Pat Toomey has surged to a 48% to 36% lead in his race against Arlen Specter (D-PA) according to the latest Rasmussen Reports Poll, while a Quinnipiac University Poll now has the race in a statistical dead heat: Specter 45%; Pat 44%. Pat has proved the skeptics wrong - this is now a hotly competitive race!
Meanwhile, Specter picked up a formidable opponent in his Democratic primary race - Congressman Joe Sestak. That means the two Democrats will pummel each other and blow their campaign war chests in the process.
Today, the Federal Election Commission approved a request for an advisory opinion allowing The Club for Growth to inform Specter's Republican donors about his policy of providing refunds to those contributors upset with his switch to the Democratic Party. They plan to do just that.
Now let's help Pat build more momentum for his campaign by helping him raise more than any other challenger to a Democratic senator. Nothing succeeds like success.
Your donation today will help generate many more donations from others who will get excited about this race!
Click here to make your most generous contribution to Toomey for Senate today.
We have to get rid of Arlen Specter, who:
Supports government-run health care where politicians and bureaucrats would decide what medical procedures you and your family would receive.
Favors massive tax hikes on you and your family.
Cast the deciding vote on the outrageous porkulus "stimulus" bill that caused the debt to skyrocket.
Votes 97% of the time with the Democrats.
President Obama and Democratic Leader Harry Reid staked their political reputations on reelecting Specter. Let's get rid of Specter once and for all and send a message to Obama and Reid.
Please click here to make your most generous contribution to Pat Toomey's Senate campaign today.
If you prefer not to donate online, you can call with your credit card ready at (800) 784-2741. Or you can donate by check. Please make your checks payable to Toomey for Senate. Contributions are limited to $4,800 per person or $9,600 for a married couple with a check jointly signed from a joint checking account. Then mail your check to Club for Growth PAC, 2001 L St NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC, 20036.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Toomey Honored to Receive Endorsement from Rep. Bill Shuster (PA-09)
Allentown, PA – U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey thanked Republican Rep. Bill Shuster (PA-09) for his endorsement today. Rep. Shuster’s endorsement comes on the heels of endorsements from Reps. Joe Pitts (PA-16) and Charlie Dent (PA-15).
“I am honored by Bill’s endorsement,” Mr. Toomey said. “We served together for four years in the U.S. Congress, where I witnessed firsthand Bill’s commitment to Pennsylvania taxpayers and his support for fiscally responsible policies. Pennsylvanians can be proud to call Bill their representative.”
“Over the next year and a half, I look forward to campaigning along side Bill on the campaign trail. Together, we can restore balance to Washington and fight for policies that will get the economy moving again and create jobs.”
“I am honored by Bill’s endorsement,” Mr. Toomey said. “We served together for four years in the U.S. Congress, where I witnessed firsthand Bill’s commitment to Pennsylvania taxpayers and his support for fiscally responsible policies. Pennsylvanians can be proud to call Bill their representative.”
“Over the next year and a half, I look forward to campaigning along side Bill on the campaign trail. Together, we can restore balance to Washington and fight for policies that will get the economy moving again and create jobs.”
Monday, May 18, 2009
Welcome to our tent
By Pat Toomey
Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party provoked a firestorm of debate about the future of the Republican Party and its ability to become a majority party once again in America. Many on the left have framed this question as a choice between purity and popularity. This is a false dichotomy designed to be a lose-lose proposition for the GOP. The better questions are: What guiding principles define the modern Republican Party? Where should the party be flexible and where must it be resolute?
Since the "tent" seems to be the preferred metaphor for addressing this issue, I will use it to make my case.
I see the tent's poles as the many ideas that animate the Republican Party. We can and should have a vibrant, ongoing debate about how many poles the tent should have and where they should be positioned.
Surely one of the poles supporting the Republican tent is a strong national defense. But whether and when to go to war, where to station troops overseas, and how much to spend and on what kinds of weapons are all subjects on which good Republicans can disagree.
Respect for the values that Western civilization has developed over many generations is another important pole. I believe that one aspect of this idea is to defend and protect innocent human lives, including those of unborn children. But I would certainly not suggest that those who disagree with the pro-life position be banished from the Republican tent.
Another pole almost all Republicans feel strongly about is fiscal discipline. Less government spending and lower taxes are important Republican precepts but exactly what level of spending and how much to tax are surely topics for endless debate among good Republicans. No one has a monopoly on the right answers to these inherently subjective fiscal questions.
