Specter Raises Less Than Toomey For First Quarter, But Keeps Big Cash Lead

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-PA)
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Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) raised $1.16 million in the first quarter of 2010 — less than half the amount brought in by his Republican arch-rival, former Rep. Pat Toomey, though Specter maintains a strong cash-on-hand advantage.

Toomey’s campaign announced last week that he brought in $2.3 million for the quarter, and has $4 million on hand. Specter has a much stronger $9 million on hand, though he will have to spend some of it in his Democratic primary against Rep. Joe Sestak, who has been challenging Specter ever since the incumbent switched parties last year.

Specter was first elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1980. As a moderate Republican, he was challenged from the right for the GOP nomination in 2004 by then-Rep. Pat Toomey, and won by only a 51%-49% margin. Specter’s support among Republicans plummeted in 2009, after he provided a crucial vote to pass President Obama’s stimulus package, and he subsequently switched parties when polls showed he would lose a primary rematch against Toomey.

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