Time's Newton-Small: 'Toomey/Sestak Race Starts Ugly'

By Ken Shepherd | May 20, 2010 | 3:34 PM EDT

The general election campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania between Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Sestak has started "ugly," according to Jay Newton-Small. In her May 20 Swampland blog post, the Time magazine staffer offered as evidence the former's press conference yesterday in which:

[H]e spent much of the speech blasting Sestak. In his 7-minute opening remarks he said “I” or “me” 52 times – including the thank yous – and “Joe or “he” 43 times.

Newton-Small did go on to note that "the beginning of a general election is all about defining your opponent" and added that:

For John Kerry in 2004, for example, the label flip-flopper proved fatal. And Barack Obama successfully portrayed McCain as part of the status quo, the establishment problem.

All the same, Newton-Small portrays Toomey as inordinately "blunt" in his talk about Sestak and concludes that "this is shaping up to be one nasty contest to replace Specter."

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