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.”
The confrontation serves as the opening salvo of what had been a sleepy primary.
Pennsylvania’s primary might be the most personal fight across the Senate map for Republicans, but it’s not the only race for an open seat in which things could get messy.
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.
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