For U.S. Senate, McGinty is the best person for job
The U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania between Democrat Katie McGinty and incumbent Republican Pat Toomey is perhaps the most closely watched of all the marquee battles that could swing control of the chamber this year. It is the most expensive, with $120 million being spent, and comes close to the presidential race in its levels of down-in-the-gutter acrimony.
Probably only residents of secluded monastic retreats have not seen the ads that portray Toomey as a heartless pawn of Wall Street who would turf families out of their homes in a heartbeat, or the spots that drop hints about alleged McGinty corruption and suggest she may once have dabbled in the dark arts of lobbying.
Voters have every reason to count the hours until this spectacle reaches its end. It is a race between two candidates coated in mud.
When you take a deep breath and clear away the sludge, however, you can see each brings virtues and defects to the race. But we feel one is a better choice to stand up for the interests of the commonwealth and this region in Washington, D.C., and, if Hillary Clinton becomes president-elect Tuesday, help break at least some of the gridlock on Capitol Hill – that would be Katie McGinty.
The second-youngest of 10 children in a working-class Phildelphia family, McGinty has never held elected office before, but she has a varied background in government, having been an environmental adviser to Bill Clinton and Al Gore during the Clinton administration, serving as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection during the tenure of Gov. Ed Rendell, and was briefly chief of staff for Gov. Tom Wolf. But perhaps more importantly, she has a number of promising and detailed ideas that, if she can help move them forward on Capitol Hill, would offer a measure of relief to working familes, students and seniors.
Recognizing the critical importance of education for the growth of our state and national economy, McGinty supports the Obama administration initiative that would make attendance free at community colleges for two years, and lower the cost of going to colleges and universities by prioritizing federal support for those that limit or freeze tuition hikes. She also opposes efforts to make Social Security subject to the gyrations of the stock market, turn Medicare into a voucher program, or the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which would throw the health care market into chaos.
We don’t share her antipathy to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal awaiting ratification that, in our estimation, would create jobs in this country and allow us to have greater leverage in growing Asian markets. Opposition to it has been one of the few areas where McGinty and Toomey agree.
After being narrowly elected as part of a GOP wave in the 2010 midterm election, it was gratifying Toomey did not take up the mantle of blinkered, uncompromising social conservatism that had been carried by Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania’s Republican senator from 1995 to 2007. And Toomey’s efforts in 2013 to strengthen background checks for gun purchases in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were commendable. But we wish Toomey would advocate further steps when it comes to gun control, such as banning the sale of assault weapons.
Disappointingly, the senator has not been a profile in political courage this election season – with hours to go before Election Day, he still refuses to say whether he backs Donald Trump, desperately walking a tightrope to keep onboard both Trump supporters and GOP regulars less enamored of the party’s standard bearer. It’s been cringeworthy to behold.
If Trump becomes president, McGinty would be a check on his most abhorrent proposals. If Clinton becomes president, McGinty could help push her better ideas toward becoming law. Maybe we’d get a full complement of justices on the Supreme Court, too. These are reasons enough for voters to support McGinty.