Specter, Arlen (1930-2012), represented Pennsylvania as a member of the United States Senate from 1981 to 2011. He served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2005 to 2007. Specter, a long-time Republican, announced in April 2009 that he was switching to the Democratic Party. A moderate, Specter said his political positions had become more in line with Senate Democrats than with conservative Republicans.
Specter was born in Wichita, Kansas, on Feb. 12, 1930. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. From 1951 to 1953, during the Korean War, he served in the United States Air Force. Specter earned a law degree from Yale Law School in 1956 and then began working as a lawyer in Philadelphia. From 1959 to 1964, he served as assistant district attorney of Philadelphia. In 1964, he was assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, the panel appointed to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. From 1966 to 1974, Specter served as district attorney of Philadelphia. He returned to the private practice of law from 1974 to 1980.
Specter ran for mayor of Philadelphia in 1967, for the U.S. Senate in 1976, and for governor of Pennsylvania in 1978, but he lost each time. He ran for the Senate again in 1980 and won. He was reelected in 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2004. In 2010, however, Specter lost a Democratic primary election for the Senate seat. Specter died on Oct. 14, 2012.
