Crony! Self-enricher! From Day 1, Pa. Senate race is all attacks
WASHINGTON - In Pennsylvania's critical U.S. Senate race, Democrats have nominated a liberal bureaucrat who enriched herself as she spun between government jobs and the private sector - if you listen to Republicans.
WASHINGTON - In Pennsylvania's critical U.S. Senate race, Democrats have nominated a liberal bureaucrat who enriched herself as she spun between government jobs and the private sector - if you listen to Republicans.
She is trying to unseat a Wall Street crony more interested in helping big business than the average worker - if you believe Democrats.
The competing images - and attempts to cement them well in advance of November's election - are already bombarding Pennsylvania's airwaves. Each side, said Franklin and Marshall College pollster G. Terry Madonna, is "trying to create an identity that sticks with the voters."
It started within hours of Tuesday's primary, when Katie McGinty secured the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in a race that could decide control of the Senate.
The stakes showed as national groups poured in money even before the results were official.
The morning after the vote, Toomey promised a "robust discussion" of McGinty's record, saying the idea of Washington "having more hyper-partisan people with ethics problems doesn't strike me as a very good one."
McGinty, a short time later, said Toomey was trying to distract from his history as "a creature of Wall Street" who "still works for the interests of Wall Street."
That morning, the fiscal conservative group Club For Growth - which Toomey once led - announced a $500,000 ad buy slamming McGinty for an ethics flap in 2007, when she led Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, and for supporting Gov. Wolf's proposed tax hikes as his recent chief of staff.
"Katie McGinty has no shame," the ad says.
On Friday, Toomey himself launched an ad attacking the link between her public and private jobs.
Democrats answered in kind.
AFSCME, the union of state, county, and municipal workers, announced a $1.2 million ad buy Friday painting Toomey, a former investment banker, as a Wall Street "wheeler-dealer" looking out for big money, "not us."
And the recently formed Constitutional Responsibility Project, led by allies of President Obama, announced that its first television spot would air in the Philadelphia market, blasting Toomey for opposing a vote on Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.
Add in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad praising Toomey, and the spending since Tuesday is already around $3 million.
(Plus, star power: The chamber spot features former Philadelphia Eagle Vince Papale, immortalized in the film Invincible.)
In primary season, the candidates had mostly struck a different tone.
Toomey, a fiscal hawk who has long focused on the budget and economy, tried to add a softer touch with months of ads featuring women praising his work to combat opioid addiction and keep child molesters out of school jobs, among other issues.
McGinty presented herself as a blue-collar daughter of Philadelphia who will be a champion for the middle class.
But with the fall campaign beginning, and neither candidate widely known, both are trying to hobble their rivals from the start.
McGinty called the ethics questions raised by Toomey "an old, discredited dog that don't hunt." The 2007 controversy involved the agency she led: The DEP awarded $2.6 million in grants to a nonprofit environmental group and its subsidiary that employed her husband. The groups paid him $3,700 as a consultant. (Thetwo entities had also received around $4 million in grants from a Republican administration before McGinty led DEP).
The State Ethics Commission told her to avoid any role in awarding further grants that could benefit her husband financially.
McGinty downplayed the issue last week, noting that the GOP-led state Senate that first raised the questions also reconfirmed her in a 42-6 vote.
Democrats, meanwhile, blasted out research on Toomey's opposition to banking reforms passed in the wake of the financial crisis, and a 2007 television interview in which, as head of the Club For Growth, he said the nation should "eliminate corporate taxes altogether."
Toomey called the idea of his serving Wall Street masters "ridiculous."
His campaign said he has opposed bailouts for businesses and that as a senator, he's proposed cutting corporate taxes to 25 percent from 35, a move he says would make the U.S. business climate more competitive.
"This old clip was simply a discussion about how higher taxes hurts job creation," said Toomey spokesman Ted Kwong.
Both candidates begin the race with vulnerabilities.
McGinty struggled to gain traction in her primary until $4.5 million in ads bought by her Washington allies helped her to a 10-point win - though her campaign says the margin reflects her momentum.
But her political fund is depleted and some Democrats who supported her chief primary rival, Joe Sestak, are aggrieved by the way the national party shaped the outcome.
As of early April, Toomey had more than $9 million on hand and is a seasoned campaigner.
But he is not beloved.
A Franklin and Marshall survey in March put his unfavorable ratings higher than ever, at 35 percent, compared with 30 percent who saw him favorably.
Democrats say they have years of Toomey votes to use as fodder, not to mention the ongoing Supreme Court battle.
The Constitutional Responsibility Project said its polling found that only 27 percent of Pennsylvania voters know Toomey opposes a vote on Obama's nominee. The group aims to drive that number up - and the senator's numbers down - with its TV ad and a series of rallies this week.
"Either Sen. Toomey stands by the Constitution, or he pays a pretty significant political price," said the group's Stephanie Cutter.
(Toomey has said Obama shouldn't be allowed to tip the court's balance so close to an election).
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, Democrats relish the idea of running against a GOP ticket likely to be led by the divisive Donald Trump. McGinty is already talking about the "Toomey-Trump" ticket.
Still, as McGinty regrouped from the primary and the attacks began, her campaign emailed a plea to supporters Friday.
It cited Toomey's new attack ad - and said she needed to raise $25,000 by midnight Saturday on order to hit back.
@JonathanTamari
