President Bush
turned a fund-raising visit to Pittsburgh
Tuesday into a defacto campaign stop for Sen. Arlen Specter,
praising the liberal-leaning Republican after a trip on Air Force
One.
"I want to thank Arlen Specter, who is the state campaign
co-chairman for Bush-Cheney '04," Mr. Bush said to a room
full of well-heeled supporters. "I look forward to working
with him as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the United
States Senate to make sure my judges get through and
appointed."
Mr. Specter is running against Rep. Patrick J. Toomey in the
party's primary. Although Mr. Toomey might be more in line with
Mr. Bush's conservative philosophy, a Toomey campaign aide said
the president is simply "following policy" by supporting
the incumbent for the Pennsylvania Senate seat.
"They told us that they weren't going to say anything bad
about us," said the aide, who requested anonymity. "They
said that they appreciate how we've worked well with the White
House on many things, but their policy is their policy."
The aide noted that the White House did not urge Mr. Toomey to
give up his primary challenge.
Mr. Bush also has dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney and Chief
of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. to Pennsylvania to campaign for Mr.
Specter, 73, who currently has $10 million to help him win a fifth
term compared with 42-year-old Mr. Toomey's $2 million in campaign
funds.
Mr. Specter, who also has gained the endorsement of fellow
Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, likely will add the nod of the
party's state committee, too, when it meets in late January.
All this high-powered help for Mr. Specter makes Mr. Toomey's
quest in the April primary a daunting one, said his campaign
aides, but a win is not impossible.
"We've got a large group of grass-roots supporters that are
organizing," said Toomey spokesman Mark Dion. "We expect
the party machinery to be behind the incumbent. This isn't a case
of endorsements winning an election. It will be decided by all of
the state's registered Republicans."
Mr. Toomey's campaign has accused Mr. Specter of abandoning the
president and conservative principles on key votes — from
lukewarm support for the president's tax cuts, to votes against
school vouchers, support for human-cloning research and a vote
this year to weaken the ban on partial-birth abortion.
Specter spokesman Bill Reynolds said the president's endorsement
of Mr. Specter debunks that argument.
"For not being on the team, he sure takes a lot of trips in
Air Force One with the president," Mr. Reynolds said.
"Senator Specter voted more with the president last year than
Mr. Toomey did, so who is the one who is on the team?"
Nonetheless, primary voters have a history of causing trouble for
Mr. Specter, throwing more than 30 percent of the vote to largely
unknown Republicans in his past two races.
A Keystone Poll released two weeks ago showed Mr. Specter with a
significant lead over Mr. Toomey — 49 percent to 18 percent —
but Mr. Specter's 42 percent job-approval rating might be a sign
of vulnerability.
Pittsburgh-based Republican political consultant Bill Green said
that if Mr. Toomey can tap into conservative frustration with Mr.
Specter, the seat he has held since 1980 could be in trouble.
