Sestak’s determined Pennsylvania march

COATESVILLE, Pa. — Neither snow nor rain — nor cranky Democrats nor oncoming semi-trucks — will stop Joe Sestak from marching across Pennsylvania.

The hard-charging Senate candidate was on Day Seven of his 422-mile trek across the Keystone State when The Hill caught up with him on Tuesday in this blue-collar steel town just east of Philadelphia.

{mosads}Clad in waterproof purple hiking boots, well-worn jeans and his trademark bomber jacket adorned with Navy patches, the former congressman is used to long walks on lonely roads.

He’s just hoping his rematch with GOP Sen. Pat Toomey won’t be quite as lonely as his last.

Sestak took on the Democratic establishment in 2010, defeating former Republican Sen. Arlen Specter before narrowly losing to Toomey.  

He never really stopped running since, touring the state immediately afterward, supporting other candidates in the last two elections and relaunching his fundraising operation more than two years ago.

“This idea of walking in people’s shoes — I don’t expect people just to vote for me for that, but I expect that hopefully I’ll gain respect and hopefully have them trust me so that when I do get elected, I can come back and explain things, and they’ll listen,” Sestak says.

“The biggest issue that’s harming America is the lack of trust. You galvanize a crew, as captain of a ship, you can take it anywhere,” the retired Navy admiral says, a dozen supporters and staffers in tow, hustling down the main drag of the town his grandfather immigrated to decades ago.

After a rousing speech about manufacturing and small-business jobs to an audience of 20 or so, partly drowned out by trucks rumbling by, Sestak returned to his long march. He was barging ahead when a supporter warned him he was about to run out of sidewalk.

He didn’t seem to notice that most of those who’d been following him after the speech had stopped there, leaving him with a smaller entourage: a local Democratic activist whose grandfather had worked at the steelworks with Sestak’s, a burly former Marine and local radio host, a nervous-seeming staffer and this reporter. 

A mile further, a local businessman joined up with his dog, Misha, a massive Newfoundland who kept getting barked at by other dogs in passing cars.

Many Democrats in the state still hold a grudge over Sestak’s last bid, and his shaky relaunch last week is giving them new reasons for pause. So Sestak knows this foot tour, expected to wrap up by the end of March, could make a big difference in whether he can win over party support. He said he would pass 100 miles on Tuesday, as he heads across the state from Philadelphia past Pittsburgh to the Ohio border.

But even former detractors say he is an excellent retail politician. They admit his dogged campaign style has made him the clear front-runner in the primary, even as some continue to look for an alternative.

“Anyone who thinks Joe Sestak will be easy to beat in a primary is crazy. Joe has worked extremely hard the last four years,” said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who backed Sestak’s opponent, Specter, last time around. “Anyone who undertakes a primary should do so at their own peril.”

Other former Specter backers agree.

“As a candidate, Joe has a very strong work ethic; he has made it clear he is willing to fight for this seat,” Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) told The Hill.

Sestak said he has worked hard to repair damaged relationships since his last run.

“I don’t blame anyone who’s upset,” he said when asked if it was his responsibility to heal those wounds. “I spent the last year or so reaching out to those I felt I should have made time for during the [2010] primary.”

He’s called influential Democrats who opposed his last run, talking to Pennsylvania and national figures like Rendell and Rep. Robert Brady, who remains a holdout, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), the new Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman.

“Joe is a guy who marches to his own drum, no question. But he’s listening more than last time, and he’s learned from his mistakes,” Rendell said.

That doesn’t mean that Sestak’s tendency not to ask for help has stopped hurting him. His rainy opening rally on March 4 had low turnout and was plagued by technical glitches. His website was down for much of the morning, and the live stream didn’t work.

The campaign workers he’s hired so far don’t have a ton of experience. He says he’s been talking to a few candidates that were sent his way by the DSCC, though he didn’t give the organization a heads-up before publicly announcing his candidacy last week.

Such minor concerns are magnified in the eyes of Democrats who either remember him as a hard-headed campaigner, who often refuses allies’ advice, or as a temperamental congressman who had trouble hanging on to harried staff.

“He’s very hard-charging and has very specific views about how he thinks his operation should be run,” said one Pennsylvania Democrat who had mostly positive things to say about the candidate. “A lot of people would like him to have a seasoned campaign manager but a lot of people think it’s better to let him roll with that system than fight a futile battle.”

Sestak took the blame for the rollout’s problems, though he brushed them off as minor issues.

“I said we’ve got to go with it, whether it’s pouring rain or not. We’ll get criticized for all that kind of stuff, but we said we were going to do it, we’ve got to go even if nobody shows,” he said.

Sestak also overrode suggestions from staffers that he immediately launch his campaign website as he took the stage last week, instead telling them to wait until they could include video of the rally before launching.

Tuesday’s slightly drizzly, warm weather was an improvement over the nasty weather of earlier legs of the journey.

Sestak launched his campaign in freezing drizzle and slogged through snow for much of the first few days of the march, finishing one day’s 19-mile push by marching through water after 1 a.m. because he’d spent a few hours making a round-trip to Philadelphia to appear on TV. 

As he makes his way through the state, he’s spending the night in local churches and with supporters. 

“This is about accountability. people don’t trust anymore,” he said. “If you’re really going to fight for stuff don’t just do it once — keep after it.”

A minute later, he squared his shoulders against the drizzle that was just beginning to fall, returning to the road as he aimed for the Ohio border.