PA GOP Backs Corbett, Toomey

The State Republican Committee is officially endorsing Attorney General Tom Corbett’s campaign for governor. The party will also back Pat Toomey in May’s primary.
The Republican establishment opposed Pat Toomey when he challenged Arlen Specter in 2004, but six years later the former Congressman has the Pennsylvania GOP’s official endorsement.
Toomey says he’s confident he’ll defeat either Specter or Congressman Joe Sestak in November, and criticized the incumbent’s long record.

"I think it’s more the thirty years of being on both sides of every issue he can. Saying he’ll do one thing, then do another. Promising the Pennsylvania voters that he’d never leave the Republican Party, and then, as soon as he saw a poll that showed he couldn’t win a primary, fleeing immediately."

Toomey will face conservative activist Peg Luksik in the Republican primary.

In the gubernatorial race, Attorney General Tom Corbett overwhelmingly won the party’s official backing. Representative Sam Rohrer received just a dozen votes, out of the 348 cast. Corbett tried to reach out to grassroots conservatives during his acceptance speech.

"You say you don’t want any more taxes. I agree. I think we are already taxed much too much. You say government spends too much of your hard-earned money. I agree. I think we need to make government more accountable and stop spending what we cannot afford."

Bucks County Commissioner Jim Cawley won the party endorsement for lieutenant governor.