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Toomey: "He's going to carry PA"

Published by Karen Langley on .

The series of polls showing President Obama leading in Pennsylvania hasn't gotten Pat Toomey down.

In fact, the state's Republican U.S. senator said this morning he expects Pennsylvania to provide a share of the electoral votes that deliver Mitt Romney to the White House.

"Basically, the dynamic that allowed me to win federal office in 2010 is still very much in place, and he is going to carry Pennsylvania in 2012 much the way that I carried Pennsylvania in 2010," Toomey said.

Toomey, a former congressman, won in a close race with Joe Sestak, the congressman who beat five-term Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary that year. Toomey said today after a speech before county commissioners in Hershey that his race and the presidential contest share "a focus on the economy and restoring some fiscal sanity to Washington."

"It's the fact that President Obama's policies have failed. They've failed Pennsylvania. They've failed America," he said. "It's the fact that Governor Romney is such an accomplished man and so competant in economic and business matters, that he clearly has the knowledge and the ability to turn this around.

"I think that's exactly what people are looking for, and I think that's why he's going to carry Pennsylvania and become the next president."

A Quinnipiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll released last week found Obama leading Romney by 11 points in Pennsylvania. The president led by 6 points in a survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, and 4 points in a Rasmussen poll.

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Toomey: Balance the budget

Published by Clara Ritger on .

ToomeyHershey2
Photo: Clara Ritger
HERSHEY, Pa. -- U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey placed a priority on balancing the budget in a bipartisan fashion at the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania meeting Tuesday.

“We as a collective government are refusing to deal with a completely unsustainable fiscal policy that is courting a financial crisis,” Toomey said.

Earlier this year, Toomey, a Republican, worked with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, to pass a bill that would make it easier for companies to go public. He said in the Senate it is hard to get things done when legislators don't make concessions and work in a bipartisan fashion.

“Now Chuck Schumer and I probably have a hard time agreeing that today is Tuesday,” Toomey said to the laughing crowd. “But nothing’s going to happen in the Senate unless it’s bipartisan.”

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Romney Pa buys may be post-Tampa

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Fear not, those worrying over Pa's swing state status. The state may not get much love in recent presidential ad buys -- or appear on most media battleground lists -- but come the end of August the TV bucks should flow out of Mitt Romney's giant war chest.

From Scott Conroy at Real Clear Politics today:

If Romney does capture Pennsylvania in 2012, one line of thinking goes, that result would all but certainly herald a national blowout for the Republican, so why bother investing seriously there when other swing states will make or break a close election?

But Romney strategists envision what they say is a realistic scenario whereby the former Massachusetts governor loses one or two tossup states (where recent demographic shifts have created shaky terrain for a GOP presidential candidate) but more than makes up the difference by pulling off a Pennsylvania upset.

For instance, Romney could negate potential losses in both Nevada and Colorado (whose combined electoral votes total 15) by winning the Keystone State’s 20 electoral votes.

Romney’s commitment to Pennsylvania has been evidenced by his five trips there since May, and campaign strategists say that TV ads might begin after Aug. 29, when the candidate officially becomes the GOP nominee following a roll call vote at the Republican convention in Tampa.

At that moment, Romney’s massive general election war chest will become available for the final two months of the campaign.

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Supremes schedule Sept. hearing on new Pa. maps

Published by Laura Olson on .

Mark your calendars: the state Supreme Court has scheduled a Sept. 13 hearing for the dozen challenges filed against the revised district maps for the state House and Senate. 

According to the schedule released this morning, the challenges will be heard during the court's session in Philadelphia.

New maps were approved in June after Pennsylvania's top court in January threw out an earlier update to district boundaries, which must be redrawn each decade to account for population shifts.

Earlier protests against the first set of maps -- arguing that mapmakers split too many political subdivisions into separate legislative districts -- drew limited attention during the January court session, but after that historic result, you can expect a closer focus on next month's hearing.

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PA passed over again

Published by Tim McNulty on .

Sorry to inform you, but there is more evidence today of Pa's declining status as a battleground state.

Pennsylvania is not among the six states where the Obama campaign is running its latest ad on Mitt Romney's record on women's rights, according to Politico's Morning Score. (Women voters look to be key in November: the Romney camp has tapped two women governors, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, for key speaking roles at the GOP convention in Tampa; and President Obama has a 20-point edge with women in Wisconsin, helping him greatly in that swing state.)

A conservative nonprofit is passing over Pennsylvania too in a billboard campaign hitting Obama's economic record. It's running in 10 states.

Pittsburgh continues to see some ad spending though. All 4 of the city's broadcast TV stations have now begun loading data from the their public political files onto the FCC's website, and they show the NRCC and the DCCC will duke it out on the airwaves in October, and the Koch brothers' Americans For Prosperity will be on air attacking Obama admin policies from late this month through Labor Day. (We don't have exact numbers as the links are not yet live on KDKA-TV's website.)

It also appears Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tom Smith's ads are still running. Bob Casey's first ads of his reelection effort ran over the weekend.

UPDATE: In PA12, Democratic incumbent Mark Critz has reserved about $32K in Pittsburgh airtime from mid-October through the election, and GOP challenger Keith Rothfus has reserved $47K in broadcast spots during the same period. Their district is in the Johnstown/Altoona TV market too but it is not covered by new FCC rules on uploading political files.

There was a whopping $40 million spent on the presidential race across all the battleground states last week. (First Read)

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