A strong, diverse and healthy Republican Party should welcome an open and lively debate about these and other poles in our tent. But a tent consists of more than just poles. In fact, the purpose of the poles is to hold up the fabric that unifies the poles and provides the cooling shade that brings people to the tent in the first place. It is this unifying fabric, this common Republican cloth that is the essential defining characteristic of what it means to be a Republican.
This unifying idea is that personal freedom is the highest political goal of our great nation. It is not the only goal, but the most important. To achieve it necessarily means the power of government must be limited so it cannot excessively infringe on our freedom. All who embrace this transcendent theme should be welcome in the Republican tent.
Limited government and individual freedom were the primary principles of our nation's founding, and of our party's founding amid the anti-slavery movement. They must be the central theme of the Republican Party because they are so fundamental to our national identity, because they offer better solutions for the problems Americans face today and because they are under attack today as never before.
The modern Democratic Party is based on the opposite premise. Its highest goal is to attempt to achieve a society of more equal outcomes. Since they are not satisfied with the inequality of outcomes in a free society, like all quasi-utopians, they must rely on the coercive power of government to force the outcomes they seek.
Thus, the Democrats support exorbitant taxes on the productive; the redistribution of wealth; employment and academic quotas; increasing control over business; government-controlled health care, day care and education. The list goes on. And if the current Congress has its way, it will go on, and on, and on.
All of which is why today, perhaps more than ever before, the Republican Party has to stand in defense of individual freedom and must try to limit the power of the growing leviathan.
Arlen Specter never believed in limiting the power of government and defending the freedom of the individual. As long as he is wielding the levers of power, he wants that power to grow. His active cooperation with the current regime's massive expansion of government power was the straw that broke the camel's back for Pennsylvania Republicans. Or perhaps the last tearing of the fabric of freedom of the Republican tent.
That's the reason Mr. Specter fit so uncomfortably in the Republican tent. But for all of those out there who share the desire for more personal freedom and a less intrusive and growing government in Washington, the Republican Party's tent has the welcome mat out for you.
Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party provoked a firestorm of debate about the future of the Republican Party and its ability to become a majority party once again in America. Many on the left have framed this question as a choice between purity and popularity. This is a false dichotomy designed to be a lose-lose proposition for the GOP. The better questions are: What guiding principles define the modern Republican Party? Where should the party be flexible and where must it be resolute?
Since the "tent" seems to be the preferred metaphor for addressing this issue, I will use it to make my case.
I see the tent's poles as the many ideas that animate the Republican Party. We can and should have a vibrant, ongoing debate about how many poles the tent should have and where they should be positioned.
Surely one of the poles supporting the Republican tent is a strong national defense. But whether and when to go to war, where to station troops overseas, and how much to spend and on what kinds of weapons are all subjects on which good Republicans can disagree.
Respect for the values that Western civilization has developed over many generations is another important pole. I believe that one aspect of this idea is to defend and protect innocent human lives, including those of unborn children. But I would certainly not suggest that those who disagree with the pro-life position be banished from the Republican tent.
Another pole almost all Republicans feel strongly about is fiscal discipline. Less government spending and lower taxes are important Republican precepts but exactly what level of spending and how much to tax are surely topics for endless debate among good Republicans. No one has a monopoly on the right answers to these inherently subjective fiscal questions.
A strong, diverse and healthy Republican Party should welcome an open and lively debate about these and other poles in our tent. But a tent consists of more than just poles. In fact, the purpose of the poles is to hold up the fabric that unifies the poles and provides the cooling shade that brings people to the tent in the first place. It is this unifying fabric, this common Republican cloth that is the essential defining characteristic of what it means to be a Republican.
This unifying idea is that personal freedom is the highest political goal of our great nation. It is not the only goal, but the most important. To achieve it necessarily means the power of government must be limited so it cannot excessively infringe on our freedom. All who embrace this transcendent theme should be welcome in the Republican tent.
Limited government and individual freedom were the primary principles of our nation's founding, and of our party's founding amid the anti-slavery movement. They must be the central theme of the Republican Party because they are so fundamental to our national identity, because they offer better solutions for the problems Americans face today and because they are under attack today as never before.
The modern Democratic Party is based on the opposite premise. Its highest goal is to attempt to achieve a society of more equal outcomes. Since they are not satisfied with the inequality of outcomes in a free society, like all quasi-utopians, they must rely on the coercive power of government to force the outcomes they seek.
Thus, the Democrats support exorbitant taxes on the productive; the redistribution of wealth; employment and academic quotas; increasing control over business; government-controlled health care, day care and education. The list goes on. And if the current Congress has its way, it will go on, and on, and on.
