| Patrick J. Toomey | |
|---|---|
| United States Senator from Pennsylvania |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2011 Serving with Bob Casey, Jr. |
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| Preceded by | Arlen Specter |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 15th district |
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| In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Paul McHale |
| Succeeded by | Charlie Dent |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 17, 1961 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Kris Toomey |
| Children | Bridget Toomey Patrick Toomey, Jr. Duncan Toomey |
| Residence | Zionsville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard College (A.B., 1984)[1] |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Signature | |
| Website | Senator Pat Toomey Toomey for Senate |
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Toomey, Sr. (born November 17, 1961)[2] is the junior United States Senator for Pennsylvania[3] and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, Toomey served as a United States Representative for three terms, but did not seek a fourth in compliance with a pledge he had made while running for office in 1998.[4] He also served as president of the Club for Growth.
Toomey attended school at La Salle Academy in Providence, Rhode Island before earning an A.B. in government from Harvard College. He was employed first by Chemical Bank and subsequently Morgan, Grenfell & Co. beginning in 1984 and 1986, respectively, until resigning from the latter in 1991.[5]
Prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, Toomey served as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. He narrowly lost the Republican primary for United States Senate in 2004. From 2005 to 2009, he served as president of the Club for Growth.[6] After becoming the Republican nominee for the 2010 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, Toomey was elected to the seat on November 2, 2010, defeating Democratic opponent Joe Sestak.
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Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Toomey was raised by Catholic parents, and was one of six children. He attended La Salle Academy on scholarship[7] and graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in government.
Toomey was hired by Chemical Bank in 1984, where he was involved in currency swap transactions. In 1986, Toomey was hired by Morgan, Grenfell & Co., where he dealt in multiple foreign currencies, interest rates, and currency-related derivatives.[5] In 1991, Toomey resigned from the firm when it was acquired by Deutsche Bank in order to avoid the decreased flexibility and entrepreneurship that the acquisition would have caused.[5] The same year, Toomey and two younger brothers, Steven and Michael, opened Rookie's Restaurant in Allentown, Pennsylvania.[5]
In 1994, aged 32, Toomey was elected to Allentown's newly established Government Study Commission. During his term, Toomey drafted a new charter for the Commission requiring a super-majority for any tax increase.[8] The charter was approved by Allentown voters on April 23, 1996.[9]
In 1998, Toomey ran for the 15th District seat being vacated by the Democratic incumbent Paul McHale against state Senator and future Allentown Mayor Roy Afflerbach.[4]
During the campaign, Toomey criticized the agenda of the Clinton-Gore administration, specifically plans to modify the Internal Revenue Service. He criticized the plan by claiming that it did not "address the real fundamental problems plaguing American taxpayers", arguing that the IRS should be abolished.[10] Later in the campaign, Toomey and Democratic opponent Roy C. Afflerbach debated the effectiveness of a flat tax-based system, an issue on which the two sharply disagreed.[11]
Toomey won by a ten-point margin. Toomey was reelected two more times by relatively comfortable margins. He did not run for reelection to his House seat in 2004, fulfilling a pledge that he had signed in 1998 to serve only three terms.[4]
Toomey served as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. While serving in the United States House of Representatives he distinguished himself as a fiscal expert. Honoring his three-term pledge, he did not seek reelection in 2004.[12]
In 2004, Toomey challenged incumbent Senator Arlen Specter in the Republican primary election. Aided by $2 million of advertising from the Club for Growth, Toomey's campaign theme was that Specter was not a conservative, especially on fiscal issues. However, most of the state's Republican establishment closed ranks behind Specter. This included endorsements by Pennsylvania's other Senator, Rick Santorum and by President George W. Bush. Toomey lost the election by a 1.7% margin.
On April 15, 2009, Toomey announced his intention to once again challenge Specter in the Republican senatorial primary.[13] On April 28, 2009, Specter announced that he was switching parties and would run as a Democrat in 2010 after polls showed him losing to Toomey in the primary.[14] Specter's withdrawal left Toomey as the front runner for the 2010 Republican nomination.[15] Toomey won the Republican Senate primary on May 18, 2010. On November 2, 2010 he was elected to the United States Senate defeating Democrat Joe Sestak.[16]
Toomey was elected to the United States Senate on November 2, 2010. His term began on January 3, 2011. He joined the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a caucus which he was an original member of in his days in the House.
On August 11, 2011, Toomey was named to the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. The committee's duties included composing a package of spending cuts for submission to both Houses of Congress.[17]
Toomey and the rest of the committee failed to do this.[18]
Toomey is the first Lehigh Valley resident to serve as United States Senator from Pennsylvania since Richard Brodhead, in the mid-19th century.[19]
Based on his three terms in United States House of Representatives, the conservative American Conservative Union (ACU) has assigned Toomey a lifetime congressional rating of 97%,[20] and the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) a lifetime "Liberal Quotient" of 6%.[21] The ACLU has given Toomey a 13% lifetime rating on civil rights.[22]
In January 2005 Toomey became president of the Club for Growth, which had greatly supported his 2004 race against Specter.
Toomey identifies as pro-life. Toomey received a 100% by the National Right to Life Committee. He has stated that he supports imposing jail terms for doctors who perform abortions.[23]
In his first term as a congressman, Toomey won $9 million overall in earmark funding to his district.[24] In successive terms in Congress, he swore off earmarks and signed the "No Pork" pledge as a senate candidate.
