Pat Toomey: Campaign Spending Discrepancy Impacting Senate Race
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey discussed his re-election campaign against Democratic challenger, Katie McGinty, saying the current state of the race is closer than he would like, and blamed an enormous disparity in ad spending at the primary reason.
Toomey, while talking with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, stated the stakes are high in this race and the result will probably determined by turnout.
"There's been a lot more money spent on behalf of Katie McGinty than Hillary Clinton has spent directly on her own campaign [in Pennsylvania], although she has made a substantial buy. It's one hundred percent attack ads against me. They've got nothing good to say Katie McGinty. It's all about attacks. Ultimately, what we don't know really is what kind of turnout are we going to have. We have two really amazingly unpopular candidates at the top of the ticket. What does that do? Conventional wisdom always was that unpopular candidates means low turnout, but I don't know. It might be a high turnout among people voting against one of the two candidates. We just don't know."
He admitted the quantity of ads airing against him is impacting the race.
"Right now, it's close. I do think it's close. Over the course of the summer, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and the other special interest groups came to Pennsylvania and they spent, literally, tens of millions of dollars, more money on attack ads against me than anywhere else in the country and that's a lot. They don't spend it because it has no effect. So, I think we've got a close race."
Toomey also touted being endorsed by former Representative Gabby Giffords PAC for his work regarding background checks prior to gun purchases.
"I think it is a big deal. I am grateful for the endorsement. One of the things that I respect about them is that the organization, Americans for Responsible Solutions, the organization they formed, they fully acknowledge that I and they don't agree on everything in the space the Second Amendment, but on background checks, we do. They recognize that. The recognize that I reached across the aisle to try to get something done and they decided that they were going to make that endorsement in recognition of the work that I've done. I appreciate that."