Pat Toomey

In 2004, even many Republicans thought Pat Toomey was too extreme for the U.S. Senate. Toomey was a little-known, fiscally conservative congressman from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley taking on moderate Arlen Specter, who was seeking a fifth term. Yet the challenger almost won that Republican primary. Only strong backing from President George W. Bush and Senate colleague Rick Santorum saved Specter. Six years later, Toomey's call for a rematch scared Specter right out of the GOP. And still there were Republicans hoping for someone more "electable," such as moderate Tom Ridge, the former governor and Homeland Security director.

ON TUESDAY, state Republicans have a very important choice between Rep. Pat Toomey and liberal incumbent Arlen Specter for the U.S. Senate. This will be the most closely watched Senate race in America. The fact that it will be very close is affirmed by Sen. Specter's wave of negative commercials in an effort to cloud the facts. We strongly encourage Republican voters not to be beguiled by the smoke and mirrors in Sen. Specter's ads, but to look at the records he and Rep. Toomey have compiled during their tenures in Washington.

Those numbers from Philadelphia did not look good at all, and a ripple of alarm went through the war room late Tuesday. More Democrats than forecast had turned out to vote in the city, so aides to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey reworked their spreadsheets, looking for the path to victory. At 10 p.m., Democrat Joe Sestak was holding a sizable lead in the closely watched contest - until, bit by bit, Republican areas reported in with better margins than the Toomey team could have hoped.

HARD-RIGHT Republicans are pushing loony conservative Pat Toomey, hoping to make an example of Sen. Arlen Specter. But dislodging a four-term senator because he has not always toed the ultra-conservative line would mean even fewer moderates in the party than the tiny remnant that remains. That would be a disaster for everyone, including Republicans.

HARD-RIGHT Republicans are pushing loony conservative Pat Toomey, hoping to make an example of Sen. Arlen Specter. But dislodging a four-term senator because he has not always toed the ultra-conservative line would mean even fewer moderates in the party than the tiny remnant that remains. That would be a disaster for everyone, including Republicans.

THE Daily News endorsement of liberal Sen. Arlen Specter for re-election is no surprise. But the flowery rhetoric behind the endorsement is misleading at best. For example, the editorial notes that Specter does not always "toe the conservative line. " Understatement of the century. Specter has voted to raise taxes six times as senator and voted to chop the Bush tax cut to help the economy grow. But what was most unfair was the claim that Rep. Pat Toomey gets all his money from out of state "special interests" like the Club for Growth.

RE MICHAEL Smerconish's column about Pat Toomey and his abortion stand: I must disagree with my great friend Mike Smerconish over the Specter vs. Toomey abortion debate. Ask Pat (and you should), and he'll explain that his evolution from casual opinion to strong pro-life advocacy came over time. Remarkably, that's also the American story, changed from 70 percent pro-choice to 70 percent pro-life in two decades. Changing opinions can be opportunistic or genuine. When a NARAL executive found I had no serious abortion opinion, she challenged me to take a principled stand one way or the other.

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic candidate for Senate, is launching his first TV commercial of the fall campaign Tuesday, a populist spot that slams his Republican opponent as a corporate champion indifferent to the middle-class. Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey "thinks corporations shouldn't pay any taxes," the ad says, using a clip from a 2007 CNBC telecast in which he advocated eliminating corporate taxes to help U.S. firms compete internationally and thus create more jobs. Next, a series of mostly black-and-white photos of worried-looking families appears, as an announcer says, "The middle class is struggling.

'I'M A conservative Yahoo and that is why I have decided to challenge Arlen Specter in a Senate primary. " That's what I took away from Pat Toomey's piece on this page last week. More accurate would have been: "I am an opportunist and that is why I have decided to challenge Arlen Specter in a Senate primary. " At least that is what is suggested by an analysis of Pat Toomey's flip-flopping on a key issue on which he rests his conservative bona fides. That issue is the A-bomb of elections: Abortion.

Mean-spirited attack by Sestak It offended me to hear Joe Sestak attack Pat Toomey's decision to educate his children in parochial schools ("Toomey, Sestak spar on issues," Oct. 21). To his credit, Toomey prefaced his remarks concerning public education by saying his children attended a parochial school. Sestak's rebuttal opened with a salvo against such a choice as an example of Toomey's "privilege. " Sestak himself enjoyed the benefits of such privilege, a fact he is more than eager to throw out there when it suits, and just as eager to discard when he is presented with the opportunity to attack an opponent.

