Pennsylvania’s Republican Senator Pat Toomey is up for re-election this year, and the man from Lehigh Valley has been coming under attack by his putative opponents in Democrat Party, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, for his opposition to gun control. Senator Toomey’s response to these charges appears to be to get in his opponents’ faces, running advertisements that boldly proclaim, in essence: “No way! I support gun control!” I wish I was making this up . . .
The new ad, titled “What’s Right”, prominently features a woman named Nancy Grogan, who spends most of the 30 second ad singing praises for Pat’s stand for gun control to “keep our families safe”. In case you were wondering, Nancy Grogan is a board member of Ceasefire of PA, and also written in the past for a blog called “Pennsylvania Catholics for Fewer Guns“. (See, not banning guns…just wanting fewer guns!)
Ever since his dalliance with in 2013 with the ill-fated Manchin-Toomey bill that would have effectively banned private transfers of firearms throughout the nation, Senator Toomey has not been a favorite of Pennsylvanians who support the right to keep and bear arms. I have to admit that I am scratching my head over what the hell the Honorable Senator thinks he’s doing with this ad buy. In an anti-establishment year, Toomey — the former President of the Club for Growth PAC, who is being strongly supported by the Chamber of Commerce — is something of a consummate insider and, essentially, is doubling down on being the candidate of the establishment here. In the state where gun owners still have not forgotten that they were singled out by then-candidate Barack Obama for ridicule for bitterly clinging to their guns and religion, Toomey is basically running an ad touting the time he totally punked them.
Here’s another pro-gun control ad, from Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Senator:
Obviously, I reject the positions that both of these guys have taken. And while I am not here to praise Toomey, he is, at least, standing with us to oppose Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Still, in this crazy political year, which ad do you think is going to be more effective? Which one do you think comes across as stronger? The ad with the effete whimpering anti-gun lady? Or the steelworker-looking dude with the revolver?
If Pennsylvania’s voters are limited to choosing between a bunch of anti-gun candidates for Senator (and, believe me, the other Democrats running are no better than Fetterman,) which one looks like the winner?