Toomey: Specter's Move 'Political Ploy'

PHILADELPHIA - Many of Sen. Arlen Specter's fellow Republicans say his switch to the Democratic Party is just a ploy to get re-elected.

Count among them the man who was supposed to be Specter's biggest GOP challenger, Pat Toomey, who visited Studio 29 Wednesday morning to talk about the five-term senator's announcement.

"I was always confident that I would win a primary against Arlen Specter. Evidently, he was confident that I would win the primary also," Toomey said. "I think it's pretty clear that, after criss-crossing Pennsylvania and promising he would never leave the Republican Party, would not run as a Democrat, that he thought it was very important that Republicans be able to have some check on the Democrats in Washington, as soon as he saw a poll that showed his personal political fortunes in trouble, he threw all that out the window.

"So, obviously this is a political ploy," Toomey continued. "But I don't think that this kind of switch is going to sit very well with voters."

Early polls showed Toomey with a large lead in the primary contest.

When Specter made his announcement Tuesday afternoon, he said he also wanted to make something clear to the Democratic Party.

"I will not be changing my own personal independence or my own approach to individual issues. I will not be an automatic 60th vote," Specter said.

Specter acknowledged voting for the stimulus could be critical but said he voted with his heart.

Asked what he would do in a situation where he doesn't agree with the GOP, Toomey said he has a record of voting against them when he disagrees, noting he did so on a big expansion of the Medicaid entitlement, he was critical of President George W. Bush for failing to veto spending bills and opposed earmarks by other party members.

Vowing to stick with his principles, Toomey said, "Voters will know what they're getting with me."

The former Lehigh Valley congressman said the developments don't change his strategy. He opposes the Wall Street bailouts and borrowing our way to prosperity.

Toomey said Specter avoiding the GOP primary "gets to bypass that near-certain defeat. But now he's got to face a gauntlet on the Democratic side, and then he's still got to get into a general.

"Frankly, I think he's in his last term now, and this is just a desperate attempt by him to try to reshuffle the cards, an effort to stay alive for one more term. I don't think it's going to work," Toomey said.

The GOP candidate said there's "duplicity" in what Specter has been doing.

"I think a lot of Democrats are going to ask themselves, 'Can we really trust this guy? Is he going to be with us?'" Toomey said.