DSCC keeps up derivatives attack in new ad

Democrats are staying on the attack against Pat Toomey, using a new TV ad to once again blame the GOP Senate candidate for the financial crisis.

The new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, embedded at bottom, comes two weeks after the party first went on the air in Pennsylvania, and just a couple days after Democratic nominee Joe Sestak started running his first ad. Toomey…

September 1, 2010 at 3:45 pm | Comments (16)

LEFTOVERS: Another poll, fact-checking Crossroads, NRCC on Kelly

While we were reading through the details of Rasmussen’s latest Senate poll Tuesday, another survey slipped by us.

The good folks at Reuters and the research shop Ipsos got together and also polled the race. Their survey found Republican Pat Toomey leading Democrat Joe Sestak by 10 points, 47 percent to 37 percent. That’s a lead four points larger than Rasmussen showed. Toomey’s edge is smaller among…

August 31, 2010 at 5:28 pm | Comments (5)

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)

LEFTOVERS: Sestak & earmarks, Casey does SEPA, Marino on tape

Democrat Joe Sestak found himself under new scrutiny on that pesky subject of earmarks Monday, after The Morning Call reported that money Sestak earmarked for a non-profit foundation could instead end up benefiting a for-profit wind energy company.

At issue is $350,000 requested for the Thomas Paine Foundation, money to develop a new prototype, offshore wind turbine. The money was never actually appropriated, but long story short, the head of the…

August 30, 2010 at 7:23 pm | Comments (5)

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)

Toomey changes verb, not intent for Social Security

Republican Senate hopeful Pat Toomey appeared to be trying a little revisionist history this week when he claimed he never called for privatizing Social Security.

Toomey made the statement at the end of his appearance at the Pennsylvania Press Club Monday, only to see a wave of critics calling him out. That included the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which dug up a 2003 headline from Toomey’s hometown newspaper, The Morning Call, which read: “Toomey: Privatize…

August 26, 2010 at 8:00 am | Comments (6)

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)