Luksik says Specter has ‘gone home’

GOP Senate candidate Peg Luksik joined the ranks of Republicans who are calling Arlen Specter’s decision to switch parties a simple case of political opportunism.

“It is clear that Arlen Specter stands with President Obama on a host of issues and with this decision, has gone home to the Democratic Party,” Luksik said in a statement.

“It was clear months ago that Senator Specter had lost support from his Republican base, and could not succeed…

April 28, 2009 at 2:22 pm | Comments (0)

The money game: 1Q Senate roundup

Not surprisingly, Senator Arlen Specter takes the cake for best first-quarter fundraising haul among Senate candidates.

pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/torsella-has-almost-600k-on-hand" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Ftorsella-has-almost-600k-on-hand','Democrat+Joe+Torsella+raised+about+%24596%2C000%2C+finishing+with+about+%24584%2C000.')" target="_blank"Democrat Joe Torsella raised about $596,000, finishing with about $584,000./a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/04/luksik-campaign-in-the-red" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fluksik-campaign-in-the-red','Republican+Peg+Luksik+raised+about+%2410%2C000%2C+finishing+with+about+%243%2C000+on+hand+but+%243%2C500+in+debt.')" target="_blank">Republican Peg Luksik raised about $10,000, finishing with about $3,000 on hand but $3,500 in debt.

Republican Pat Toomey, having just entered the race, has not yet released any fundraisng data.

…

April 24, 2009 at 6:00 am | Comments (0)

Luksik campaign in the red

Republican Senate candidate Peg Luksik ended March with almost $3,000 in campaign cash—but $3,500 in debt, according to newly released

April 24, 2009 at 5:00 am | Comments (0)

Luksik: I was here first

In the weeks leading up to Republican Pat Toomey’s announcement that he would run for Senate, Peg Luksik, who had already declared her candidacy, made it abundantly clear what she thought of conservative sentiment that she should step aside in favor of Toomey, widely considered the more viable candidate.

“I’m running,” she told pa2010.com recently, before Toomey had entered the race. “If [Toomey] wants to get in on top of me and split the vote,…

April 23, 2009 at 10:35 am | Comments (2)

A Republican who’s not afraid of Limbaugh

Larry Murphy has strong feelings about Rush Limbaugh.

“Rush Limbaugh is a racist, he’s a cancer to the Republican Party and he should be excised,” pThose aren’t unusual sentiments. But what is unusual is hearing them from a Republican candidate for office. Republicans far and wide have been a id="lzj-" title="prostrating themselves" href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19517.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politico.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fnews%2Fstories%2F0309%2F19517.html','prostrating+themselves')" target="_blank"prostrating themselves/a before Limbaugh in recent months, who has been effective at leveraging his massive conservative audience into allegiance from elected officials in the party. But Murphy, an underdog Republican candidate for Senate, says Limbaugh can’t be the voice of the party./p
p“My opponents are afraid to say that,” Murphy, told empa2010.com /emrecently./p
pHe’s got a point. Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter, working hard to court the party’s conservative base ahead of a grueling primary next year, recently said of Limbaugh: “I like him.”/p
pMurphy, by far the least known of the four Republican Senate candidates, has such a low profile that it’s unlikely he’ll get caught up in the apologize-to-Rush game that has snagged his more prominent colleagues in recent months. But he’s also clearly hoping his stance against Limbaugh will bolster his credentials as a more independent Republican./p
p“People like Rush and [radio host] Laura Ingraham, they’re really destroying our party, and we need to wake up and see that,” Murphy said, adding that his would be a “different kind of Republican candidacy.”/p
p“It’s not going to mean-hearted, it’s not going to be sound bites,” he said./p
pFormer Congressman Pat Toomey and conservative activist Peg Luksik are also running against Specter in next year’s primary./p
div id="attachment_192" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 120px"a href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/larry-murphy.jpg" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2009%2F04%2Flarry-murphy.jpg','larry-murphy')">

Republican Senate candidate Larry Murphy