McGinty, Toomey trade barbs to launch fall campaign season

The Keystone State's candidates for the U.S. Senate fired volleys at each other Tuesday at campaign events on opposite sides of Philadelphia.

As a start to her fall campaign, Katie McGinty rallied at a labor hall with union workers and top Democrats, talking about creating equal pay and investing in education.

"It's time for Pennsylvania to have a strong voice," said the 53-year-old former chief of staff to Gov. Wolf.

She also sought to link her Republican opponent, Sen. Pat Toomey, with presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Their fall contest is expected to be among the most-watched and fiercely contested nationwide, with the balance of power in the Senate at stake.

Less than two hours later, Toomey held a news conference attacking McGinty's support for what he contends was a state budget proposal that would have hurt middle-class Pennsylvanians.

The conference marked a pivot for Toomey from the security issues he had heavily focused on earlier in the campaign to middle-class issues, likely an appeal to more moderate voters outside his base.

Toomey has long been known as a fiscal hawk, while McGinty has built much of her campaign on helping blue-collar families that she says have been too often left behind.

Polls consistently show that economic concerns rank atop voters' list of priorities.

Toomey accused McGinty of "pushing very hard to raise taxes on middle-class families and small businesses."

"The track record that I have is a stark contrast from the record of my opponent," Toomey said from Keller's Market in Northeast Philadelphia, where he stood in front of refrigerated drinks and boxes of soda.

Ahead of his remarks, McGinty tried to blunt that argument. "My whole campaign is about giving the middle class a hand up," she said. "Pat Toomey time and again has backed budgets that cut taxes for the wealthiest."

Her campaign accused Toomey of supporting plans and budgets they contend would have raised middle-class taxes.

At the rally at the sheet metal workers' hall in Philadelphia, Sen. Bob Casey, Rep. Robert Brady, and City Councilwoman Cherelle Parker told the audience that Pennsylvanians need to elect their first female U.S. senator and attempt to help Democrats regain a majority in the Senate.

"All the way from 1778, governors and senators, there have been 97 people who got elected. ... And every single one of them was a male," Casey said.

Toomey on Tuesday announced four October dates for a candidate debate. McGinty said they are still in the process of scheduling debates.

She also criticized Toomey for refusing to take a further stand on Trump, about whom he has said he is still making up his mind.

"It's not credible that a sitting U.S. senator has not heard enough from Donald Trump to make up his mind," she said.

Toomey did not want to address Trump at his tax-centric news conference, saying he was "not here to talk about someone else's campaign."

"I think people will evaluate the races separately," he said, predicting that some voters may vote for him and for Hillary Clinton. "I think it's very likely there will be a lot of ticket-splitters."

jmcdaniel@philly.com 610-313-8205 @McDanielJustine

Staff writer Jonathan Tamari contributed to this article.