January 23, 2004

The Toomey Trifecta:
Toomey Defies White House, Congressional and Now Pennsylvania Republicans

Washington, DC -- Pat Toomey’s decision to skip the State Republican Committee meeting this weekend is yet another example of how he is out of step with Republicans from the White House to Harrisburg, Republican Main Street Partnership Executive Director Sarah Chamberlain Resnick said today.

“He would rather avert a major embarrassment to his floundering campaign than respect the party's long-standing tradition," said Chamberlain Resnick. “Toomey’s campaign has done nothing but harm the Republican Party both on the state and national levels, most recently prompting the White House to order him to 'cease and desist' using pictures of President Bush in his campaign."

According to the Associated Press, Associate Counsel to the President, Reginald J. Brown, in a Jan. 16 letter, informed the Toomey campaign that "it is the White House's long-standing policy not to allow the image of the president or the White House to be used in connection with private organizations in any way that suggests presidential or governmental support or endorsement."  Toomey had used a picture of himself and the President in recent campaign literature.

"The effect of the flyers clearly was to suggest the President supports Toomey," insisted Chamberlain Resnick. In fact, the White House, top Senate leaders, and the majority of the Pennsylvania GOP Congressional delegation have endorsed Senator Arlen Specter for reelection and discouraged the Toomey effort as divisive to the party and potentially damaging to GOP efforts to maintain control of the U.S. Senate.

"Toomey has demonstrated he is out of step with the party,” noted Chamberlain Resnick. "We at Main Street are confident Pennsylvania Republicans will respond to Toomey's defiance of  the party by endorsing Senator Specter at the weekend convention and send him a resounding vote of confidence in April."