All of which is why today, perhaps more than ever before, the Republican Party has to stand in defense of individual freedom and must try to limit the power of the growing leviathan.
Arlen Specter never believed in limiting the power of government and defending the freedom of the individual. As long as he is wielding the levers of power, he wants that power to grow. His active cooperation with the current regime's massive expansion of government power was the straw that broke the camel's back for Pennsylvania Republicans. Or perhaps the last tearing of the fabric of freedom of the Republican tent.
That's the reason Mr. Specter fit so uncomfortably in the Republican tent. But for all of those out there who share the desire for more personal freedom and a less intrusive and growing government in Washington, the Republican Party's tent has the welcome mat out for you.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Specter Trades Cure for Campagin
Sen. Arlen Spector has been raising funds for cancer research. I think?His own website Spectorforthecure.com states: "The sufferers of cancer, autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and too many other afflictions have waited long enough. It’s time we unleashed the cure." In fact the site claims "Senator Arlen Specter intends to build a bridge over the valley of death."
It seems like that bridge would span the valley of political death if Spector gets his way.
Mr. Specter changed the text of SpecterfortheCure.com last weekend to clarify that donations to the site fund his re-election campaign rather than cancer research or independent advocacy, as one might’ve thought.
On Friday, the message on the home page described Specter for the Cure as merely “a bold new initiative to reform our government’s medical research efforts, cut red tape and unstrangle the hope for accelerated cures.”
The text on the website claims. "Without Arlen Specter back in the Senate to see it through, Specter for the Cure could be lost to the ordinary politics of Washington that kills real change." Well maybe all charities should just hand over their funds to Spector. Talk about a campaign promise, I'll unleash the cure for cancer if re-elected ... What is he some kind of miracle worker looking to strike a deal?
Mr. Spector is most interested in a cure for U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey and any other Republicans who would challenge his re-election bid.
Even the folks on the left have a bad taste in their mouth over this. Adam Green, a blogger at the leftist dailykos.com, was not happy with the senator’s plug.“This is a scandal involving someone at the center of national news,” Mr. Green said, calling the scandal “cancergate.” “Arlen Specter went on one of the Sunday shows that mold political conventional wisdom and lied to Americans. Any cancer survivor or concerned citizen who went to that site to ‘put more pressure on Congress’ to fund cancer research got defrauded by Specter.”
It's a rare event that I find myself agreeing with the left and linking the dailykos in a post, but I stand today on a bridge over the valley of the left. I invite all the daliykos readers to fund a real policy cure, give to the Toomey campaign. Maybe Spector is a miracle worker ....
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
What Big Eyes You Have Senator
Hang the "I Told You So" banner and let's have a party. Sen. Spector has left the building.
The guest list should include Rudy Giuliani, President Bush, Rick Santorum, John Cornyn and most of the GOP who went to bat multiple times for Spector. "He a good guy, we need him on our side" they said. It was just enough to keep him in office.
I'm not sad to see the switch Spector has made. In fact, I'm glad the sheepskin suit has finally fallen off the wolf after all these years. It was tattered and torn the last time Spector faced Pat Toomey in an election. Mr. Toomey lost to Mr. Specter in 2004 by less than 2 percent of the vote.
Desperate men do desperate things. Alren Spector is such a man. A look at his record shows consistent support for abortion rights, his blocking of Judge Robert Bork from a seat on the Supreme Court, as well as his stimulus vote. He has broken with the GOP about 43 percent of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly. All this has not played well with republican voters.
Yet democrats have been furious with him too, notably for his support for Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court and his related interrogation of Anita F. Hill, who had accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment.
This puts Mr. Toomey in a great position. He has defeated Spector before the first vote was cast. If the last election was not recognized as a warning shot across the bow of the S.S. Spector, then I don't know what to tell you Arlen.
The only bad part in all of this is the amount of crow that will be consumed at the GOP buffet. Not to mention handing Democrats a possible 60th vote and the power to break Senate filibusters as they try to advance the Obama agenda.
“I’m not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate, not prepared to have that record decided by that jury,” Mr. Specter said. Excuse me Senator, but the "jury" are the people who elected you and we have a right to pass judgement with our vote. How dare he decide not to hold himself accountable to the voters who put him in office.
“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Spector said in his statement. Let me translate: I did the math and I'm about to get my butt handed to me and I don't like it one bit. I'm taking my ball and going to play with the other team.
