It’s only Tuesday but Pat Toomey is already stepping in it this week. Following through from the first half of recess, voters and press have been hounding Toomey on the Supreme Court and the embarrassing competition for the GOP presidential nomination. Toomey’s support for Republican judicial obstruction – coupled with the likelihood that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz will top the ticket in November – have started to break through with voters. Toomey’s record isn’t substantive enough to make a persuasive personal pitch to Pennsylvanians, and with the worst elements of the Republican Party rising in this election, Toomey is paying the price.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Sen. Toomey’s favorability rating sagging
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s favorability ratings with Pennsylvania’s registered voters have dropped sharply in recent months as his re-election campaign heats up, a poll shows.
Sunbury Daily Item: Toomey’s support wilts under Supreme backlash
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey’s support has plummeted statewide on the heels of his saying the next president should nominate the Supreme Court Justice, not Barack Obama.
More than 30 percent of Pennsylvania registered voters have a “somewhat” or “strongly” unfavorable opinion of Toomey, a Republican, according to the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll. The same poll shows 29 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the senator, while 12 percent of those questioned are undecided.
In June 2015, Toomey’s “unfavorables” totalled about 22 percent.
“There are probably several factors as to why voters feel as they do about Toomey now,” said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin & Marshall Center for Politics and Public Affairs. “First,” he said, “there are his generally conservative stances on many major issues; then the repeated attacks by interest groups; and lately his decision to say no vote this year on [Merrick] Garland for the Supreme Court.”
WPXI: Senator Pat Toomey’s Favorability Rating Falling Over The Past Five Years
A new poll indicates Senator Pat Toomey’s favorability ratings are heading downhill.
Lancaster Online: Toomey’s seat could be a ‘toss up’ if Trump is nominated
Freshman Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s chances of reelection are much more uncertain if Donald Trump is the presidential nominee, according to recent analysis by political observers.
The Cook Political Report, an independent, non-partisan newsletter of political analysis, has shifted Pennsylvania’s Senate race from “Leans Republican” to “Toss-Up.”
One of the reasons is the success of Republican presidential front-runner Trump.
Philadelphia Tribune: Why is the GOP trying to dump Trump?
One of several Republican senators running for reelection who could be hurt by the Trump effect is Pennsylvania’s first-term Sen. Pat Toomey. Pennsylvania is considered a Democrat leaning state and hasn’t gone for a GOP presidential candidate since 1988. Democrats worked to apply pressure Toomey, trying to tie him to Trump and accusing him of obstructionism in the battle over filling the Supreme Court vacancy.
Meanwhile, Toomey can expect demonstrators to appear at his public events and offices around Pennsylvania in the next few weeks while the Senate is in recess, urging him to consider President Barack Obama’s high court nominee.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Op-Ed: Pat Toomey caught between a Trump and a McConnell place
Call it a double whammy for Sen. Pat Toomey. With the increasing likelihood that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president, Toomey, the Lehigh Valley Republican, must worry that Trump’s coattails will drag him in the wrong direction.
With Trump at the top of the GOP ticket, Toomey will be faced with a tough choice. He can support the Republican nominee and abandon his values and his base. Or he can stay true to those values, break with Trump and hope to hang onto some of his Republican support.
… Toomey now must persuade voters to re-elect him, even though he has refused to perform a key part of his job. He will have to explain why he gets to pick and choose what he is willing to do when regular Americans show up for work and do their jobs every day.
USA TODAY: Voters in old GOP establishment bastion have no taste for ‘Stop Trump’
Northeastern Pennsylvania was in the vanguard of the Republican establishment’s attempts to stop outsider Barry Goldwater in ’64 and outsider Ronald Reagan in ’76. But party regulars here aren’t leading the Stop Trump movement — they’re incensed by it.
Reps. Thomas Marino and Lou Barletta are two of only a handful of House members to have endorsed Trump. In his announcement last week, Barletta complained that party leaders have “spent more time trying to stop Donald Trump than trying to understand why is he is so popular.’’GOP voters in the 10th and 11th congressional districts, who gave big majorities to George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney, are rallying to the man their old standard-bearers detest.
Reading Eagle: Editorial: Senate muffling the voices of nearly 66 million voters
By refusing to hold confirmation hearings, McConnell and his minions are muffling the voices of more than 69 million voters who elected Obama in 2008 and nearly 66 million who re-elected him in 2012.
Allentown Morning Call: Pat Toomey waiting to back another Republican presidential candidate
After seeing his preferred candidate drop out of the presidential race, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey says he’s in no rush to endorse another.
Toomey, a Republican seeking his second term, said Monday he is not ready to weigh in on who he’d like to see at the top of the Republican ballot.