It has been said that no one has done more for the state of Pennsylvania than Benjamin Franklin. It has also been said that Pennsylvania Senator Alren Specter runs a close second.
Specter was born in Kansas but he moved to Pennsylvania to attend the University of Pennsylvania and from that day forth, he remained a son of the Keystone State. He graduated from Yale law school in 1956 and then moved back to Philadelphia, where he launched a legal career. During that time, he worked as an assistant counsel for the Warren Commission investigting the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and in that capacity, he co-authored the “magic bullet” theory that explained how wounds to Texas Governor John Connally could have been caused by the same bullet that killed Kennedy. This, in turn, explained how the assassination was the act of a single shooter and not part of a conspiracy.
While debate lingered over his work on the Warren Commission, Specter ran successfully for Philadelphia District Attorney in 1965 on the Republican ticket. Previously, he had been a Democrat, and for switching parties, he was labeled “Benedict Arlen.” After two terms as attorney general, he lost his bid for a third and subsequently lost bids for the U.S. Senate in 1976 and for Pennsylvania Governor in 1978. But he won a race for U.S. Senate in 1980, assumed office in 1981, and stayed in that position until January 3, 2011.
Specter’s 30-year career in the Senate made him the longest-serving Senator in Pennsylvania’s history, serving an unprecedented five consecutive terms. He was known as both a Pennsylvania-first legislator and as a moderate Republican who broke with his party on difficult votes more than a few times on topics such as abortion, illegal immigrants, minimum wage, consumer protection and affirmative action. He deeply opposed the domestic wiretapping provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, and in 2009 he was one of only three Republicans to break ranks and support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which prompted calls from within the GOP for his removal from office.