RIDGE WON’T RUN FOR US SENATE…
UPDATE: Ridge speaks out about Senate decision…
GLEASON CONFIDENT PARTY WILL WIN SENATE RACE…
Toomey Statement on Ridge Announcement
Allentown, PA – Allentown, PA – Former Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey issued the following statement following Governor Ridge’s announcement that he will not run for the U.S. Senate:
“Tom Ridge is a true patriot and a leader. In his eloquent statement today, he said: ‘My belief is that those in my home state can best be served by the principles of limited government, less taxes, competent governance and shared responsibility.’ I agree with Governor Ridge’s statement 100%. That is exactly the message I will carry to the people of Pennsylvania in my campaign for the U.S. Senate. It is a message that will not only unite the Republican Party, but more importantly, it is one that a majority of our fellow citizens can rally around, regardless of their party affiliation.”
The Toomey campaign is off to a very fast start. In only three weeks since Pat Toomey declared his candidacy, the campaign has raised over $500,000 from over 4,000 contributors, signed up thousands more grassroots supporters, and brought on board many leading Republican elected officials and state party leaders.
Despite not being widely known throughout the entire state, two polls out this week show Toomey within a single digit margin of 30-year incumbent Senator Arlen Specter in the general election. This is in keeping with former Congressman Toomey’s record of running and winning three general elections in the Democratic-leaning 15th Congressional District. By all accounts, Pat Toomey is the candidate who can unite Republicans and defeat the Democratic nominee in the general election.
58 Comments
my guess is 2012 against BOBBY Jr
Listen…Hear That? That's the RINO Establishment crying! Don't you love it. Not to say next wext we won't have another Poster Boy/Girl for the Liberals saying they might run, but at least we don't have this one to screw things up.
It's all part of the plan: Let Toomey win the primary (it's inevitable anyway), stand aside during the general and then claim "see, we need a moderate" next time around.
It's simple mathematics, folks. Establishment hacks profit more from big government than small government, therefore will always hustle & shill for big government candidates.
Toomey has a good chance because he is a conservative republican. I think the people of Pa will respect that Otherwise they should vote for a Democrat. There has to be some difference between the parties, Specter was a Democrat since day one
That's what we thought 5 years ago. Has anything really changed in the party other than Specter leaving?
There is still a year to go to the primary, the question is: Will Texas Senator Cornyn have another “candidate of the week” for us next week?
Now Ridge pull a Specter and be a no show on the stump supporting Toomey for either the Primary or the General just as Specter did in 06 after Santorum laid it on the line for Specter in 04. Just more of the same garbage and so much for caring about the citizens of PA.
Chanelling my inner Marv Albert….YES!! and the FOUL!!!
Now who do the PA State GOP and the NRSC go to now? Paging RINO Jim Gerlach….
I'm happy. Gun Owners of America just prepared a presser about Toomey v. Ridge…and it was quite interesting.
GOA is the only pro-gun organization to which I contribute. Their endorsements are not for sale and their pressers pull no punches. I like them a lot. Did you notice the parting shot? It's what I've been saying……..put the party on notice that they dare not meddle in this primary. It says:
"Please urge Senator John Cornyn and Chairman Michael Steele not to interfere in Pennsylvania's primary. There is already a pro-gun, electable conservative running in the primary who deserves their support."
The PA GOP state committee "leadership" (legislators and friends) will now have to go to Plan C, to scramble to find a non-Toomey candidate before the September state committee meeting. You know, the meeting (after the real meeting) in which the leadership tells the committee members who they will be endorsing and working for.
Actually, its Arlen smiling cause he knows no damn way can Toomey beat him
I am now fully supporting Gerlach who has shown an ability to win a Dem district while Toomey comes off as radically
Not true, leadership wanted Senator Jane Earl last year for the court, and in the roll call vote Jackie Shogun won the nomination. The rank and file will not look at a candidate before the Winter meeting in February 2010.
for all the toomey worshippers: oh my god…..did toomey just praise a RINO?? does that make toomey a RINO too???? get him!! tho purity creed doth not allow such talk about rinos!!
Hack attack! Hack attack! / Knife in back from hack attack!
No doubt about it. This makes it three times harder for the GOP to win the Senate seat next year. Toomey just can't win in a general statewide race. So we have to ask: Can Gerlach? Smart man, good right/center credentials, and a very tough campaigner. Still he's little known statewide. Can Meehan? Good reputation, well known in SEPA, but not the rest of the state. Meehan's biggest problem is he's not sure what he wants to be; probably Attorney General under a Republican President; maybe AG of PA first. Bill Scranton Jr.? Hmmm. Interesting possibility. Fits the right/center mold, has name recognition and is articulate. Would run strong against Specter/Sestak in NEPA, Lehigh Valley and much of the west. Bad taste in mouth, though, from being burned in the GOP Gov primary in '06, but he might be tempted with this opportunity. I think the GOP bigs are exhausting their cell phone unlimited call packages right now talking about these three men.
