The battle to be the Pennsylvanian Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate is heating up with only weeks left before the primary election.
Both incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Pat Toomey are vying for a place on the ballot in November to represent Pennsylvania on Capitol Hill.
Republican voters will be asked to choose between Specter, who has held the office for 23 years, and challenger Toomey, who has served three terms in the House of Representatives but is making good on his promise to respect a self-imposed term limit.
Toomey's campaign is focusing on the need for a change from Specter's liberal policies. Toomey says he has a more conservative outlook on most issues from tax reform to gay marriage.
Toomey spokesman Joe Sterns said that Specter is one of the most notorious spenders in the Senate and consistently sides with liberals.
Specter "has a very liberal voting record," Sterns said, adding that Specter has been "working to undermine the mainstream of the Republican Party."
Toomey, alternatively, would defend the more "traditional values" of the Republican Party, such as lowering taxes and supporting smaller government.
Of the the two candidates, Toomey believes he is the "conservative who defends the principles of what the party represents," Sterns said.
Specter campaign manager Christopher Nicholas said Specter is the best candidate because of his "courage, clout and conviction," and especially because of his successful work in Pennsylvania on issues like jobs and health care.
Specter is also working closely with President George W. Bush "in continuing the war on terrorism," Nicholas added.
Political Science professor Jack Nagel said that although the administration may sometimes find fault with the more liberal positions that Specter has taken, Toomey is a weaker candidate.
Toomey is "further right, less well known and less well established," Nagel said, adding that he "has an uphill fight against Specter."
"If there's at all a Democratic tide" in this election year, Nagel said, "Toomey would be more vulnerable" as the Republican candidate.
The issue of gay marriage has become important to the race with the increased nationwide attention that has surrounded it.
Toomey agrees with the president in asserting the need for an amendment that rules marriage as a practice solely between a man and a woman.
Specter believes that the decisions on the issue should be left to individual states.
"I voted for the Defense of Marriage Act because I believe marriage is between a man and a woman," Specter said in a statement earlier this month. "It is premature to consider a U.S. Constitutional amendment because the several states involved are dealing with the issue."
Specter cited the quick work of the Massachusetts legislature in moving ahead with a state constitutional amendment; a speed, he said, that could not be matched by Congress and the 38 states that would be needed to create and ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
However, Specter did acknowledge that "if the states cannot preserve the traditions of marriage between a man and a woman, I would be prepared to consider a U.S. Constitutional amendment."
