill Lloyd, State Representative (from Somerset County)^[1]

Republican

• Arlen Specter, incumbent U.S. Senator (from Montgomery County)

Campaign

Leading up to this campaign, the state Democratic Party was in dire straits, as it was plagued by prior corruption allegations of several key legislators and by a lack of fund-raising. Just as in the accompanying gubernatorial race, the party had difficulty in finding a credible candidate. State Representative Bill Lloyd, who was a well-respected party leader but who had almost zero statewide name recognition, was considered to be a sacrificial lamb candidate. Specter ran a straightforward campaign and attempted to avoid mistakes, while Lloyd's bid was so underfunded that he was unable to air a single commercial until two weeks before the election. Lloyd's strategy was to portray Republicans as hyper-partisan in wake of their attempt to impeach President Bill Clinton, but he was unable to gain any traction with his message. On Election Day, Specter's win was by the second-largest margin in the history of Senate elections in Pennsylvania. He won in two counties: almost uniformly Democratic Philadelphia and his home county, rural and typically Republican Somerset County.^[2]

Results

General election results[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Arlen Specter	1,814,180	61.3
	Democratic	Bill Lloyd	1,028,839	34.8
	Constitution	Dean Snyder	68,377	2.3
	Libertarian	Jack Iannantuono	46,103	1.6

References

1. "Demo Lawmaker Wants Specter's Job". Allentown Morning Call. 6 January 1998. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
2. Kennedy, John J. (2006). Pennsylvania Elections: Statewide Contests from 1950-2004. United Press of America. ISBN 9780761832799.
3. "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 3, 1998" (PDF). Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House. Retrieved 8 July 2014.