Toomey has strongly supported increased school choice and charter schools.[25]
During Toomey's tenure in Congress, he supported legislation that would speed up approval of forest thinning projects in 2003, supported opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and development, opposed implementing the Kyoto Protocol, and opposed legislation that would mandate increased vehicle fuel efficiency standards and provide incentives for alternative fuels.[26] In 2003, Toomey was given a 0% rating by the League of Conservation Voters, indicating what the organization considers to be an anti-environmental voting record.
Since his first days as a freshman Congressman, Toomey has strongly advocated deregulation of the financial services industry: "The trend in deregulation, beginning in the early 1980s, is one of the biggest reasons for the sustained economic expansion. I would like to see us continue to deregulate on many fronts, including the financial services industry,” he stated in the spring of 1999.[5]
While serving on the House Banking Committee, Toomey, in 1999, helped write House Resolution 10, which led to the repeal of parts of the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act.[5][8] The repeal of the Act, which had regulated the separation of banks and investment firms, allowed the creation of huge companies that combined banking and investment operations. President Barack Obama and others have pointed to the repeal of Glass-Steagall as a significant cause of the current global financial crisis, on the grounds that it opened up the door for the financial sector to form so-called too big to fail financial services giants like AIG.[8]
Toomey advocates the reduction of gun regulations. While serving in Congress, Toomey supported bills that would prohibit suing gun makers and sellers for gun misuse and would decrease the waiting period due to background checks from three days to one for purchases made at gun shows.[26] Toomey received an "A" by the National Rifle Association (NRA), indicating what the NRA considers to be a pro-gun rights voting record.
Toomey has supported several legislative actions designed to block the expansion of certain civil rights to homosexuals, or to revoke existing rights; specifically, he voted to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage;[26] to ban gay adoptions in the District of Columbia; and for the Marriage Protection Act of 2004, a bill that would amend the federal judicial code to deny federal courts jurisdiction to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of the Defense of Marriage Act or of the Marriage Protection Act itself.[27]
Toomey did, however, support the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy which bans openly gay or bisexual persons from serving in the military, in a statement made while he was Senator-elect.[28]
Toomey opposed the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act which he argued was fiscally irresponsible.[29]
Toomey's 2012 budget proposal called for turning Medicaid into a block grant to states and cutting federal funding for the program by half by 2021.[30]
Toomey has been a consistent advocate of reducing and eliminating taxes. While in Congress he voted to reduce the capital gains tax, to eliminate the estate tax, to cut small business taxes, to eliminate the "marriage penalty", to first cut federal income taxes and other taxes by $958B over 10 years (the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001) and later to make these cuts permanent, to reduce capital gains and income taxes by nearly $100 billion (the Economic Security and Recovery Act of 2002), and to expand and extend multiple tax credits to individuals and businesses.[26]
Toomey publicly opposed the 2009 federal stimulus package. He opposes government-run or subsidized healthcare. Toomey opposed farm subsidies and called farm subsidies in a 2009 article in U.S.A Today "Moscow on the Mississippi" He has supported a federal balanced budget amendment.
Toomey was rated 80% by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), classifying him as what the NTU considers to be a "Taxpayer's Friend" on tax votes.[26] From 1999-2004, He received a 78% rating by the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) on its 'Liberty Index', indicating what the RLC considers his career to be, on average, one of a libertarian-leaning voting record. However, it should be noted that throughout his career, his Liberty Index rating has always decreased, starting at 89% in for 1999–2000, 84.5% in 2001, 79.5% for 2002–2003, 75% in 2004, and 65% in 2005; suggesting that Toomey is increasingly a centrist.[31] In 2003, Toomey was given a 90% rating by the United States Chamber of Commerce.
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Roy C. Afflerbach | 66,930 | 45% | Patrick J. Toomey | 81,755 | 55% | ||
| 2000 | Edward O'Brien | 103,864 | 47% | Patrick J. Toomey | 118,307 | 53% | ||
| 2002 | Edward O'Brien | 73,212 | 43% | Patrick J. Toomey | 98,493 | 57% |
| United States Senate Republican primary election in Pennsylvania, 2004[33] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Republican | Arlen Specter | 530,839 | 50.82 | ||
| Republican | Pat Toomey | 513,693 | 49.18 | ||
| United States Senate Republican primary election in Pennsylvania, 2010[33] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Republican | Pat Toomey | 667,614 | 81.5 | ||
| Republican | Peg Luksik | 151,901 | 18.5 | ||
| United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 2010 [34] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Republican | Pat Toomey | 2,028,945 | 51.01% | -1.61% | |
| Democratic | Joe Sestak | 1,948,716 | 48.99% | +7.00% | |
| Majority | 80,229 | 2.02% | |||
| Total votes | 3,977,661 | 100.0% | |||
| Republican gain from Democratic | Swing | ||||
In November 1997, Toomey married Kris Ann Duncan. They have three children, Bridget, Patrick and Duncan.
| United States Senate | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Arlen Specter |
United States Senator (Class 3) from Pennsylvania January 3, 2011 - present Served alongside: Bob Casey, Jr. |
Incumbent |
| United States order of precedence | ||
| Preceded by John Boozman R-Arkansas |
United States Senators by seniority 92nd |
Succeeded by John Hoeven R-North Dakota |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by Paul McHale |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005 |
Succeeded by Charlie Dent |
| Other offices | ||
| Preceded by Stephen Moore |
President of the Club for Growth 2005–2009 |
Succeeded by Chris Chocola |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Arlen Specter |
Republican nominee for United States Senator (Class 3) from Pennsylvania 2010 |
Succeeded by Most Recent |
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