WASHINGTON – When the election returns showed Sen. Arlen Specter heading to a Democratic primary defeat last month, he called his foe, Rep. Joe Sestak, to offer his support in the general election campaign.
The same cannot be said of core Specter loyalists.
Former Specter chief of staff David Urban is pulling together a group of Republicans with Pennsylvania ties – some of whom stayed loyal to Mr. Specter when he switched parties last year – to get behind Republican Pat Toomey for the fall Senate race.
Mr. Urban, a Washington lobbyist who was Mr. Specter’s top staffer from 1997 to 2002, said he will convene more than a dozen current and former Republican chiefs of staff from the Pennsylvania delegation to discuss how to help Mr. Toomey.
“Republicans want to win,” said Mr. Urban, who has remained an informal campaign adviser since leaving Mr. Specter’s employ. “Pat Toomey’s the candidate, and we want to get him across the goal line.”
Six years ago, Mr. Urban was working to stop Mr. Toomey, who narrowly lost a Republican primary race to Mr. Specter. But the conflict was never personal, Mr. Urban said, and when he ran into Mr. Toomey in December at the Pennsylvania Society receptions in New York, Mr. Urban mentioned in passing that the two of them should get together if Mr. Specter lost the primary.
After Mr. Specter fell, Mr. Toomey called Mr. Urban.
Tags: Joe Sestak, Joe Sestak for Senate, Pat Toomey, Pat Toomey for Senate
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