What is so radical and extremist about centering on the Constitution. limited government and free markets?
Nothing……unless you're from the government…………I think that makes you a member of the Patriot Movement.
FROM: http://video1.washingtontimes.com/video/lexicon.p...
(U) patriot movement (U//FOUO) A term used by rightwing extremists to link their beliefs to those commonly associated with the American
Revolution. The patriot movement primarily comprises violent antigovernment groups such as militias and sovereign
citizens. (also: Christian patriots, patriot group, Constitutionalists, Constitutionist)
Once again Team Toomey scores an early knockout; but gets no credit for it. That's OK: it is a wonderful asset in politics to be underestimated.
Again, here is proof of the Arlen supporters who know that Toomey and the Conservative movement is picking up speed.
Toomey has made way too many enemies statewide to have a chance at winning. He won't make it out of the primary.
That's right…spit out the talking points
-Radical Republicans
-Kids Won't Eat Lunch
-Grandmothers Won't Be Able To Pay Electric Bill
We Tried the Center/Right approach in November and we lost…Remember McCain?
We Give 'Em Credit By Getting Out And Working Our Butts Off For Him!
Asher, please go to a pro-RINO site and spout your uneducated approach to politics.
Centering one's beliefs on the Constitution is not going to win many friends because such beliefs fly in the face of almost every political scheme put forward by government today. The Constitution has very few if any provisions for the "gimmie crowd". It does however take all limits away from those who lawfully seek their fortunes and happiness without forcefully taking a portion of one's production to re-distribute to the "gimmie crowd". Try and stop the "gimmie crowd" and their politcal benefits and you have enemies. What gimmie benefit would a man like Toomey take from you ?
how can the Republicans expect to win? Every moderate candidate who can win in the state either switched parties or refuses to run.
Republicans are losing because we have lost suburbs
We still have no strong challengers yet to Murphy, Sestak, or even Carney yet in house races
I have to support Gerlach he has shown appeal to these types of voters and this is what we need. I wish Toomey could win but I doubt he could even win his old house seat if he tried
It was a refreshing change to see the State Committee rank-and-file override the party leadership and go with the conservative in the Earll – Shogan vote. But by Chairman Gleason’s self-admitted efforts to draft Ridge into the 2010 senate primary race that is still a year away, it is obvious that party leadership is scrambling now to find a so-called “moderate” to challenge Toomey.
While the actual PA GOP endorsement vote on the floor will not happen until the Feb. 2010 State Committee meeting, I would suggest that Chairman Gleason’s efforts portend the push by party leaders to back a yet unnamed “moderate” many months before the Feb. 2010 meeting.
If we can break the comfortable culture of anonymity at Republican State Committee meetings by open reporting of individual votes and attendance, the party leaders will have a harder time having their way. Reform can happen if committee members actually have to answer for their state committee votes back home.
Gerlach barely won his district based in Chester County, so I don't know how that makes him such a great winner.
Toomey won his Lehigh Valley based district by bigger margins than Gerlach won his district. Toomey won in a district that included Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton by a wider margin than Gerlach won a district that includes the heart of Reading.
That makes Toomey look pretty good in my eyes.
H E Y !!!
WHO Needs Another Useless Meaningless Leftist (err, Moderate) RHINO???
FREAKIN' YAY!
seriously now. trying to make the case that those districts are the same is really laughable. and toomey hasn't run in his old district in 7 years. the years toomey was on the ballot were far more hospitable to republicans than 2006 or 2008. i believe gerlach's district has norristown, coatestown and the communist enclave of lower merion which even arlen specter on his best days can't win. well, maybe as a dem now.
Agree 100%. SEPA may marginally recognize his name but the rest of the State is gonna say – "Who dat?" This is just RINOs grappling to get someone to oppose a conservative – same old same old.
If he has made enemies of the PA establishment, then that's enough of an endorsement for me.
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Don't worry, the PA machine will come up with another challenger to Toomey.
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Dude, you need some serious counseling.
That said, since your man Ridge ain't goin' nowhere, will you vote for Specter or Toomey?
You're presuming there will be a groundswell of support for Specter.
Guess again.
Seems to me that the GOP has been rocked to the core with Specter's departure and Ridge's cowardice.
Bring it on. If you thougth Ridge was going to have his clock cleaned, can you imagine what would happen to Gerlach?
