Pennsylvania at a Glance State Profile - Gov. Schweiker (R) - Sen. Specter (R) - Sen. Santorum (R) Presidential Politics Congressional Districting - 01 - Brady (D) - 02 - Fattah (D) - 03 - Borski (D) - 04 - Hart (R) - 05 - Peterson (R) - 06 - Holden (D) - 07 - Weldon (R) - 08 - Greenwood (R) - 09 - Shuster (R) - 10 - Sherwood (R) - 11 - Kanjorski (D) - 12 - Murtha (D) - 13 - Hoeffel (D) - 14 - Coyne (D) - 15 - Toomey (R) - 16 - Pitts (R) - 17 - Gekas (R) - 18 - Doyle (D) - 19 - Platts (R) - 20 - Mascara (D) - 21 - English (R) Almanac 2002 Home States & Districts Elected Officials For district profiles and additional information on the elected officials of Pennsylvania, please use the pull-down menu above.

Allentown, Pennsylvania, has long been derided by show biz songwriters, from "42nd Street" back in 1933, in which it is scorned as nowhere, the polar opposite of Broadway, to Billy Joel's "Allentown" in 1982, with its grim picture of closed factories and unemployment. Neither is an entirely fair portrait of this largest city in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, though both have nuggets of truth. Allentown and next-door Bethlehem are off the Metroliner corridor that is the big population center of the Northeast, and both have suffered from industrial shutdowns--Allentown, when Mack Truck moved one of its main assembly plants to non-union South Carolina, and Bethlehem, when Bethlehem Steel announced it was shutting down its last blast furnace in the city that was its since 1857. But the rolling hills of the Lehigh Valley today are economically productive and creative, with big new installations from AT&T and Nestle, long-surviving businesses like Crayola Crayons and Dixie cups, and dozens of small startups which never get the visibility of the big closedowns but together have produced more new jobs than have been lost. Redevelopment of Bethlehem includes a convention center, hotel complex and National Museum of Industrial History. If the Lehigh Valley is off the main lines of traffic, it is connected by I-78 to New York and by the Turnpike Extension to Philadelphia, and its lower living costs and taxes make it attractive to people from both big metro areas.

The 15th Congressional District consists of the Lehigh Valley plus a small adjacent chunk of Montgomery County. This has been a marginal political area for years, the intersection of heavily Democratic industrial precincts with the Republican farmlands of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

The congressman from the 15th today is businessman Pat Toomey, a Republican elected in 1998. Toomey grew up in a blue-collar Rhode Island family, got enough scholarship aid to attend Harvard, then turned to a career in investment banking. After getting wealthy by creating an international financial services consulting firm, he moved to Allentown in 1990, where he invested in Rookies' Restaurants, which he helped to organize with his brothers. He entered government in 1994 as an elected member of the Allentown Government Study Commission, where he helped to author tax-limitation plans, including the requirement of a super-majority for the city council to raise taxes. In November 1997, Democratic Congressman Paul McHale announced he was retiring; McHale became the first House Democrat to call for Clinton's resignation in August 1998 and one of five Democrats to vote for impeachment. Toomey started to run for the House right after McHale's announcement. The six-candidate Republican primary included two state legislators. Toomey called for Social Security reform and a simple 17% flat tax; he pledged to serve no more than six years and promised never to vote to raise taxes. He spent heavily and won the Republican primary with 27% to 25% for realtor and Christian conservative Bob Kilbanks (who had lost to McHale 55%-41% in 1996) and 23% for state Senator Joseph Uliana.

The Democratic nominee was Allentown state Senator Roy Afflerbach. Toomey put him on the defensive early with an ad that highlighted Afflerbach's support of tax increases in the legislature, calling him "the tax man" and attacking him for voting against repeal of a tax on toothpaste and dental floss. Afflerbach criticized Toomey's tax plan as a threat to Social Security and the budget surplus. Afflerbach tried to appeal to conservative, blue-collar voters by calling Toomey an outsider: "Pat has only been in Pennsylvania for seven years and prior to that he was all over the world doing private business, while I was here doing public business." But Toomey won by the surprisingly large margin of 55%-45%. McHale's support of impeachment may have cast a pall over Democratic efforts here. Toomey's win demonstrated the growing strength of suburbs over the declining Democratic strongholds of Allentown and Bethlehem, where Afflerbach had only single-digit margins.

In the House, Toomey quickly went to work on national economic issues. He took on the task for conservative Republicans of challenging excessive spending by the Appropriations Committee and won the leadership's support for setting aside an additional $4 billion for debt reduction. "We've got three parties in Congress--Republicans, Democrats and Appropriators," Toomey complained. He led opposition among Republicans to waiving the six-year term limits for committee chairmen. After the 2000 election, he urged a larger tax cut than George W. Bush's plan, with additional savings incentives and lower capital gains taxes.

Toomey received a stronger than expected reelection challenge from Edward O'Brien, a former blast-furnace worker at Bethlehem Steel and the number-two United Steelworkers official in Pennsylvania. With strongly divergent views, the contest had elements of class warfare. Toomey backed limits on how much a patient can sue an HMO, and individual investment accounts for Social Security. O'Brien opposed each, and called for strengthening Social Security. Toomey won 53%-47%, drawing 54% in Lehigh County but only 51% in Northampton. Republicans control redistricting, and while they seem likely to keep the Lehigh Valley together, they will presumably add heavily Republican territory in adjacent counties to make the district more favorable to Toomey. He has been mentioned as a possible Senate candidate in 2004, if Arlen Specter retires.

Cook's Call:
Competitive. Toomey's 53%-47% victory in 2000 against a second-tier Democrat illustrates the marginal nature of this district. Republicans control redistricting in the state, which could help shore up this district for Toomey. In June 2001 Toomey was complaining publicly about a redistricting plan that would carve out parts of his Lehigh Valley district and give them to fellow Republican Jim Greenwood.

The People:

• Pop. 2000: 612,265; Pop. 1990: 565,818, up 8.2% 1990-2000.
• 89.4% White, 3.1% Black, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 1.6% Two+ races, 4% Other. 8.2% Hispanic origin.

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 114,481 (49%) Bush (R) 109,301 (47%) Nader (Green) 6,593 (3%)

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 96,380 (46%) Dole (R) 85,736 (41%) Perot (I) 22,125 (11%)