Annointed son (more furor)

MoveOn, a national liberal activist organization, has taken notice of state-level politics in Pennsylvania, specifically in next year's U.S. Senate race. Progressives nationwide are interested in ousting high-visibility conservative Rick Santorum, and perhaps MoveOn hoped to jump-start his opponent with an early endorsement. But their choice to run a virtual push-pull of PA members (omitting, for example, Casey's controversial stances on abortion and Iraq) has many previous supporters and potential allies up in arms. Gwen Shaffer at the Philadelpha Weekly does a good job of reporting the incident and capturing the outrage, especially among Pennacchio supporters, who already resent the way that the outcome of next spring's primary is taken as a given.

These sentiments dominate the posts about the race on MoveOn's own blog, the Action Forum. As of June 29, about 30 messages reamed out the organization for "playing nice" with the Democratic National Committee, for supporting a "carbon copy of Santorum," and for "throwing the poll."

MoveOn has already raised more than $150k for Casey, but that may come at the cost of some of its supporters' loyalty:

Frustration with the MoveOn poll has been a "big topic of discussion" at political gatherings during the past couple weeks, says Kathi Ember, Pennsylvania state coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America. "It's ironic, considering that MoveOn is responsible for getting many of my peers involved in politics in the first place."

Indeed, Philly blogger Eligere has announced her departure from MoveOn over the way this was handled. Given the widespread desire to oust Santorum, it's too bad that MoveOn had to wade in so gracelessly, sowing dissent among liberals just starting to organize for local action. Only time will tell whether the early clout they bring will be worth its cost in potential activists.