Former Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey announced his primary bid against Arlen Specter today, Tax Day, in a video message on his website. Following his announcement, in an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Rep. Toomey responded to Republican concerns that he would be a weaker candidate than Sen. Specter in the general election. "There's not a doubt in my mind," Toomey said, that he has a better chance of "winning the general election than Arlen Specter." Toomey pointed out that he was elected and reelected twice in a Democratic-leaning Lehigh Valley congressional district. "I've proven that I can win Democratic votes in a Democratic region," he said, noting that the "district has voted for the Democratic [presidential] nominee in the last 5 elections." He believes he can appeal to Democrats statewide with the same message of "fiscal discipline that appealed to Democrats in Lehigh Valley." "I can tell you that our own internal polling shows that I have an excellent chance" of winning the general election, he said. "Once [public] groups do polls it will be clear." Toomey also pointed out Sen. Specter's potential weakness in a general election. Specter "is in a weaker position now than Rick Santorum was in the 2006 cycle," Toomey said. A Quinnipiac poll in February of 2005 showed that 53 percent of voters said Santorum deserved reelection, and 30 percent said he did not, while a March 2009 Quinnipiac poll showed 38 percent of voters said Specter deserves reelection, and 41 percent said he did not. Specter has "completely overstayed his welcome with voters of all stripes," said Toomey, adding that "antipathy toward Specter among Republicans is so great, that it would ensure a third party candidate" from the constitution or libertarian party would emerge and win "10 or even as much as 15 points" in the general election. Asked if he expected the NRSC to endorse Specter, Toomey said: "Absolutely. That is standard operating procedure. The Republican leadership of the Senate is elected by all of the Republican senators. ... They're not going to turn their back on one of their own." Asked if NRSC chairman John Cornyn had asked him not to run, Toomey replied: "John Cornyn did not contact me and ask me not to run." Toomey said that he and Cornyn had a conversation a few weeks ago but did not provide details of what he described as a "private" conversation.Toomey, former head of the Club for Growth, is running on a message of fiscal discipline against "serial bailouts, wildly excessive bailouts, cap-and-trade--which is a huge hidden tax--the [government] takeover of health care" and card-check--"which Senator Specter has supported repeatedly, and he only very recently announced a flip flop on that when he heard I was going to be running against him". Toomey dismissed Specter's flip-flop as a "political stunt" and pointed out Specter "left the door open to do yet another reversal" on the issue. During the 2004 Specter-Toomey primary, conservatives were very concerned that Specter would not be a champion of conservative judicial appointments, but most Republicans were pleased with his handling of the Alito and Roberts hearings. Toomey suggested Specter's handling of the hearings was simply a matter of transactional politics. "I think it's pretty clear that he owed President Bush big time" for the president's 2004 endorsement. Toomey said the economy is the biggest issue in the race, but he added that social issues could play an important role as well. "Senator Specter is on the wrong side advocating taxpayer funded abortion," he said. "That's well outside the mainstream of Republicans, and frankly it's offensive to many Democrats and independents." A recent Quinnipiac poll showed Toomey with a 14-point lead over Specter. But a lot could change with the May 2010 primary 13 months away.