NEW REPORTING DETAILS ESCALATING ATTACKS IN PA’S GOP “UGLY SENATE PRIMARY” THAT THREATENS “TO HAMPER” REPUBLICANS

PENNSYLVANIA — A series of new reports have highlighted the escalating attacks in Pennsylvania’s “ugly Senate primary” and how the bitter infighting threatens to “hamper” Pennsylvania Republicans:

  • National Journal detailed how less than a year out from the primary as candidates begin to introduce themselves to voters, Jeff Bartos and Sean Parnell “have already gone nuclear on one another” worrying Republicans. One GOP consultant even admitted that “there’s significant concern about the crop of candidates.”
  • Axios reported that Republican super PACs’ intraparty attacks “threaten to elevate damaging stories” about GOP candidates, noting that in Pennsylvania, the Jobs for Our Future PAC has spent $166,000 going after Parnell. As one Republican strategist cautioned: the attacks “can have a weakening effect for whoever emerges” from the bruising primary.
  • And POLITICO is reporting that Senator Toomey is hesitant to wade into the messy primary and “conceded the fighting between the GOP rivals is ‘not anything you enjoy seeing.’

Read more about the “brutal” attacks:

National Journal: Could an ugly Senate primary hamper Pennsylvania Republicans? 

  • Less than a year out from the primaries, the top contenders for the nomination to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey have already gone nuclear on one another—and candidates are just beginning to introduce themselves to voters.
  • “There’s significant concern about the crop of candidates that’s currently in the field,” said Mark Harris, a Pittsburgh-based GOP consultant who managed Toomey’s 2010 campaign.
  • Jeff Bartos sent a memo to reporters that revealed Parnell’s former wife had sought two protection-from-abuse orders against him. In that memo, Bartos called Parnell “unelectable in a General Election as a direct result of his violent and disturbing history with women,” and “a poison pill in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh suburbs.”
  • The Bartos campaign also launched a microsite, TheRealSeanParnell.com, which details Parnell’s divorce, including files from the court proceedings, and features clips of sexist comments he’s made in the past on Fox News. Meanwhile, a pro-Bartos super PAC is running ads hitting Parnell with the same claims. Bartos himself went on a Pittsburgh TV station to call Parnell “unelectable.” In response, the Parnell campaign called on Bartos to drop out of the race, saying in a statement that he is “an unserious man for serious times.”
  • So far, it doesn’t appear that either Bartos or Parnell, if nominated, would model the approach that won Toomey two terms in the Senate. 

Axios: GOP super PACs attack party’s own candidates

  • Republican super PACs are beating up on the party’s own candidates in key Senate primaries.
  • The negative ads some Republican groups are directing at GOP candidates threaten to elevate damaging stories about them ahead of competitive fights that could determine control of the 50-50 Senate.
  • The risk isn’t just the quantity or volume of Republican-on-Republican attacks; it’s their brutal tone.
  • Jobs for Our Future PAC, which supports Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Jeff Bartos, has spent $166,000 going after Republican rival Sean Parnell.
  • It recently began airing a 60-second ad focused on protection from abuse orders obtained against Parnell by his estranged wife and “sexist rhetoric” from his media appearances.
  • “Outside organizations are going to do what they can to best support their candidate,” Doug Heye, a veteran Republican operative, said during an interview. “That can have a weakening effect for whoever emerges going into the general election.”

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