Arlen Specter, moderate who rejected right wing
US senator Arlen Specter eventually rejected the Republican party when he found himself at odds with its 'extremist' views
Arlen Specter, a moderate former US senator from Pennsylvania who played key roles in critical Senate battles but angered colleagues by switching from Republican to Democrat, has died.
Specter died on Sunday of complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - a form of immune system cancer - at home in Philadelphia, his family said. He was 82.
The five-term senator was elected in 1980 as a Republican, but he was one of just three in the party to vote for President Barack Obama's stimulus plan in 2009.
After being labelled a pariah by conservatives, he defected to the Democratic Party, only to lose its primary in 2010, ending his long Senate career.
"As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party," Specter said at the time. But he also tied the decision to his already faltering re-election bid, angering some Democratic voters.
Specter played a key role in several Supreme Court nominations, notably derailing the 1987 nomination of conservative Robert Bork to the dismay of many of his fellow Republicans.