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LEFTOVERS: Revisiting Toomey’s attack, endorsements, a live TV debate

A day after Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey blasted Democrat Joe Sestak for taking campaign cash from a group called Citizens for Global Solutions, Democrats came back at Toomey hard, noting that a plethora of GOPers have also received money from the group.

Saying that Toomey was “errantly” bashing folks like Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6), state Democratic Party spokesman Mark Nicastre said Toomey’s “attack on [Sestak and Gerlach] was about as reckless as his Wall Street friends’ derivatives trades that helped cause the economic collapse. Just last month, Toomey was campaigning with fellow Republican Congressman Jim Gerlach, now he’s attacking him. What does Jim Gerlach think about Pat Toomey’s attack on his donor?”

This whole He’s-Campaigning-With-A-Guy-Who-Supports-What-He-Opposes thing is a meme pushed by both sides. Sestak campaigns with Democrats who supported the Glass-Steagall deregulatory measure that he so adamantly speaks against. Toomey campaigns with Republicans who supported the TARP bailout that he vilifies. Frankly, we’re satisfied to say that political candidates can go out on the trail with folks without having to endorse their entire ideological portfolio.

Gerlach’s campaign, for its part, shrugged off the matter. “Congressman Gerlach looks forward to working with Pat Toomey, a true champion for taxpayers, as our next U.S. Senator,” campaign spokesman Mark Campbell said.

Speaking of Citizens for Global Solutions, the group is pushing back against Toomey’s claim that it supports establishing a “global tax.” So we asked the Toomey folks to back up the claim. They directed us to a 1999 op-ed penned by a group official, in which he opines on how globalization and increasingly interdependent economies will change public policy.

At one point, the author writes: “Consider taxes: The inability to tax e-commerce effectively is resulting in loss of local and state tax revenues used for schools, police and fire departments. Some experts are suggesting a national e-commerce sales tax. Companies dependent on e-commerce for profits, however, can move offshore to avoid national taxes, leaving less funding for military-type defenses. This could bring into favor a global e-commerce tax that could be redistributed back to local, state and national governments.”

The author seems to like the idea, but that hardly amounts to the group supporting a “global tax” in its official platform. Regardless, Toomey’s camp said the important issue is whether Sestak supports things like increased foreign aid and a global tax of some kind.

“This is about Congressman Joe Sestak’s record,” Toomey spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said. “He has to answer whether he supports a global tax on top of all the tax increases he has already supported and whether he continues to support doubling foreign aid in this time of sky-rocketing deficits. Why won’t Congressman Sestak answer a simple question?”

We asked Team Sestak these simple questions, and, lo and behold, they answered. They pointed us back to the original answer Sestak gave to a Citizens for Global Security questionnaire, in which he said the doubling of foreign aid should be doubled by 2015, not the 2012 goal that President Obama has floated. “Joe said it would make more sense five years from now because he would support it once our economy is fully up to speed again and we are economically engaged in the world as we should be,” spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said.

Oh, and for the record, Sestak’s campaign says he does not and never has supported a global tax.

“No, and there is only one candidate in this election who wants to increase taxes on the middle class: Congressman Toomey,” Dworkin said. “His flat tax would raise taxes for 95 percent of workers while still increasing the deficit to pay for breaks for the very wealthy. And Toomey still wants to add $700 billion to the debt by extending the Bush tax breaks for the ultra-rich, even though that misguided policy, which he supported from day one, is responsible for the majority of our deficit for the next 10 years.”

Meanwhile, Toomey continued to rack up support for his campaign. The latest endorsements came from political action committees controlled by the American Medical Association and the Pennsylvania Medical Society. The groups gave Toomey their support during an event in Pittsburgh.

“The PA Medical PAC is supporting Pat Toomey because we believe that he understands the difficulty and challenges faced by physicians in providing quality medical care to our citizens,” PAC vice-chair Amy Paré said in a statement. “Mr. Toomey understands the strains and expenses placed upon our medical system by a legal system that does not improve the quality of care. He supports rational tort reform that protects patients’ rights, but addresses the tremendous costs that are imposed by an adversarial litigation system.”

And it looks like we’ll get to see at least one live TV debate between gubernatorial candidates Tom Corbett and Dan Onorato. The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters announced Tuesday that the two rivals will debate Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. It wasn’t immediately clear if the debate will air live statewide. But that’s our birthday at pa2010.com Central, so we might need to fire up the TiVo.

Live or taped, maybe this means we’ll stop getting releases from Onorato’s campaign calling Corbett chicken-debate-dodger.

But we’re not holding our breath.

September 14, 2010 at 8:51 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Chris Carney, DCCC, Democratic Party, Jim Gerlach, Joe Sestak, Kathy Dahlkemper, PA-10, PA-11, PA-3, PA-6, Pat Toomey, Paul Kanjorski

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