"He's running a very, very dishonest campaign,'' Toomey said of Specter. "This is a man who's obviously made it clear he's willing to lie -- and in an egregious way.'' Toomey's comments, which came during a 45-minute interview with the New Era Friday afternoon, illustrate just how contentious the April 27 Republican primary election has become.

Specter's campaign manager has defended the ad, but to strike back, the Toomey campaign is launching a $2 million to $3 million media blitz that will be its most intense and aggressive yet.

The Lehigh County congressman has portrayed himself as being far more conservative than Specter -- a quality that resonates with many voters in Central Pennsylvania. Toomey, in fact, has made 10 public appearances in Lancaster in the past year. He was a guest at the conservative political action committee ACTION's banquet Friday night.

Specter, meanwhile, is a seasoned, 24-year veteran known for his pit-bull style of campaigning. He also portrays himself as a conservative, but has appeared as recently as January at fund-raisers for liberal groups such as OutFront!, which supports legal recognition of gay marriages.

The face-off between the two has generated national attention.

In the latest salvo, Specter's television ad accuses Toomey of being pro-gambling and against abstinence education. The television commercial ends with the spoken words, "Pat Toomey: He's not far right, he's far out.'' Toomey claims the allegations are blatantly false. He says he voted in favor of a bill doubling money for abstinence education, but against a later amendment that would have provided even more funding for the cause.

"One of my colleagues offers an amendment to an appropriations bill that proposes that we take some money away from the Centers for Disease Control -- money that was programmed to go for anthrax research,'' Toomey said. "This was right at the time when several people had died, and there was an anthrax threat.

"The proposal was to take some money from that and add still more money to abstinence education. I thought that the people at the CDC, we should defer to what they said they needed to do this anthrax work. So I voted against that amendment,'' Toomey said.

"He uses that to justify the charge that I oppose abstinence education,'' Toomey said. "It's just unbelievably dishonest.'' Specter's allegation that Toomey is pro-gambling apparently stems from the congressman's remarks during a televised interview on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.

"Someone called in -- and Specter had put someone up to calling in -- saying, "Where do you stand on slots in racetracks?' "My response was, "If the Harrisburg politicians think that this is going to solve the financial problem facing Pennsylvania, I think they're badly mistaken. I think what's going to happen is they're going to grab this money, they're going to spend it on other programs, they're going to get addicted to this new source of revenue, and we're not going to solve the financial problem.' "That was my answer,'' Toomey explained. "He takes that to say, "OK, you're not opposing it then, so therefore you must support it. It's unbelievable.'' In published reports, Specter's campaign has defended the ad. Christopher Nicholas, Specter's campaign manager, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review the ad is based on "a comprehensive review of Pat Toomey's votes since he came to Congress in 1999.'' Toomey is planning to spend between $2 million and $3 million over the next two months on media purchases. He said the move will boost his statewide name recognition -- one of his biggest hurdles.

Until now, Specter has far outspent Toomey on TV.

"He's been outspending us by about six to one,'' Toomey said. "Our internal polls show that we are very well positioned to win this race -- and so does Specter's. The way you know that is the amount of money he is spending.'' The winner of the Republican primary will face U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, 53, a Democrat who is unopposed in his party's primary. blog comments powered by Disqus