Filibusters be dammed, democrats can have Spector as far as I'm concerned. Maybe Arlen and Olympia Snow could share a U-Haul????
The guest list should include Rudy Giuliani, President Bush, Rick Santorum, John Cornyn and most of the GOP who went to bat multiple times for Spector. "He a good guy, we need him on our side" they said. It was just enough to keep him in office.
I'm not sad to see the switch Spector has made. In fact, I'm glad the sheepskin suit has finally fallen off the wolf after all these years. It was tattered and torn the last time Spector faced Pat Toomey in an election. Mr. Toomey lost to Mr. Specter in 2004 by less than 2 percent of the vote.
Desperate men do desperate things. Alren Spector is such a man. A look at his record shows consistent support for abortion rights, his blocking of Judge Robert Bork from a seat on the Supreme Court, as well as his stimulus vote. He has broken with the GOP about 43 percent of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly. All this has not played well with republican voters.
Yet democrats have been furious with him too, notably for his support for Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court and his related interrogation of Anita F. Hill, who had accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment.
This puts Mr. Toomey in a great position. He has defeated Spector before the first vote was cast. If the last election was not recognized as a warning shot across the bow of the S.S. Spector, then I don't know what to tell you Arlen.
The only bad part in all of this is the amount of crow that will be consumed at the GOP buffet. Not to mention handing Democrats a possible 60th vote and the power to break Senate filibusters as they try to advance the Obama agenda.
“I’m not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate, not prepared to have that record decided by that jury,” Mr. Specter said. Excuse me Senator, but the "jury" are the people who elected you and we have a right to pass judgement with our vote. How dare he decide not to hold himself accountable to the voters who put him in office.
“I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,” Spector said in his statement. Let me translate: I did the math and I'm about to get my butt handed to me and I don't like it one bit. I'm taking my ball and going to play with the other team.
Filibusters be dammed, democrats can have Spector as far as I'm concerned. Maybe Arlen and Olympia Snow could share a U-Haul????
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The race is on!
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows Pat Toomey with a dominating 51%-30% lead over RINO Senator Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary.
It's clear that Keystone State Republicans are upset with Specter over his multiple defections to the left, and it's great to see Toomey with the lead, but don't take this poll for granted. The primary is still over a year away and plenty can happen.
In other news, the Club of Growth released its 2008 Congressional Scorecard. There were 13 House members (see below) who scored a perfect 100% (the most ever) along with Jim DeMint securing the lone 100% score in the Senate. Click here to see the full rankings.
Finally, you'll like this story: The liberal group, MoveOn.org, recently sent an email to its supporters stating, "If Republicans convince voters that clean energy legislation amounts to a new tax, Obama's plan is toast." Who wants butter on theor toast? Republicans are calling it a "tax"...they are and they're doing a great job. But they're getting help from a top Democrat as well! During a House hearing on cap and trade legislation, liberal Rep. John Dingell said, "Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it's a great big one." He's got that right. So even the most liberal of liberal congressmen knows what cap and trade really is -- a HUGE TAX HIKE.
It's clear that Keystone State Republicans are upset with Specter over his multiple defections to the left, and it's great to see Toomey with the lead, but don't take this poll for granted. The primary is still over a year away and plenty can happen.
In other news, the Club of Growth released its 2008 Congressional Scorecard. There were 13 House members (see below) who scored a perfect 100% (the most ever) along with Jim DeMint securing the lone 100% score in the Senate. Click here to see the full rankings.
Finally, you'll like this story: The liberal group, MoveOn.org, recently sent an email to its supporters stating, "If Republicans convince voters that clean energy legislation amounts to a new tax, Obama's plan is toast." Who wants butter on theor toast? Republicans are calling it a "tax"...they are and they're doing a great job. But they're getting help from a top Democrat as well! During a House hearing on cap and trade legislation, liberal Rep. John Dingell said, "Nobody in this country realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it's a great big one." He's got that right. So even the most liberal of liberal congressmen knows what cap and trade really is -- a HUGE TAX HIKE.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
PA GOP Reps staying on sideline for Specter/Toomey
The state’s Republican House Members indicated in separate interviews that they are not ready to endorse Specter, who faces a challenge next year from former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in what is likely to be the toughest battle of his 30-year Senate career.Specter enjoyed the support of almost everyone in the delegation in 2004, when he narrowly defeated Toomey by less than 2 percent in the GOP primary. But with Specter trailing Toomey in polling on next year’s rematch, Pennsylvania Members aren’t inclined to choose sides for now. -Roll Call
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