Rasmussen: Toomey up by 6

The Senate race in Pennsylvania has narrowed somewhat, but Republican nominee Pat Toomey still holds a six-point lead over Democrat Joe Sestak, according to a new poll.

The Rasmussen survey released Tuesday found Toomey garnering 45 percent of the vote, compared to 39 percent for Sestak. Eleven percent of voters are still undecided and five percent prefer another candidate, according to the poll.

Much of the public polling over the last few months has shown…

August 31, 2010 at 1:49 pm | Comments (5)

Sestak’s first ad hits Toomey on corporate taxes

Breaking his TV silence more than three months after a wildly successful primary advertising blitz, Democrat Senate candidate Joe Sestak is up with his campaign’s first commercial of the general election cycle.

The 30-second spot, coming just over two months before Election Day, strikes a stridently populist tone, juxtaposing Republican nominee Pat Toomey’s previous statements about corporate taxes with news clips about falling tax payments by corporations. The ad uses a 2007 CNBC appearance by…

August 31, 2010 at 8:22 am | Comments (1)

Club for Growth calls Sestak ‘very liberal’ in new ad

The folks from Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey’s old stomping grounds are going to bat against his opponent, using a new TV ad to call Democrat Joe Sestak “very liberal.”

The conservative Club for Growth, which Toomey led until shortly before he entered the Senate race, unveiled the 30-second spot Friday, which it says will air statewide on both cable and broadcast TV. The precise size of the ad buy was not immediately clear—an independent…

August 27, 2010 at 12:23 pm | Comments (26)

Gun control group hits Toomey

Trekking through the state on his bus tour this week, Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey offered up a playful remark on his thoughts about gun policy. “My idea of gun control is steady aim,” Toomey said Tuesday in York County.

A prominent Pennsylvania gun control group didn’t appreciate that.

CeaseFirePA hammered Toomey for the comment, which it called “disrespectful and disappointing for a candidate who seeks to represent Pennsylvania in the…

August 27, 2010 at 9:30 am | Comments (10)

Poll: Toomey up 9 points

Less than 100 days before voters cast their ballots, Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey leads Democrat Joe Sestak by nine points among likely voters, according to a new poll.

The Franklin & Marshall College survey released Thursday showed Toomey garnering 40 percent of likely voters, compared to 31 percent for Sestak. About one quarter of voters are still undecided, making for a wide open race, according to the poll.

Toomey’s edge is smaller among all…

August 26, 2010 at 10:01 am | Comments (5)

Another outside group targets Sestak; errs on some facts

Yet another conservative group is buying TV time against Democratic Senate nominee Joe Sestak.

The latest 30-second spot comes from Crossroads GPS, a group spearheaded by Karl Rove among others. It hits Sestak for supporting President Obama’s so-called “big government health care scheme.”

The ad misleadingly claims that insurance premiums will rise by an average of $2,100 under the new health care law, but the government report cited says increases will come because more family…

August 25, 2010 at 9:33 am | Comments (29)

Hagel: Sestak ‘exactly the kind of leader America needs’

PHILADELPHIA—Former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel endorsed Democrat Joe Sestak for Senate Tuesday, giving the congressman another supporter outside his party as he increasingly seeks to build his credentials as a self-styled independent politician.

Hagel, the two-term senator from Nebraska who opted not to seek reelection in 2008, backed Sestak at events in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, calling Sestak, a former Navy Admiral, “exactly the kind of leader American needs right now in its history.”

“I have…

August 24, 2010 at 5:14 pm | Comments (3)

SENATE NOTES: Hagel for Sestak, porn site owner gives to Toomey, bus tours

There’s been a flurry of action in the Senate race the last few days, as both candidates have been building momentum toward November.

Democrat Joe Sestak will look to continue building his independent cred Tuesday, when he gets an endorsement from former Senator Chuck Hagel. The Nebraska Republican is the type of moderate who has found there is increasingly little room for his kind in Washington, and chose not to seek reelection in 2008. He’ll…

August 23, 2010 at 11:22 pm | Comments (13)

DSCC might drop more than $4M on Senate race

Democrats are getting ready to spend big on Pennsylvania’s competitive U.S. Senate race.

Having already made its first ad buy in the race recently, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has purchases or reserved about $4.4 million worth of airtime in the race between Joe Sestak and Republican Pat Toomey, The Inquirer reports.

Until recently, almost all TV media buys in the race were made by Toomey and independent groups supporting him.…

August 23, 2010 at 11:02 am | Comments (15)