Specter's Broken Promise: Day 10

ALLENTOWN - Liberal Senator Arlen Specter (R-Philadelphia) is proving that he is the candidate for the Republican nomination that can't be trusted. Two weeks after promising Republican State Party Chairman Alan Novak that he would cease running campaign ads until after the November 2003 election, the Specter campaign continues its barrage of dishonest and negative ads against Congressman Toomey.

"This is just the negative manner in which Senator Arlen Specter operates," said campaign spokesman Joe Sterns. "For the past 10 days the Specter campaign has been alone on the airwaves running dishonest, negative ads against Congressman Toomey. The action can only be seen as a sign of Specter's disregard for Republican statewide judicial candidates, disloyalty to the Republican Party and disrespect to state party Chairman Alan Novak."

In addition to being dishonest to the Republican Party, Arlen Specter is being dishonest in his attack ads. The Allentown Morning Call in an "ad watch" published on October 11, 2003 concluded most of "the claims in [Specter's] ad are hard to trust."

Sterns concluded, "Broken promises, dishonest, negative ads, and disloyalty to the party are trademarks of Senator Specter. Desperation has set in early for the 23-year incumbent, who continues to hide from his liberal record in an attempt to save his sinking political ship." # # #

Every one of these charges is dishonest and intentionally misleading. This kind of negative, dishonest attack is proof that Senator Specter is seeing his support collapse and Congressman Toomey's support surge. This is Senator Specter's desperate attempt to shift the subject away from his own liberal voting record.

Specter's Dishonest Claim #1 - "Toomey says he supports the military but voted against needed pay raises for the men and women fighting terrorism around the globe."

Truth - Since his first term in 1999, Congressman Toomey voted for a pay raise every year he has been in Congress. (P.L. 106-65, P.L 106-398, P.L. 107-107, P.L. 107-314).

More importantly, Arlen Specter has voted against at least two pay increases for our military. He voted against the Defense Authorization bill in 1993 (P.L. 103-16) and again in 1996 (P.L. 104-201).

Dishonest Claim #2 - "Toomey was the only Republican Congressman in PA, the only one, to vote against an amendment allowing the military to be used to prevent terrorist from entering the US."

Truth - Since 9/11/01 there have been two votes regarding deploying military personnel to our borders. On both occasions Congressman Toomey has voted to allow our troops to be used on our borders to prevent terrorists from entering the country (5/10/02, Roll Call Vote 154 and 09/25/01, Roll Call Vote 356).

Dishonest Claim #3 - "Pat Toomey says he is effective but only passed two bills in Congress. One increased paperwork, the other renamed a building."

Truth - The first of these bills was, in fact, a law that requires all federal agencies to prepare audited financial statements so that congress can properly supervise how these agencies are spending our tax dollars. Agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC), and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) did not have to account for how and where money was spent.

In addition, Congressman Toomey has passed several bills in the House that died in the Senate, which included a bill to reform HCFA, the bureaucracy that administers Medicare, and a bill that would allow businesses to earn interest on their business checking accounts. Congressman Toomey has also had many legislative accomplishments in the form of amendments and language added to legislation. He saved area hospitals over $8 million per year from Medicare cuts, he had language added to the Export-Import Reauthorization that will help to stem the tide of foreign steel, he made the U.S. seek reimbursements from its allies for the war in Kosovo, and he was successful in getting the federal government to specifically pay down debt with surplus dollars. Furthermore, Congressman Toomey is a leader working against budget increases and over regulation.

Ironically, during Specter's first six years in office, the only bills he was able to pass were commemoration bills including "Afghanistan Day", "Lupus Awareness Week", "National Birds of Prey Week", and "Greek Independence Day." A search of bills that have passed with Specter's name as the lead sponsor in the 107th or 108th Congress turns up not a single bill.

Dishonest Claim #4 - "Pennsylvania Republicans are demanding Pat Toomey return more than $500,000 of campaign money taken under false pretenses."

Truth - Congressman Toomey has accepted all campaign money in an honest and open manor. This is an issue that has been manufactured by the Arlen Specter campaign.

Amazingly, Senator Specter himself had over $2.6 million left over from his 1998 general election campaign against a Democrat, which he is now using to attack Republican Pat Toomey. What Senator Specter is attacking Pat Toomey for, Specter himself is doing on a much larger scale.

Dishonest Claim #5 - "The Inquirer reported in a front-page expose that Toomey has been caught playing a game of quote 'bait and switch'."

Truth - The Inquirer did not say this was a bait and switch, a political supporter of Specter's was quoted as saying this. It is dishonest to claim, as Specter does, that this political operative was speaking for the Inquirer. Source: http://www.pattoomey.org/news_item.asp?pid=57

Official Campaign Webpage: http://www.pattoomey.org Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ToomeyforUSSenate Subscribe: ToomeyforUSSenate-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Snail mail Address: Toomey For Senate P.O. Box 8658 Allentown, PA 18105 610.439.6330 (phone) 610.439.5002 (fax) Official Campaign Email address: info@pattoomey.org

Clearly, Arlen Specter is becoming concerned (though not necessarily desperate). Patrick Toomey will be heavily outspent in the primary. Toomey will need to wage as much of a grass roots campaign as possible in Pennesylvania, and put together an effective GOTV operation. I believe that there will be a suburban/rural split in this primary. The Philly suburbs of Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Deleware counties are RINO country. If Toomey has any hope of winning, he will have to outpoll Specter in the rural areas of central Pennsylvania, and run competitively in the Reading, Lancaster, York, Harrisburg, Williamsport, Altoona, and Johnstown areas. Does anyone know how this primary is breaking down geographically?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.