Fifteen months before he will face voters in the November 2016 general election, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is airing the first television commercial of his re-election campaign beginning Tuesday.
The Pennsylvania Republican’s ad highlights his efforts to enact legislation designed to make it easier for schools to identify sex offenders among potential employees. Mr. Toomey has co-sponsored a measure with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would prod school districts to conduct more extensive background checks on employees and volunteers who work with students.
The 30-second commercial includes a narrator’s description of Mr. Toomey’s work on the child predator bill alternating with a woman’s expressions of gratitude to the freshman for his work on the proposal. Initially, it will run in the Pittsburgh market only, but his campaign said it could appear in other areas of the state in the future.
The campaign would not disclose the planned extent of the ad, but a spokesman said it would be “a substantial effort to get the word out.”'
The early appearance of the ad underscores the financial strength of the Toomey campaign five years after he won his seat by a 51 percent to 49 percent margin in a hotly contested victory over Democrat Joe Sestak. It also suggests, and aims to counteract, one potential vulnerability of the candidate — his relatively middling poll numbers with female voters compared with his much stronger showing among male voters.
In the ad, a narrator’s voice states, “Last year, over 400 school employees were identified as sex offenders.”
The ad switches to a shot of Kristen Pfautz Woolley, identified as a trauma therapist from York, who says, “As a survivor of child abuse and as a mother, I am very grateful for Sen. Pat Toomey’s leadership on this very important issue.”
The proposal would force school districts, under threat of otherwise losing a portion of their federal funding, to conduct more extensive background checks on employees and prohibit the hiring of anyone convicted of violent or sexual crimes or crimes against children such as abuse, neglect or pornography. Mr. Toomey and Mr. Manchin have unsuccessfully attempted to include the plan’s language in other legislation. There are no immediate prospects for its enactment.
In a 2010 election cycle influenced by the rise of the Tea Party, Mr. Toomey, the former head of the Club for Growth, rode to success on his image as a strong fiscal conservative. As his re-election bid approaches, the GOP freshman’s campaign has spotlighted his work with the Democrat on this issue, and on an unsuccessful push for more effective background checks on gun purchases, in an attempt to portray him as a figure who will to work across party lines in contrast to the partisan gridlock that dominates Congress.
Mr. Sestak, who has been laying the groundwork for a new challenge to Mr. Toomey ever since his 2010 defeat, contends that those bipartisan votes are exceptions to a record that remains overwhelmingly that of a partisan conservative.
Mr. Toomey has more than $7 million in cash in his campaign account, compared with Mr. Sestak’s total of roughly $1.7 million in the most recent reporting period. Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski also has announced a bid for the Democratic nomination to take on Mr. Toomey, but he has not yet had to report the finances of his relatively recent candidacy.
In a trial heat in a recent Quinnipiac University survey, Mr. Toomey led Mr. Sestak, 47 percent to 36 percent. A Franklin & Marshall College poll this month showed Mr. Toomey with a narrower lead, 35 percent to 31 percent, with another 34 percent undecided.
The Quinnipiac survey found a gender disparity common in American politics, with men more likely to favor the GOP candidate. In that sample, Mr. Toomey led among male voters, 54 percent to 33 percent. The two candidates were virtually tied among women, with Mr. Toomey ahead, 40 percent to 39 percent, a difference well within the poll’s margin of error.
Politics Editor James P. O'Toole: jotoole@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1562.
First Published: June 30, 2015, 4:24 a.m.