Toomey Says Specter Can't Win

PHILADELPHIA - Could Sen. Arlen Specter's time in office be numbered?

Former Congressman Pat Toomey would love to have a say in ending the senator's time in Washington.

Toomey announced Wednesday that he's running again after coming close to defeating Specter in 2004.

He joined "Good Day Philadelphia" on Wednesday morning to talk about the decision.

Toomey, 47, had said this year that he was considering a bid for the governorship in 2010. But his sights shifted back to the Senate in March, after Specter bucked party leaders and cast one of three GOP votes -- all in the Senate -- to pass the $787 federal economic stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed in February.

Asked how much of it was driven by Specter's vote for the stimulus plan, Toomey answered, "In a way, I guess, that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. But there were an awful lot of straws in that back."

Toomey continued, "You know, Sen. Specter has spent 30 years voting with the Democrats with a very liberal policy. He voted for all of the bailouts -- the Wall Street bailouts, the car company bailouts -- voted for that gigantic stimulus bill. And really, after every single House Republican had the good sense to vote, 'no,' that was a huge disappointment."

He went on to say that Specter also voted for a budget bill, adding that it had a record number of earmarks.

"We're just spending way too much money in Washington. We're racking up way too much debt. This is going to leave huge tax increases and probably inflation. It’s the wrong direction, and that's why I'm running," Toomey said.

Toomey lost last go-around by a margin of barely 17,000 votes out of 1 million cast -- even after then-Sen. Rick Santorum and then-President George W. Bush appealed to Republican conservatives to rally behind the incumbent.

Toomey then left Congress, keeping a promise to serve no more than three terms.

Can he win running to the right, after Santorum's defeat in the 2006 Senate race?

"Rick Santorum ran in 2006. That was a year that Republicans of all stripes got trounced all over the country," Toomey said. "This is a very different environment, and the fact is I got elected three times in a Democrat-leaning congressional district. I represented the Lehigh Valley, Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton. … My predecessor was a Democrat. That district has voter registration numbers that reflect the state as a whole."

He said his "message of fiscal discipline and reigning in wasteful spending, that's going to appeal across party lines."

As for where we'd be without the bailout packages, Toomey said, "We've got a mechanism for dealing with failed companies. It's called bankruptcy. Bankruptcy's not a death sentence. It's an opportunity for a firm, whether it's a bank or a car company, to restructure its balance sheet, to renegotiate its debt. Working assets either get sold off or restructured so that they can continue to work. But it doesn't have to take taxpayer dollars to bail them out."

Toomey stepped down Monday from his position at the Club for Growth, which he has been heading in Washington since he left Congress in 2005.

Specter began running ads targeting Toomey earlier this month.

Specter's campaign manager, Christopher Nicholas, issued a statement in response to Toomey's announcement.

"Leading members of both Republican and Democratic parties agree on one thing … that Senator Specter is the only Republican who can hold this seat for the Republican Party. A vote for Pat Toomey is a vote to give Harry Reid of the Democrats a filibuster-proof control of the U.S. Senate and thus, the U.S. Government."

Toomey responded that Specter proved "he's not willing to provide the filibuster votes that we need. He's the one that crossed over and voted with all of the Democrats for this giant stimulus bill."

The former congressman also said it's Specter who can't win the general election.

"The reason is Republicans -- especially conservatives, but most Republicans -- are so fed up with him that if he were to win the primary, there would be a third-party challenge in this race," Toomey said. "There would be a Constitution Party or Libertarian who would draw off so many votes that he can't possibly win."