In 2004, even many Republicans thought Pat Toomey was too extreme for the U.S. Senate. Toomey was a little-known, fiscally conservative congressman from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley taking on moderate Arlen Specter, who was seeking a fifth term. Yet the challenger almost won that Republican primary. Only strong backing from President George W. Bush and Senate colleague Rick Santorum saved Specter. Six years later, Toomey's call for a rematch scared Specter right out of the GOP. And still there were Republicans hoping for someone more "electable," such as moderate Tom Ridge, the former governor and Homeland Security director.

MAYOR NUTTER, burdened with the violence of 20 homicides in Philadelphia's first 15 days of 2012, was due at the podium for yesterday's 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day luncheon. But master of ceremonies E. Steven Collins was asked to add a surprise speaker to the roster. And as hundreds of people ate their lunches and spoke with old friends, the words of President Obama began emanating from the stage. People stopped buttering rolls and looked up. Obama wasn't there.

John F. McNichol, 75, a guiding force of the Delaware County Republican Party for four decades, died Saturday. He had been on the rebound from surgery but fell ill on New Year's Eve while eating dinner with his wife, Joan Fenton McNichol, and friends, and died shortly afterward at Chester County Hospital, said Thomas Judge Sr., a former leader of the county GOP. Mr. McNichol never held elected office, but presidents and senators sought his...

Barack Obama could've done his reelection efforts a world of good if a certain U.S. senator from Pennsylvania had been by his side Wednesday in Scranton. No, I don't mean Democrat Bob Casey. I'm talking about Pat Toomey. An unlikely pairing, I know, but consider: What if the supercommittee hadn't come up empty on a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion? What if the panel had embraced the pro-growth compromise offered by Toomey, who balanced about $750 billion in spending cuts with roughly $500 billion in new revenue - while still cutting marginal tax rates and avoiding a tax increase?

It can be mildly entertaining or even enlightening to see how our elected officials invest, so we took a look at the excellent Center for Responsive Politics database and researched the portfolios of three Pennsylvanians: Sens. Pat Toomey, a Republican who resides in Lehigh County, and Bob Casey, a Democrat from Scranton, and Rep. Joseph "Mike" Kelly, who represents the Third District, which includes Erie and Sharon in the northwest corner of the state. The three offer both political and geographic diversity, but other than that, this is simply an arbitrary grouping.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a member of Congress' budgetary supercommittee, has always been an orthodox Republican tax-cutter, so it was hailed as a game-changing moment last week when he proposed raising $300 billion in revenue as part of a deal to cut the federal deficit. "I'm staying in Washington over the weekend and am available any time," Toomey said in an interview Friday. "The clock is ticking. " He was apparently still waiting Wednesday, with only days remaining until the Nov. 23 deadline for the supercommittee to recommend at least $1.2 trillion in cuts, and Democrats criticizing Toomey's proposal as raising too little new revenue and locking in lower taxes for the wealthy.

Nine regional members of Congress from Pennsylvania and Delaware have asked the U.S. Energy Information Administration for an analysis of the regional impact of the possible closing of three area refineries. In September, Sunoco and ConocoPhillips announced that refineries in Philadelphia, Marcus Hook, and Trainer would be put up for sale. If no buyers were found, the facilities would most likely close. In a letter to the energy agency, the members asked about the effects that the closures of the three refineries would have, not only on jobs, but also on the "supply, distribution, dependence on imports, prices, and market volatility for refined products.

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area senators voted on major issues last week (House not in session): Senate Obama jobs plan. By a vote of 50-50, the Senate on Thursday failed to reach 60 votes for ending GOP blockage of a bill (S 1723) providing $35 billion to avert state and local layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters. This effectively killed the bill. The bill's spending consists of $30 billion for teacher employment and $5 billion to protect law enforcement and first-responder jobs.

When the Senate blocked President Obama's $447 billion jobs plan Tuesday night, three of four senators from the Philadelphia region were left sputtering at what they labeled a GOP unwillingness to even talk. The fourth, Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), couldn't have been more pleased. Proponents fell short of the 60 votes needed to head off a filibuster. The bill "won't create jobs any more than his last stimulus bill did," said Toomey, one of 12 members of Congress on a so-called "super committee" attempting to address the national deficit this fall.