I volunteered for Joe Hoeffel and I'm absolutely convinced that he was hurt by not having a contested primary. Joe was a great candidate, but he had very low name recognition once the general election season began. Had Hoeffel had a primary opponent, the press would have covered the debates and the candidates criss-crossing the state. As it was Specter was allowed free reign to cement the notion that he was the "moderate" against Toomey the "far out" candidate in the voters' minds. Hoeffel's campaign spent the entire general election and beyond doing nothing but begging for money to run ads to erase his name recognition deficit.

There's no reason Dems can't have debates that focus on shooting the Bush admin policies and not each other.

BTW, IMHO, the pro-choice issue is overrated.
I'm a pro-choicer living in SE Pa and I'll be voting for Bobby Casey should he choose to run for Senate. For example, Ginny Schraeder was in step with PA-08 voters on choice, but she still lost
because BucksCo voters were familiar with Fitzpatrick and liked him. It will be the same with Casey especially because he takes a consistent, principled position on death. I respect that even if I don't agree on abortion.