{"id":9263,"date":"2016-10-31T12:25:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T16:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=9263"},"modified":"2016-10-31T12:27:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T16:27:51","slug":"toomey-makes-pitch-for-reelection-expects-strong-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=9263","title":{"rendered":"Toomey makes pitch for reelection, expects strong turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hits opponent McGinty on taxes, Iran deal<\/em><\/h2>\n
\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey speaks with supporters immediately after his campaign event Monday morning at the Classic Diner in Malvern.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

MALVERN \u2014 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\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the Clinton Campaign embroiled in another email controversy \u2014 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 \u2014 and it remains unclear whether those emails are germane to the previous investigation into Clinton\u2019s private email server \u2014 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chester<\/a>

Chester County Republican Committee Chair Val DiGiorgio introduces U.S. Senator Pat Toomey to an overflow crowd at the Classic Diner, Monday.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chester County Republican Chair introduced Toomey to the gathering, offering a blistering condemnation of McGinty \u2014 and Clinton \u2014 for using their public positions to gain personal wealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a woman who has enriched herself at taxpayer expense,\u201d DiGiorgio said. \u201cJust 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Toomey, for his part, reminded the more than 50 attendees (organizers expected a handful of\u00a0<\/span>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. <\/span><\/p>\n

Much of Toomey\u2019s remarks focused on economic issues and national security \u2014 areas where the first-term senators says he has clear differences with his Democratic opponent. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn every single post she\u2019d had in government, which has been her entire adult life, she has been promoting higher taxes on the middle class,\u201d Toomey said. \u201cShe apparently thinks the way we get to prosperity is to tax people more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And he took issue with McGinty\u2019s support for the Iranian nuclear deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis Iran nuclear deal is a complete disaster,\u201d Toomey said. \u201cWe handed over $150 billion to the world\u2019s number one state sponsor of terrorism. And that\u2019s not my characterization, that the Obama Administration\u2019s description of the regime in Tehran.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s done during his first term in office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a very solid record in my one term in the senate of accomplishments,\u201d 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. \u201cI\u2019m getting a lot of independents, and a lot of Democrats, as well as the massive majority of Republicans.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

He cited the large attendance at Monday\u2019s event as an indicator of the excitement folks have for his race.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we were going to have 20 people,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd 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\u2019m very confident that turnout is going to be really strong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hits opponent McGinty on taxes, Iran deal By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times MALVERN \u2014 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\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[512,4895,2800,3162,1712,4894,2801,365],"class_list":["post-9263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chester-county-republican-committee","tag-class-diner","tag-election-2016","tag-featured","tag-katie-mcginty","tag-u-s-sen-pat-toomey","tag-u-s-senate","tag-val-digiorgio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9264,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9263\/revisions\/9264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}