The two men vying to replace Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) squared off in a televised debate tonight that centered around which of them was the more extreme. Pat Toomey, the Republican nominee, tried to paint Democrat Joe Sestak as representing the extreme liberal edge of the Democratic Party, negatively associating him with teachers unions and what he called Democrats who are “not friends” of Israel.
Sestak, a retired admiral and current member of Congress, fought back by positioning Toomey with personalities like Sarah Palin and Delaware Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell. He also took every possible opportunity, it seemed, to place President Bush’s name as close to Toomey’s as possible.
Toomey is the former president of the ultra-conservative Club For Growth and a former Republican member of Congress. He held firm on his belief in school vouchers, decreased regulation and at least the partial privatization of Social Security.
Toomey also got Palin’s endorsement today, perhaps reaffirmig his conservative bona fides with his base, but also leaving him open to Sestak’s attacks that he’s too far to the right for Pennsylvania’s swinging electorate. (Toomey declined to say whether he thinks Palin is qualified to be president.)
In a discussion over abortion, Sestak made his case succinctly.
“Palin, Toomey, O’Donnell — they all would like to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Sestak said.
Toomey said that he would favor a national ban on abortion but only one that included exceptions for “rape, incest and the life of the mother.” (It should be noted that such a position puts Toomey in the moderate category when it comes to Republicans running for office this year.)
The Social Security question was another hot-button. Toomey supports allowing younger workers “the option” of investing some of their Social Security savings in private stock market accounts, a plan that he says will keep the system solvent without raising taxes or “cutting benefits.”
Sestak was adamant in his rejection of the idea. “Toomey wants to take the security out of Social Security,” he said.
As you might expect for a debate in a major industrial state in the closing weeks of the 2010 midterms, much of the discussion centered around the economy. Toomey slammed the “bailouts” — and Sestak’s votes for them — but didn’t answer a moderator’s question about what would have happened if the government had not stepped in in the depths of the economic collapse.
He claimed that Sestak was offering no solutions to the hard problems of deficits, debt and entitlements.
“Joe has no solution for the big problems we face,” he said. “Instead, it’s mis-characterizations.”
Sestak said he voted for the bailouts and stimulus to take care of the budget problems he saw when he first got to Congress in 2007.
“Sometimes you take care of other people’s messes and clean them up,” he said.
Overall, the debate seemed to lack any of the knockout punches or one-line takeaways both campaigns were probably looking for. After months trailing Toomey, new polls show Sestak has closed the gap, setting the stage for a sprint to the finish that could be either man’s to win — or lose.
The TPM Poll Average shows Toomey ahead 46.0-43.3.
