Pennsylvania Senate candidates spar over police
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee Katie McGinty’s campaign is hitting back at Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.), her Republican opponent, after he questioned her support for law enforcement officials.
“Pat Toomey should stop playing politics with police families–like the McGinty family,” said McGinty campaign spokesman Josh Levitt in a statement Tuesday, highlighting her father’s two-decade law enforcement career.
“Katie’s dad walked the beat for 25 years and the McGinty kids honor their dad’s service, as well as the sacrifice of all police, firefighting and safety public servants. Pat Toomey should honor them, too, and not disrespect them with trash politics.”
{mosads}The controversy was sparked by a Tuesday interview on Dom Giordano’s radio show on CBS Philly.
During the interview, Toomey panned Democrats for blaming law enforcement after a number of high-profile police shootings, such as the one in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.
Giordano then suggested that McGinty doesn’t want to talk about her father’s service as a police officer because she’s “scared to death” of activists like the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Well I think there’s all the evidence in the world that she’s done nothing,” Toomey responded. “She’s demonstrated no willingness to separate herself from the most liberal, most radical elements within her party.”
“So I haven’t heard Katie McGinty say anything in defense of the men and women who wear the blue uniform and keep us safe. And, you know, shame on her,” he added.
Toomey’s campaign has been highlighting his strong support for police officers and touted the recent endorsement from the National Association of Police Organizations, the latest sign of vulnerable Senate Republicans’ efforts to localize their reelection races.
He faces McGinty, a former chief of staff to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D), in a tough reelection battle this fall. The race could help determine which party controls the majority in the upper chamber.
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The Democratic-leaning state went to President Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
Toomey holds a significant cash advantage over McGinty, but a recent Quinnipiac University survey found the two neck and neck, with Toomey leading by 1 percentage point, within the poll’s margin of error.
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