But inquiring minds still want to know: if Toomey wins the primary, will you support him over the Democrat?
It's called being 'gracious', dipstick. Something RINOs know nothing about.
How do you – or any of the Toomey-haters know about who can win or not win the general election?
Heck, you were the morons who thought McCain could win PA because he was "moderate"; that got us a lot of nothin'!
I'm curious to know – who are the enemies Toomey has made?
Uh, where were you on April 15?
You're still wallowing in the puddle that only "moderates" (Democrats light) only win in PA. If that's the case, why didn't McCain win PA?
When was the last time a strong conservative ran in that district?
Can we actually look at what has happened to PA elections over past decade?
Bush never won state, McCain fared even worse. Rick got spanked by 16% points. We got our behinds beat in past 2 Governor Races. We has lost all those GOP Congressman from suburbs; while even a Hart lost and a Carney was re-elected in strong GOP district and a Holden goes unchallenged.
Arlen keeps on getting re-elected but is RINO and Gerlach too and Corbett is getting that too now I suppose
Answer this how will Toomey change first impressions voters have of him? How will he appeal to moderate voters and Independents? Cause the only way he will is to moderate his image and I don't see that ever working just its already tainted.
Couple of thoughts:
First, I am sorry Ridge didn't run – I would love to have seen Toomey clean his clock!
Second, there is only one reason why Ridge didn't run: internal GOP polling clearly showed he could not win the Republican primary. Pure and simple. If he thought he had a shot, he would have taken it.
Third, can any of you Toomey-hating RINOs explain why they are so convinced only a 'moderate' and win PA when McCain tanked in PA? Why are they so anxious to repeat a failed strategy?
On the contrary, Toomey will win the primary in a walk. You clearly don't have any idea what you're talking about, and can safely be ignored.
Toomey could not win in that seat if he ran in 2012.
Gerlach won in a district that voted for Obama with 58% vote
But inquiring minds still want to know – will you support Toomey against the Democrat?
And the last two "conservatives" to run statewide in Pennsylvania, Sen. Rick Santorum and Lynn Swann, lost by 18% and 20% respectively. Those numbers are significantly worse than McCain performed in Pennsylvania.
I'm sure the "conservatives" on this site will claim that Santorum and Swann were not "real conservatives" or "abandoned conservative principles" or "were not conservative enough," and would have won if they would have been real "conservatives." OK, keep telling yourselves that.
Please, please, please nominate Toomey next year, and then you will see how unpopular your "conservative" principles are in Pennsylvania. But, when Toomey loses by double digits, I'm sure you will come up with other excuses that include Democratic voter fraud in Philadelphia and the RINO Republican Establishment sabotaging Toomey because they fear him. Oh so predictable, both the result and the excuses.
But you have made a critical mistake in your 'anal-ysis' of the Santorum and Swann races.
Santorum had dis-spirited rank-and-file Republicans due to his support of Specter two years earlier; it's hard when to win an election when your base is luke-warm about your run.
Swann didn't start running as a 'conservative' until well into the Fall campaign – too late to gin up the base, especially after the GOP RINO leadership – the same knuckleheads who wanted Ridge to run – pushed all primary opponents out of the way.
Bottom line is that you are trying to compare apples to oranges. Toomey has had six years to establish his bonafides; Specter has had 30 years to destroy his. Even Democrats aren't stupid enough to believe Arlen will be looking out for their interests.
Stallone, Santorum was a caricature of a real conservative. He was socially conservative in a weird sort of way, and fiscally liberal. He peddled a brand of "compassionate conservatism" that didn't sell to genuine conservatives. Santorum supported minimum wage legislation, he supported spending a larger percentage of our GDP on foreign aid, he thought the internal revenue code was the perfect tool with which to carrot and stick the citizens into behavior he thought worthy…….There was nothing conservative about the man. Nothing. And on the pro-life issue, he was outed as a prostitute for the party. He mouthed pro-life words, but supported and actively campaigned for pro-abort pols. Swann was just an embarassment…..chosen by the party, shoved down our throats……endorsed and anointed before the primary…..he didn't have any depth of knowledge on any issue other than football. He thought name recognition alone would assure him victory. What were they thinking?
I like the network that the NRA has built and I think they do a good job overall.
The only thing I have come to ignore is their endorsement process; their PAC guy is on weed.
I loved Swann – as a football player – as a candidate no way! I'm tired of having the polical establishment "choose" candidates for me. Let the people choose – isn't that the point of a primary?
Very well said. Notice how the squishes are coming out of the closet and becoming shrill? They're sounding like leftists….more and more. Maybe that's why they are LOSING!