Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) has landed himself a more senior seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, putting him only a few spots away from the chairman.
Arlen Specter (Getty Images)
Specter, who once held the gavel himself as Republican chairman of the panel from 2005 to 2007, had been occupying a seat in the nosebleed section of the panel’s table since he switched parties last spring and Democrats denied him seniority.
Until Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) joined the panel last summer, Specter held the most junior Democratic seat on the committee, 11 seats away from chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who occupies the best seat in the committee room.
But at the panel’s weekly business meeting Thursday, Specter took the fourth seat away from Leahy. He’s also now listed on the Senate Judiciary Web site as the panel’s fifth-ranking Democrat, behind Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and ahead of Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.
A Senate aide said that members of the committee were consulted on the move and that Specter’s new position more closely mirrors his seniority within the Senate.
A committee spokeswoman directed questions from Main Justice to the Senate leadership, which makes decisions on Democratic senators’ seniority. A Senate leadership spokeswoman declined to comment to Main Justice.
Specter is serving his fifth term in the Senate. Specter is chairman of the Judiciary panel’s crime and drugs subcommittee. He was also the panel’s ranking Republican before he became a Democrat last May.
