Hits opponent McGinty on taxes, Iran deal
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey speaks with supporters immediately after his campaign event Monday morning at the Classic Diner in Malvern.
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
MALVERN — A clearly energized Pat Toomey made the case for his reelection Monday morning in front of an overflow gathering at the Classic Diner, as the latest news headlines from the presidential race have county Republicans suddenly reinvigorated for next week’s election.
Toomey, battling Democrat Katie McGinty for the U.S. Senate, has continued to be essentially tied in polling with her, even as GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has trailed Hillary Clinton anywhere between the low to high single digits in polling. The first-term senator came to Chester County to push local Republicans to get their friends and neighbors to the polls next week and join phone banking and canvassing efforts in the final week of the campaign.
With the Clinton Campaign embroiled in another email controversy — FBI Director James Comey announced Friday that additional emails related to a probe earlier this year had been found on the laptop of former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton staffer Huma Abedin. That revelation — and it remains unclear whether those emails are germane to the previous investigation into Clinton’s private email server — have given local Republicans new energy for a top of the ticket race that appeared to be slipping out of reach by late last week.
Chester County Republican Committee Chair Val DiGiorgio introduces U.S. Senator Pat Toomey to an overflow crowd at the Classic Diner, Monday.
Chester County Republican Chair introduced Toomey to the gathering, offering a blistering condemnation of McGinty — and Clinton — for using their public positions to gain personal wealth.
“This is a woman who has enriched herself at taxpayer expense,” DiGiorgio said. “Just like the person who is running with her at the top of the ticket. When she was at DEP (the state Department of Environmental Protection), she used her position to enrich herself and her husband.”
Toomey, for his part, reminded the more than 50 attendees (organizers expected a handful of attendees, but the big crowd of attendees forcing the event to have to be moved outside from a smaller indoor room at the Route 30 diner) that McGinty has her own email issues, regarding a court fight over emails she sent while serving as Chief of Staff to Gov. Tom Wolf.
Much of Toomey’s remarks focused on economic issues and national security — areas where the first-term senators says he has clear differences with his Democratic opponent.
“In every single post she’d had in government, which has been her entire adult life, she has been promoting higher taxes on the middle class,” Toomey said. “She apparently thinks the way we get to prosperity is to tax people more.”
And he took issue with McGinty’s support for the Iranian nuclear deal.
“This Iran nuclear deal is a complete disaster,” Toomey said. “We handed over $150 billion to the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism. And that’s not my characterization, that the Obama Administration’s description of the regime in Tehran.”
Toomey continues to run ahead of Trump in most polls, something he attributed after the event to running an independent, issues-focused race and pointing what he’s done during his first term in office.
“I’ve got a very solid record in my one term in the senate of accomplishments,” he said, noting his work on a number of issues in southeast Pennsylvania, from saving jobs at Delaware County refineries to backing dredging of the Delaware River, to enhance the value of port facilities. “I’m getting a lot of independents, and a lot of Democrats, as well as the massive majority of Republicans.”
Still, as a veteran observer of politics in the state, Toomey acknowledged after the event that voter turnout is likely to be the deciding factor in his race, a race most pundits say is too close to call a week out from the election.
He cited the large attendance at Monday’s event as an indicator of the excitement folks have for his race.
“We thought we were going to have 20 people,” he said. “And we had a little room in the back that was supposed to be adequate and you see what happened. This has been the story since August when I was campaigning all across the commonwealth. I’m very confident that turnout is going to be really strong.”
In addition to comments from DiGiorgio, State Representatives Dan Truitt (R-156), Becky Corbin (R-155) and Duane Milne (R-167) were in attendance, offering their support.
