Toomey claims internal polling showing he can win general

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Pat Toomey claimed Wednesday that his internal polling shows him as having an “excellent chance” of not only winning the Republican primary, but also the general election.

“I can tell you that our own internal polling shows that I have an excellent chance” of winning the general election, Toomey told the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack. “Once [public] groups do polls it will be clear.”

“I’ve proven that I can win Democratic votes in a Democratic region,” he added.

The comments address a core contention centrist Republicans and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) will make in the upcoming primary showdown: that Toomey, the former chairman of the conservative Club for Growth, can’t win a general election in blue state Pennsylvania.

Toomey also told the Standard he expected national Republicans would formally back Specter, but disclosed that he’d spoken in recent weeks with National Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC) Chairman John Cornyn (R-Texas).