Pat Toomey Triumphs

Pennsylvania conservatives win big:

"The Toomey-Specter race took place two years ago, but the votes are still coming in tonight."

That was the observation of one Pennsylvanian, an establishment Republican, as he watched the primary returns Tuesday night. Still upset by last year's pay raise, Republican primary voters sent packing two state legislative leaders, David J. "Chip" Brightbill, Senate majority leader, and Robert Jubelirer, Senate president pro tempore. Over a dozen House incumbents were also turned out of office. Speaking to TAS on the condition of anonymity, the Republican said Pat Toomey's 2004 primary challenge of Sen. Arlen Specter did not end with his defeat. Rather, it sparked a movement. Tuesday's primary was "a chance for us conservatives to keep voting," he said.

Though Pennsylvanians did not vote for Pat Toomey himself Tuesday, they opted for his type of candidates. To highlight a few conservative challengers, John Eichelberger, a Blair County commissioner, defeated Jubelirer with 44 percent of the vote in a three-way race. Mike Folmer, a tire salesman and one-time city councilman dubbing himself "Citizen Mike," handily ousted Brightbill, 63 to 37 percent. Gary Hornberger, Schuylkill County controller, took 51 percent to 18-year incumbent Rep. Bob Allen's 49 percent.

The election also comes as a rebuke for Arlen Specter. After the Pennsylvania Club for Growth targeted Brightbill, Jubelirer, and Allen for defeat, Specter said he was helping them all. "I have given some money and more's coming," he said at a state capitol news conference, according to Capitol Wire.

It's also a rebuke to the GOP establishment jersey-wavers, particularly Hugh Hewitt, who led the charge to get conservatives to support RINO Arlen Specter over true conservative Pat Toomey, now president of the Club for Growth.

Toomey used informal influence to help put these candidates over the top; imagine how successful he would have been had he done so as the junior senator from Pennsylvania instead.

For all you weak-kneed Republicans out there: when we run conservatives, we WIN. If winning is truly what you care about, support conservative candidates, not RINOs.