Toomey for Senate

PITTSTON TWP. - Republican candidate for governor Tom Corbett, his running mate Jim Cawley and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Pat Toomey spent the day before the election criss-crossing the state urging people to vote for change.

They appeared at a rally Monday morning at the Holiday Inn Express near the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, one of multiple pre-election gatherings they attended statewide during a last-day campaign swing.

AVOCA - Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett, his running mate Jim Cawley and GOP congressional candidates stopped at the Holiday Inn Express near the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport this morning as part of a whirlwind effort to rally voters across the state.

The candidates, which also included Pat Toomey, U.S. Senate candidate, and Tom Marino and Lou Barletta, running for the U.S. House of Representatives, asked supporters to spend the next 32 hours revving up their friends and neighbors to get out and vote Tuesday.

Republican Pat Toomey has the edge over Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak in the race to fill the seat of retiring Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter.

A Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters has Toomey with 50 percent of the vote and Sestak trailing by five points.

With only hours to go before the polls open both candidates are trying to woo voters. The message from Tea Party backed Toomey is to cut taxes and the size of government.

Marist released its latest polls for races in four states yesterday evening, and the news looks good for Republicans — perhaps most in Pennsylvania, where the GOP could use some good news.  After polls showed the races tightening in the Keystone State for Senate and governor, Marist now shows Pat Toomey with a seven-point lead over Joe Sestak with just a few days left.  Tom Corbett likewise has a seven point lead over Dan Onorato, with both Republicans crossing the 50% marker.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey continued to hold his lead over Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Joseph Sestak, D-7, of Edgmont, in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday.

Toomey now leads Sestak 50 percent to 46 percent, with one percent preferring another candidate and 3 percent undecided.

The survey of 750 likely voters was conducted on Oct. 28, and has a 4 point margin of error.

The Democrats' final push to woo undecided voters appears to have fizzled, potentially putting dozens of competitive House races beyond reach and undermining the party's chances in at least four toss-up Senate seats, according to party strategists and officials.

Independents, a crucial swing bloc, seem to be breaking sharply for Republicans in the final days of the campaign.

Joe Sestak's campaign strategy is to make this election about whether Pat Toomey is too conservative. But a look at the candidates' positions on major Obama administration initiatives — bailouts, the stimulus, the health care bill, cap-and-trade, and Wall Street reform — shows that, on four out of five, Toomey's position is the position of the majority. Toomey also stands with the majority on three other current controversies — enforcement of immigration laws, the wisdom of building the Islamic cultural center near ground zero, and the venue for the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

READING, Pa. -- Three high-profile Republican governors are visiting Pennsylvania to stump for the state's GOP candidates for governor and U.S. senator.

Governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Chris Christie of New Jersey are starting Friday with a rally in Reading for GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett and Senate candidate Pat Toomey.

Then they're heading to Lancaster County Airport for another rally.

Big names from both parties are crisscrossing Pennsylvania to make their final pitches before Tuesday's election.

Republican Pat Toomey brought his “More Jobs, Less Government” tour to the campus of Central Penn Business College on Wednesday night, touting his plan for economic recovery if elected to the U.S. Senate.

“The only thing holding us back is the wrong policies coming out of Washington,” Toomey told the crowd of about 75 people. The event was part of a 17-county tour of the state the week before the election on Tuesday, with stops planned for Scranton, Philadelphia and Lancaster this week.

Taxes are often the most common mark of discussion — and disagreement — during heady election battles. Indeed, the tax issue is implicit in Pat Toomey’s campaign slogan, "More Jobs, Less Government."

But as Kevin Williamson often argues at Exchequer, the real problem in the growth of government is spending, and Pat Toomey seems to grasp that fact. And that "Stop Spending!" rallying cry is the motive force among Tea Partiers and independents — crucial constituencies for a Toomey victory.

The following is transcribed from Toomey’s appearance on Fox News yesterday: