Any time you read a story before the election that says "the candidate is relying on the unions and party organizations around the state to deliver the vote" you can be reasonably sure that candidate is in trouble. (See: Specter, Arlen). And, as night follows day, there will also be a story after the election that has a headline like this one: Party Machine Lost With Specter, which ran in The Inquirer. The death of the Democratic party organization in Philadelphia is the longest running obituary in the city's journalistic history.
