Pat Toomey

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Patrick Joseph "Pat" Toomey (born November 17, 1961 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a United States politician. He was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, representing Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district from 1999 to January 2005.

He retired at the end of his last Congressional term, in January 2005, fulfilling a pledge that he had signed in 1998 to only serve three terms([1]). In 2004, he had come within two percentage points of unseating long-standing U.S. Senator Arlen Specter in a heated Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

Toomey was raised by working-class Catholic parents. Through scholarships, he was able to attend LaSalle Academy and Harvard University. After graduating, he worked for several investment firms, living mostly in New York City and, for a time, in Hong Kong.

In the early 1990s, Toomey moved to the Lehigh Valley with his brothers to open a series of bars and restaurants in the area. He often cites his experience as a small-business owner to criticize what he refers to as excessive government regulation and taxes.

In November 1997, Toomey married his wife Kris. They have two children, Bridget and Patrick.

In 2004, he challenged incumbent Senator Arlen Specter in the Republican primary election. Aided by $2 million of advertising from the Club for Growth (a conservative political action committee that focuses on fiscal issues and targets moderate Republican incumbents), Toomey criticized Specter as a liberal spendthrift. Toomey's campaign theme was that Specter, a moderate, was not conservative enough to be the Republican nominee from Pennsylvania. Toomey lost by a 1.7 percent margin^[1]

In January 2005, Toomey assumed the presidency of the Club for Growth, which had greatly supported his 2004 race against Specter.

[edit] External links

• Club for Growth
• Entry in the Congressional Biographical Dictionary

Preceded by Stephen Moore	President of the Club for Growth 2004–	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Paul F. McHale, Jr.	United States Representative for the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania 1999–2005	Succeeded by Charles Dent