Pat Toomey

WASHINGTON - Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey was an unlikely figure to change the course of the nation's debate over gun laws. But there he was Wednesday, a Republican best known for his fiscal views, standing with a Democrat before a phalanx of cameras to present a bipartisan plan for expanding federal background checks to cover firearms purchases at gun shows and online. "Candidly, I don't consider criminal background checks to be gun control. I think it's common sense," said Toomey, a gun owner who previously received an A rating from the National Rifle Association.

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele said Tuesday that Pennsylvania was "an important battleground, a line in the sand" in the GOP's campaign to retake control of Congress in the midterm elections this fall. Steele was speaking at a rally attended by 150 Republican activists in Blue Bell, joined on stage by the party's U.S. Senate candidate, Pat Toomey; lieutenant governor nominee, Jim Cawley; and eight GOP candidates for the U.S. House. "Don't let these folks down," Steele said.

If you live in Philadelphia, you've probably heard of Chaka Fattah or Bob Brady. You probably have no idea who Roy Afflerbach is. But it's Afflerbach whose name is getting beamed into your living room every night. The close race for the open seat in Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District, centered in the Lehigh Valley, is so important to both parties that the GOP is running negative ads about the Democratic state senator on Philadelphia TV stations since many Lehigh Valley residents watch those channels on cable.

Conservative activist Peg Luksik, who ran for governor on an antiabortion platform three times in the 1990s, said yesterday that she planned to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican primary next year. Her decision raises the possibility of a split in the conservative vote that could help the moderate Specter in his bid for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate. Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, a conservative who lost narrowly to Specter in 2004, has told supporters he planned a rematch.

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.

Baseball field revamping Mayor Nutter, Citizens Bank Park CEO Daniel Fitzpatrick and Phillies star Ryan Howard gathered yesterday for the groundbreaking of a $500,000 renovation to the Hunting Park baseball field. The renovation - part of a $2 million plan to revive the park - will provide the field at 10th and Cayuga streets with new turf, fencing, benches, dugouts and lighting. Contributors to the project include the city, Councilman Darrell Clarke, Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, the Citizens Bank Foundation, the Ryan Howard Family Foundation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy's "Growing the Neighborhood" program.

WASHINGTON - Two influential senators, one from each party, are working on an agreement that could expand background checks on firearms sales to include gun shows and online transactions, Senate aides said Sunday. If completed, the effort could represent a major breakthrough in the effort by President Obama and his allies to restrict guns following December's massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. Sens. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) could nail down an accord early this week, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted down Pat Toomey's plan Thursday to offer flexibility on the $85 billion budget cuts set to begin Friday under the so-called sequester - but only after an unusually intense debate between the Pennsylvania Republican and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber's second-ranking Democrat. Toomey's bill was the first of two plans meant to soften or eliminate the automatic cuts, though both parties knew that neither would pass. The proposal crafted by Toomey and Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.)

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to more gun buyers is in jeopardy. The pool of potential Republican votes that Democrats will need to push the measure through the Senate has dwindled, and President Obama was calling lawmakers Monday as both sides hunted support for a showdown vote expected this week. At stake is what has become the heart of this year's gun-control drive in response to December's killing of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.