Pennsylvania Democratic Party

Stars

300 North Second Street, 8th Floor,
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17101

Phone: (717) 920-8470 - Fax: (717) 901-7829

Email: info@padems.com Website: www.padems.com

Jim Burn	Penny Gerber	Ann Bursis
State Chair	Vice-Chair	Treasurer

CONTACT: Patrick McKenna
PHONE: (717) 920-8470

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2010

Will Toomey Denounce Rep. Barton's Bp Apology?

HARRISBURG, Pa: Republicans on Capitol Hill five days ago spent part of a meeting with BP executives apologizing for the White House's insistence that the oil giant create a fund to pay for all of the economic damage to residents of the Gulf coast resulting from the catastrophic oil spill. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) led the charge calling the fund a "$20 billion shakedown" and saying he was "ashamed" of the White House's actions. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party would still like to know if Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey shares these views.

"If Pat Toomey is the principled candidate he claims to be then he should stand up and offer his take on the BP apology," said Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesman Patrick McKenna. "Will he show some backbone and stand with the Gulf coast residents whose livelihoods have been put in jeopardy by corporate greed or will he bow to his corporate masters yet again and join his Big-Oil-Can-Do-No-Wrong Republican colleagues?"

Toomey Accepted Tens of Thousands of Dollars from the Oil Industry. Toomey accepted over $96,000 from oil and gas industry lobbyists throughout his career with almost $50,000 coming in this election cycle alone. Halliburton gave Toomey the most out of any other candidate, giving him $2,500 right after the Gulf oil spill disaster and right before Toomey came out in favor of continued drilling in spite of the disaster. While still president of the far-right Club for Growth, Toomey characterized federal restrictions on offshore drilling as "border[ing] on the criminal." [OpenSecrets.org; Politico 6/2/10; YouTube.com]

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