Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Toomey censure on hold as GOP meets
A planned vote Tuesday by the Chester County Republican Committee to censure U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey for his vote to convict former President Donald J. Trump during his recent impeachment trial on charges of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has been postponed, party sources acknowledged.
Trump supporters in the committee had drafted a proposed censure resolution last week, and had submitted it for consideration at the party’s annual nominating convention, several people said. The document accused Toomey of having harmed the party at its local and state roots, and having “devalued” the influence the state would have in national politics.
The vote to convict by Toomey — one of seven Republican Senators who joined with all 50 Democrats in the chamber to hold Trump accountable for his actions they said led to the violent riot that left several people dead, including at least one police officer — was “unconstitutional, dangerous in its precedent, divisive, and lacking in due process and regard for the rights of the accused,” it stated.
“Senator Toomey has violated the trust of his voters, failed to fulfill and represent a very large majority of motivated Pennsylvania voters, and neglected his duty to represent the party and the will
of the people who elected him to represent them,” the proposed resolution reads.
But one of the committee members identified as having written the draft said Tuesday morning that the vote would be tabled.
“We have not decided what it is going to say,” explained Mark Woolfrey, the GOP committee’s Zone 4 leader from South Coventry, who confirmed that the censure resolution had been the product of a number of members who were upset with Toomey’s vote to convict. “No one person gets to decide what this says.”
Committee Chairman Dr. Gordon Eck said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he anticipated that any discussion of a censure resolution would come later this month. “Tonight is our endorsement meeting. We are going to take that up next week.”
He declined to say whether he thought the resolution would be adopted then. “I’ll let you know next week,” he said.
In other detail, a source close to the party said that the decision to postpone any discussion or vote on a censure of Toomey, a longtime fiscally conservative Republican who announced last year he would not seek reelection to the Senate seat he has held since 2011, would wait until the state party had acted.
“County (political) parties usually don’t get involved in statewide issues,” said the source, who asked to speak anonymously because they had not been authorized to comment on behalf of the committee. Instead, the county committee would likely take up the resolution within a month or so. “This way, we can keep the focus on endorsing our candidates and not get bogged down” in the Trump impeachment issue, they said.
Asked whether the resolution stood a hope of clearing the committee if put to a vote on Tuesday, the party source said its chances were “50-50.”
“It’s not the same Republican Party at the grassroots level in Chester County that it was four years ago,” the source said, underscoring the number of Trump supporters that had displaced other, more moderate
voices since 2016.
The state committee is reportedly planning a meeting to potentially censure Toomey amid the growing GOP backlash over his vote to convict Trump during the former president’s second impeachment trial, other county party officials said Monday.
Those committee chairs said the state GOP chairman, Lawrence Tabas, emailed them shortly after Saturday’s impeachment vote to tell them that a meeting is being planned to discuss the Senate’s action.
Tabas did not return messages to the Associated Press Monday, but a number of county parties in the presidential battleground state have already moved to censure Toomey, even before Saturday’s vote. They include the GOP in York, Lawrence, and Washington counties. If the Chester County committee adopts a censure resolution in the future, it might be the only suburban Philadelphia group to do so.
In Washington County, GOP chairman Dave Ball said party members felt betrayed by Toomey and voted last week to censure Toomey. Still, Ball also said a state party censure of Toomey would be counterproductive, when the state party could be putting its energy into winning future election contests.
Toomey likely won’t receive invitations to speak at party events or endorse party candidates, Ball said.
“As far as we’re concerned, his political career is over in this state, even if he were to try to run again,” Ball said. “His legacy is tarnished beyond repair. I don’t know exactly how you punish someone further and does it serve a purpose.”
A resolution to censure Toomey came up for discussion at the state party’s leadership committee meeting on Feb. 6, weeks after Toomey had said Trump committed “impeachable offenses” in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. They decided against bringing it to a vote by the full state committee after speaking with Toomey about it, county party chairs said.
Toomey told them that he would consider voting against the constitutionality of the impeachment proceeding and, if the Senate deemed it to be constitutional,
that he would consider voting to acquit Trump, county party chairs said.
Toomey — who is not running for re-election in 2022 — last Tuesday voted to back the constitutionality of the impeachment trial before voting to convict. Toomey’s aides did not comment directly on the backlash growing against Toomey, but pointed back to his comments about his vote.
In his comments, Toomey excoriated Trump for a “dishonest, systematic” effort to convince supporters that he had won the election, pressuring state and local officials to reverse the election outcome and, ultimately, summoning thousands of supporters to Washington, D.C., where he “inflamed their passions by repeating disproven allegations about widespread fraud.”
“He urged the mob to march on the Capitol for the explicit purpose of preventing Congress and the vice president from formally certifying the results of the presidential election,” Toomey said.
Toomey was the only Republican from Pennsylvania to vote in favor of impeaching Trump. Ultimately, Trump was acquitted of the charge because the 57-43 vote fell short of the twothirds majority needed for conviction.
At least one former Republican elected official from the county, however, said the impetus for the censure was “bewildering.”
“To me, this is absolutely astounding,” said former U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello of West Goshen, who left office in 2017 but who is considering a run for statewide office in 2022, including Toomey’s open seat.
“The purpose of the county Republican committee s to elect Republicans,” Costello, who represented the county’s 6th Congressional District, said Tuesday before news of the postponed vote on the resolution broke. “Doing this, with the attention it will bring, will push even more Republicans away. It is not helpful in electing Republicans; it will help the Chester County Democratic Committee elect more Democrats.”
Costello noted that one section of the censure accused Toomey’s actions concerning impeachment of having decreased GOP voter registration
in the county and state, and reduced the participation at the local level of committee members and voter turnout. “They have already changed their voter registration and left the party entirely, due to his reckless vote,” it read. That, the former congressman said, ran contrary to figures.
Since the start of the year, county Republicans have been switching their registration to Democrats, Independents or other parties, according to Pennsylvania Department of State figures. In 2021, 393 registered Republicans in the county switched their identification to Democrat, while a mere 41 Democrats switched to Republican. Statewide, 3,656 Republicans re-registered as Democrats, and 9,117 to Independent or other parties. That period of time covers up until Feb. 8, five days before Toomey’s vote.
“No reasonable person can deduce that anything Pat Toomey has done or said has resulted in anyone leaving the Republican Party,” said Costello.
The party source who confirmed the decision to postpone the vote until the state party acts as well as another longtime county Republican both said that the continued grievances by pro-Trump party members would eventually hurt the GOP’s chance in future local elections. Where the party once dominated local contests, over the past four years they have lost 70 percent of such races, “from dog catcher to commissioner,” the party source said, largely due to Trump’s position as head of the party.
“It really is a terrible mistake,” the longtime Republican said, asking to remain anonymous so as not to bear any retribution from fellow party members. “The party should be looking to close the books on the Trump Administration and begin finding good candidates who can win county seats.”
“It’s a waste of time,” the party source said. “Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in Chester County, and decimated the GOP over the last four years. The further he is in the rear view mirror, the better off the Republican Party will be.”
This story contains information from the Associated Press.