Tuesday November 2, 2010
Pro-Life Pat Toomey Wins Pennsylvania Senate Seat after a 6 Year Wait
By Peter J. Smith
PITTSBURG, Pennsylvania, November 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Six years after his narrow primary loss to pro-abortion Sen. Arlen Specter, Republican Pat Toomey will now be the next pro-life U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.
In a nail biter of an election, Toomey finally beat out pro-abortion Democrat challenger U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, a former U.S. Navy Vice-Admiral late Tuesday evening. Earlier in the evening, Sestak looked poised to win.
Toomey beat Sestak 51 percent to 49 percent, with 98 percent of precincts reporting.
Both men were battling to succeed pro-abortion Senator Arlen Specter, who jumped ship from the GOP in 2009 after Toomey announced he intended to take on Specter in the primary. However, Specter abandoned the GOP only to face a stiff primary Democrat challenge from Sestak, who pilloried Specter for his record of GOP-allied votes in the Senate. Sestak trounced Specter in the May primary, 54 percent to 46 percent.
The pro-life Toomey has waited over six years to take his place in the Senate. Toomey gave Specter a tough primary challenge in 2004 and appeared on the brink of toppling the pro-abortion Senator. However, Specter managed to survive by getting an endorsement from President George W. Bush, and political support from pro-life then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.), and beat Toomey by the barest of margins: 1.7 percent.
The endorsement likely proved fatal to Santorum, who had soured his conservative and pro-life base by sandbagging Toomey, and consequently lost his own re-election bid to Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Penn.) by a fair margin in 2006.
Santorum has since apologized for the move, and explained to conservatives this year that he made a pragmatic decision, as he felt Toomey would be unlikely to win the election, and had been assured Specter would adequately protect pro-life interests in the two upcoming Supreme Court nominations.
Ironically enough, Santorum’s admission harmed Specter in his primary challenge, as Sestak seized upon Santorum’s statement as evidence that Specter was an unreliable Democrat and an opportunist who would cut any deal to save his seat.