Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) is among the most vulnerable of Senate Republicans this year, and is falling in the polls to Democrat Katie McGinty. One key issue in the race: guns. Because Toomey worked with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) after the Sandy Hook massacre on a background check bill, he's been the beneficiary of an ad campaign from the Bloomberg-backed Independence USA PAC. Meanwhile, Toomey has been campaigning this summer on his "perfect record with the NRA." So the Senate Majority PAC is responding with a new ad to set the record straight.
The super PAC that works to elect Democrats to the Senate is seizing on little-noticed comments from Toomey in mid-July when the senator—who drafted bipartisan legislation broadening background checks in 2013 in defiance of the National Rifle Association—told a crowd at a campaign stop: "I have a perfect track record with the NRA."
The new 30-second ad begins with a positive focus on Katie McGinty, Toomey's Democratic challenger, emphasizing that she supports background checks, an assault weapons ban, and a ban on high-capacity ammunition clips.
"And Pat Toomey? Against an assault weapons ban. And against banning high-capacity ammo clips, like those used in the Orlando massacre," the narrator continues. The ad plays a clip of Toomey's "perfect record" comments, then adds: "Pat Toomey gets an A from the NRA. He's not for you."
That ad (you can watch it below) has nearly $1 million behind it, so you can bet that every Pennsylvania voter is going to see it at some point in the next three months. There are plenty of places in Pennsylvania where a perfect track record with the NRA isn't going to go over too well—the places where the people highly motivated to vote against Donald Trump live. Toomey's already facing an enthusiasm gap. In the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal Marist poll of the state, McGinty's 48-44 lead expands to 51 percent to 44 percent among those who say they will "definitely vote" in November.
Please send $3 to Katie McGinty to send Pat Toomey packing.