Toomey Says He May Run For Senate

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pat Toomey, a conservative former congressman who narrowly lost the 2004 Republican primary to Sen. Arlen Specter, said Monday he may demand a rematch next year.

Toomey, who is president of the anti-tax Club for Growth in Washington, recently had said he was considering running for Pennsylvania governor. But a written statement he issued Monday marked the first time he acknowledged publicly that he is contemplating taking on Specter for a second time.

Toomey, 47, said he is concerned that the federal government's response to the recession has put the nation "on a dangerously wrong path."

"Pennsylvanians want a U.S. senator focused on real and sustainable job creation that gets our economy growing again," he said. "That is why I am considering becoming a candidate for the U.S. Senate."

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Toomey said he had been "absolutely inundated with phone calls and e-mails, and sometimes people literally coming up to me in the middle of the street asking me to run against Sen. Specter."

Toomey, then a congressman from northeastern Pennsylvania, lost the 2004 GOP primary by 17,000 votes out of 1 million cast.

Specter, 79, is a moderate with a reputation as a maverick. He angered many members of his party when he cast one of three Republican votes in the Senate for the $787 billion economic-stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed last month. No Republicans in the House supported it.

Specter is seeking a sixth Senate term, has battled Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system.

The senator's spokeswoman, Kate Kelly, did not comment on Toomey's statement but noted that her boss said in a statement after the vote that he felt his duty was to "look out for the public interest and not my own personal political interest."

The only declared Democratic candidate for Specter's seat -- Philadelphia civic leader Joe Torsella -- is a virtual unknown in statewide politics.