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Ex-Sandusky attorney to serve 20 months in tax evasion case

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, in a campaign pitch to moderate voters, is launching a TV ad that recounts praise from Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, but he also is on TV attacking Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in other parts of the state. The first-term Toomey is pursuing the split-state strategy this week as he tries to ward off a strong and well-funded challenge by Democrat Katie McGinty, who served as a top environmental policy adviser to Bill Clinton's White House and briefly served as Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's chief of staff. Toomey is among the Senate's most endangered Republicans, running for re-election in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania after compiling one of the most conservative voting records in Congress. The GOP is struggling to keep its 54-46 Senate majority, and the neck-and-neck race could tip control to Democrats. A key part of Toomey's campaign strategy is to show his independence from his party, such as his refusal to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Kaine's spokeswoman pushed back on the strategy, noting that Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia, supports McGinty and has campaigned with her. "It's understandable Pat Toomey would want to distance himself from Donald Trump, but this trick isn't going to work," Kaine spokeswoman Amy Dudley said in a statement. Clinton is maintaining a single-digit polling lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, which has backed the Democrat in six straight presidential elections and whose 20 electoral votes are a crucial stepping stone to victory. Kaine campaigned Wednesday in the heavily populated and moderate suburbs of Philadelphia, the closest thing to a must-win region in Pennsylvania. That's also where the Toomey ad mentioning Kaine is running. The ad cites a 2013 news article in which Kaine commended Toomey's seriousness, intellect and civility while they worked together on a bipartisan budget committee. It also recounts praise by former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Toomey as "a man of uncommon decency" as Toomey crossed party lines in 2013 to push for legislation to expand background checks on firearms purchases. Meanwhile, a TV ad saying Toomey "will fight Clinton's liberal agenda" is running in Pennsylvania's more conservative northeastern market. McGinty is closely aligned with Clinton, and the ad's narrator says, "with McGinty it's a blank check for everything that Hillary wants." "Pennsylvania is a diverse state," Toomey's campaign said in a statement. "You don't see Katie McGinty bragging about her radical abortion position outside of Philadelphia, or talking about how she wants to bankrupt coal companies and their workers in southwestern Pennsylvania." McGinty's campaign responded that Toomey is consistent about lying about her in every part of Pennsylvania. "Unfortunately for Pat Toomey, Katie talks about protecting women's health in every part of the commonwealth, and women in every part of Pennsylvania know Pat Toomey wanted to shut down the government in order to defund Planned Parenthood," McGinty's campaign said in a statement.

Toomey's split strategy embraces Kaine and attacks Clinton