In a letter to current county party chairs in the 11th Congressional district, former Columbia County Republican Party Chair Bill Toth detailed issues he has with possible Congressional candidate Joe Peters.
Toth’s biggest issues stemmed from Peters’ actions in last year’s election.
“I last year’s primary, Joe Peters ran against the party endorsement of John Rafferty. After losing to Rafferty, Peters did the unthinkable – he endorsed the Democrat, Josh Shapiro for Attorney General. While Pennsylvania went for Donald Trump, Senator Rafferty lost by a small margin,” Toth wrote in the letter.
Toth believes Peters’ actions were in “his own self-interest” and demonstrated he will “switch loyalties when he doesn’t get what he wants.”
The letter will likely not have a huge effect on Peters’ decision to run, but is aimed to raise questions among party insiders about Peters. As the field for the 11th district gets more crowded, campaigns and activists will begin leaking more information like this on other candidates in the lead up to petition season next year.
Update: Peters did not address the attacks directly, choosing to wait until he officially declares for a race to respond.
“As I am not now a candidate for any office, I will defer comment on Mr. Toth’s attack on me until I make a final decision. In the meantime, let’s keep our focus on the GOP candidates running in next month’s election,” Peters said.
You can view the letter below.
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10 Responses
Joe Peters is a washed up sorry for a public official. He will do an say anything if he thinks it will lead to a job. Go home Joe the people of the 11th Congressional do not want you.
Exactly what lawsuit about concealed carry are we talking about????
Maybe Joe Peters is going to pull an Arlen Specter and run as a Democrat. He was never much of a Republican anyway.
Josh’s extreme-leftism was well-known for a decade-plus and, thus, the Peters-endorsement was both ill-advised and damaging; he is self-disqualified.
Seems to me Mr. Peters must be a very viable candidate if “they” are already attacking him and he isn’t even a candidate yet! That’s what substandard candidates do when they can’t compete. He’s a world class anti-terrorism expert and Mafia prosecutor and you really think he’s anti conceal carry because someone he supported is? Get a grip!
Viable? More like laughable. This post still does not justify Mr. Peters disloyalty to his own party. When he didn’t win on the Republican ticket, he turn-coated on his own party and endorsed hyper-liberal Democrat Josh Shapiro. That’s a fact. Who wants a Republican in office who isn’t loyal to our party principles, who will support someone like Shapiro who gets a 100% approval rating from Planned Parenthood! Also, if Peters were so world class as you claim, he wouldn’t be scrounging around for a new job or campaigning for a new post every single week. He sticks to nothing. Not even principles.
Your mother really should have looked into Planned Parenthood…
I’m fairly certain this “attack” on your right to carry concealed weapons is actually a states rights issue, so PA can decide who can carry and who can’t. But by all means, please endorse the idea that gun rights should be abdicated to the federal level, I’m sure you’ll love where that leads in a few years.
Peters and Shapiro are quite the team. Shapiro is extreme liberal who has sued Trump a few times. Peters worked for Kathleen Kane. Shapiro even just joined a lawsuit against our concealed-carry rights. How is Joe Peters even a Republican?
Wow–Peters endorsed the same far left Josh Shapiro who’s trying to restrict our concealed carry in PA! That’s no good. Ticks off us owners who want to keep the ability to protect ourselves. During Joe’s ridiculous listening tour farce didn’t he get the message: we cling to our guns and our bibles in PA! Bad listener. Not a real Republican.