Toomey predicts Sestak win on Tuesday

The man who drove Arlen Specter from the Republican Party last year predicts his one-time foe will go down in defeat in Tuesday's Pennsylvania Democratic primary.

Republican Pat Toomey, who nearly beat Specter in the 2004 Republican primary, told Chester County Republican officials last weekt that he expects U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak to emerge victorious in Tuesday's election.

From a story in Sunday's edition of The Mercury:

Speaking to an audience of more than 200 party officials at the Desmond Hotel in East Whiteland, Toomey predicted that U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-7th, of Edgmont, Delaware County, would win Tuesday's Democratic primary and be his opponent in November.

"Joe Sestak is a card-carrying liberal's liberal … he is totally signed up to turn America into a European-style socialist state, because I guess he thinks Greece is a good example," Toomey told the audience.

Toomey directed most of his criticism at Sestak, making only brief mention of incumbent U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the Republican-turned-Democrat who is battling Sestak for his political life.

The most recent polls show Sestak with a slight lead over Specter in the primary. Polls also show Toomey beating both Sestak and Specter in a November matchup.

Toomey warned Republicans, however, that Sestak could see a media-fueled jump in the polls if he beats Specter on Tuesday.

Read the full story at the newspaper's Web site.