National Journal pointed out way back in 2013 that his staff seemed to recognize he had made a mistake. Now Brietbart is noting that Toomey’s polling isn’t looking too good.
It’s never been smart politics to stab the people who helped you get elected in the back. That’s especially true when your potential upside isn’t there at all. No one votes on gun control, except a handful of anti-gun activists who care about the issue. On the flip side, there are a lot of us, and we vote the issue. He never should have let Joe Manchin and Schumer talk him into it. I may still end up voting for him, depending on what he does for us between now and 2016, but he’s lost me as a volunteer for good. He’s has, so far, represented everything that’s wrong with the Pennsylvania GOP, in my view, and I’m hardly a dogged tea party type.
Pennsylvania would be a much better state if we could dump PhiladelPHIA ON NJ or Maryland.
As for Toomey, he should be primaried by a conservative.
More so than some other states, the PA GOP are the stupid party, and the PA Dems are looters, moochers, and pansy suburban liberals.
“Primaried by a conservative.”
Let’s see… We have the most conservative Congress we’ve had in over 50 years and we are STILL on the brink / fearing a cave in on immigration.
We have a decisive lead in the Senate. Some of that may or may not have been due to the Tea Party, but I’ll go with the “Tea Party helped.” We still have concern that the Senate confirmation of an attorney general candidate who has given us 100% assurance that she will continue the lawlessness of this president may already be a “done deal” by Republicans who, under Reid’s new confirmation rules, could still vote her down and have 4 votes to spare.
The problem is the leadership. We can’t get to them. They still continue to operate in a translucent fashion. They are untouchable. We took one down in the house (Cantor) but we still have Boehner.
I’ll give you this – the gun issue has paid dividends for us. Elected officials on the national level in a position to know are not talking about more gun control. The ones who have got slapped down hard for it (Toomey included), they are in safe liberal D districts, or they are Peter King who is simply a joke of a person. However, where is the stick for leadership? We’ve given then more than enough carrots. They have no method, no way to stop this administration from doing what they want. And we gave them a majority.
BTW in PA a U.S. Republican Senate candidate just can’t be “primaried by a conservative” and expect to win. The big GOP donors just won’t fund the sort of race needed to overcome the blue areas. Where’s the stick? This president is at 50%. My prediction: In 2016 Toomey goes down to a Democrat 50-49 after the national GOP dumps the bank into the primary and the general election.
Mind you when I say the national GOP won’t fund the race needed to overcome the blue areas, they WILL NOT fund it for a conservative is what I meant to say.
Also… my math was wrong. The GOP could lose 3 dissenters on the confirmation vote and still take her down. That includes the Biden tie-breaking vote.
conversely, MD gun owners would like you to deal with your own problems, as we have enough trouble with our own.
I have to ask though, is Toomey in trouble specifically because he pissed off his conservative base or because PA has reached a point where it is becoming quite difficult for Republicans to win statewide races? If Toomey isn’t primaried by somebody pro-gun and conservatives stay home, we will end up with someone worse.
My guess is a bit of both.
The PA GOP is scared to death of tea party conservatives. Based on what I know about the state, they are safe running a pro-life candidate. They are safe running a “good government” fiscal conservative. What they are not safe doing is running another Rick Santorum.
Rick Santorum is the opposite of the Tea Party in every way.
I am a dogged small government conservative – I guess that makes me a Tea Party type. When you settle for a moderate Republican who believes in nothing except polls and positioning, this is what you get.
Toomey is toast. Time to primary him. Tea Party people are just small government fiscal conservatives with American values. Low taxes, less regulations. less government in our lives For guns and pro life mostly. Gay marriage is a mix.
GOP state leaders generally want more spending in their state. So they do fear those voters who took out Cantor.
I called Toomey’s office during the time he was pushing for Universal Background checks and told his receptionist I will not support him any longer. It is time to replace this RINO with a Constitutional Republican.