****Toomey 2016****
Previous Election
In 2009 Toomey announced his plan to run for the Senate again. Upon his announcement, former Republican Senator, Specter, switched parties and decided to run in the Democratic Primary. Toomey easily won the Republican Primary Election, while Specter was defeated by Democrat Joe Sestak in the Democratic Primary. Toomey then went on to defeat Sestak in a heated election where, according to Open Secrets a source for campaign information, the two spent a total of 24 million dollars by a narrow two percent margin 51% to 49% according to Hufffington Post.
Primary Election
The 2016 Primary Election in Pennsylvania will be a very interesting campaign to watch. According to RollCall, a source focusing on some of the more critical elections of 2016, the Pennsylvania Senate race for with Toomey will be one of the ten most important races in this election cycle. Toomey, as the incumbent, should have a safe primary election with little, if any, competition from any other Republican candidates. The big concern for Toomey will be the stances he takes on issues during his Primary Election Campaign. Toomey must consider who he should try to appeal to as far as his constituents go. Toomey has been known to take very conservative stances on issues but now that he has to try to be reelected in a state where he only one by a margin of two percent in his last election, he must consider his stances. He must choose if he should take more moderate stances in order to appeal to the center of the state or should he continue on with his conservative views in order to secure the Primary and hope that he will be able to receive the same amount of votes as the last election. To follow this issue, one can follow Toomey's role call votes and see if he starts changing some of his stances or reaffirms them all.
The General Election of 2016 looks to be very competitive for Toomey according to republican candidates.org. Democrat Joe Sestak, who ran against, and narrowly lost to Toomey in 2010, will be taking another swing at the Senate seat. If Toomey wants to win his reelection he will have to make strides to win the blue state of Pennsylvania. Toomey, considered the most conservative legislator in his six years in the House, hs moved more towards the center over his time in the Senate but may have to do more. Toomey has the incumbency advantage playing to his favor but his reelection will rely heavily on the view of the parties during the 2016 presidential election. As of now, President Obama has low approval ratings, especially over his dealings with foreign policy, a strong area of interest for Toomey. If these trends continue into the Fall of 2016 Toomey could have good hopes of being reelected, but if these approval ratings of the President and the Democratic party change, then Toomey could be in for a tough campaign. ***Toomey's seat is definitely not a secure seat. He has the incumbency advantage and disapproval of Obama and the Democratic party playing to his favor now, but this could change by 2016.
Campaign Funds
According to the ever reliable opensecrets site, Toomey has raised as much as 26,600,000 dollars as of 2014. Toomey has five million dollars available as cash on hand for his next election compared to Sestak who only has just over one million cash on hand as stated by PoliticsPA. Toomey and Sestak combined spent over 24 million dollars on their last campaign battle with Toomey accounting for 17 million of the funds. Even with this advantage in money, Toomey still had a heated election. Since both, Toomey and Sestak are running again and could potentially face off in the General Election again one could assume that there will be at least the same amount of money spent, if not even more.2016 Major Issues
Due to the high salience of the issue, foreign relations, especially the Middle East, will be a major issue of the 2016 campaign. This is usually a strong area for Republicans anyways, but even more so now that there are many critics about the steps Obama has taken when dealing with foreign policy. ISIS will be a major concern that Toomey will try to focus on to gain approval over the Democrats. Other major areas will be issues such as the economy and and possibly, due to recent events in the United States, social issues. Toomey, being a Republican, will most likely take control of the economy especially with his extensive background in finances and his current positions on various committees dealing with finances, the budget and banking. The issue of social equality could be an area of concern for Toomey. Democrats tend to control this issue and this could become a big concern in the 2016 election and Toomey will have to find a way of dealing with this topic effectively.
