send to a friend | print | comment

Touey enters PA-7 as a ‘pro-business, no-waste, progressive Democrat’ (Updated)

DREXEL HILL—E. Teresa Touey returned from 18 years as a Massachusetts resident Monday morning to declare her candidacy for one of the most competitive House seats in Pennsylvania, when she stood by a train stop here and entered the Democratic primary in the 7th District.

“I am a pro-business, no-waste, progressive Democrat who will work tirelessly for the voters of the congressional seventh of Pennsylvania to promote its prosperity, and to strengthen its schools, and to protect its neighborhoods,” Touey said.

Touey, a longtime political consultant who has worked for two previous Democratic candidates in the district and also worked for the late Senator Ted Kennedy, has lived in Natick, Mass. since 1991. But when incumbent Congressman Joe Sestak, who she helped elect in 2006, decided to leave the seat open in favor of a Senate run, she felt moved to return to protect the seat from a Republican takeover. She also worked for former Congressman Bob Edgar, the last Democrat to hold the seat before Sestak.

“I’m really committed to my deep roots here,” Touey told pa2010.com of her native district, where she grew up in Glenolden. “My heart is here.”

Speaking from prepared remarks in front of a small group of family members, near where she once fought as a high school student to have a crosswalk traffic light installed, Touey ticked off a list of her accomplishments inside and outside the district.

“I have worked on supporting candidates and policies that promote good jobs for this generation of American families as well as the next generation,” she said.

But the sparse crowd, numbering barely more than a dozen with only two reporters, was a stark contrast to other candidate announcements. As passing trains sometimes drowned out parts of her speech, the low-key political theater underscored the challenges Touey faces in reintroducing herself to a district where she hasn’t resided in almost two decades.

“She has a lot of work to do,” Delaware County Democratic chief Cliff Wilson said bluntly.

Touey, who is in the process of moving back to Glenolden, said she harbored no illusions about the obstacles ahead.

“Really it’s just one neighborhood at a time, one activist at a time, one voter at a time, and I will work tirelessly until [the primary] doing that,” Touey said.

Touey will face state Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware), who has already been aggressively fundraising and building a campaign apparatus, in next year’s primary. State Representative Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) is also considering a run. Former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan is expected to be the Republican candidate.

E. Teresa Touey, center, announces her candidacy for the 7th Congressional District at a train station in Drexel Hill.

September 28, 2009 at 10:53 am

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Bryan Lentz, E. Teresa Touey, Greg Vitali, PA-7, Pat Meehan

comments

comments [12] | post a comment