Democratic Senate candidates make first joint appearance

WASHINGTON - The three Democrats running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania emphasized the foundations of their views Sunday in the first joint appearance of a critical race.

In a forum hosted by a Pittsburgh-based Democratic group, former admiral and congressman Joe Sestak laced his answers with Navy anecdotes. Katie McGinty, former chief of staff to Gov. Wolf, talked up her middle-class upbringing as the daughter of a Philadelphia policeman and a restaurant hostess. And Braddock, Pa., Mayor John Fetterman explained that he has seen vast inequality, growing up in a prosperous family and now leading a borough hit by economic decline.

Policy differences were small, attacks on one another virtually nonexistent.

But with polls showing all three as relative unknowns, the forum provided a chance for the Democrats to better introduce themselves as they seek to unseat the Republican incumbent, Pat Toomey.

The race is one of a handful that could decide control of the Senate.

The forum was hosted by the Pittsburgh 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club and held at Carnegie Mellon University.

"If you are out there working hard every day just to take care of yourself and your family, it is your turn to get ahead," said McGinty, who ran the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection before mounting a failed gubernatorial run.

Bubbling with energy, McGinty said hard work allowed her to rise from a blue-collar home to a job as a senior adviser in the Clinton White House. For many now, she said, "the hard work isn't delivering the opportunity."

Sestak, a former admiral and Delaware County congressman, spoke in soft, intense tones and cited his military experience in response to questions about ISIS as well as those on the environment, health care, gun laws and race relations.

"I'm running for United States Senate because it's a very dangerous world out there," he said. "So few in the United States Senate understand militaries can stop the problem - we never fix a problem."

He repeatedly touted his support for the Affordable Care Act, calling it his "payback" for the military health care that helped his daughter to overcome brain cancer.

Fetterman called inequality "an epidemic."

"The random lottery of birth determines that I had a great life, but it also dooms millions of people in this country to a life that they don't deserve to lead," he said.

He contrasted his comfortable childhood with that of an 8-year-old he mentored, whose parents both died of AIDS.

Fetterman wore his trademark black work shirt and held up his microphone, because his 6-foot-8 frame towered too far above his podium.

The biggest applause of the afternoon came when Fetterman gave an impassioned argument for accepting refugees from Syria.

He read from a New York Times story about a 3-year-old who drowned fleeing the war-torn country, and declared, "the Statue of Liberty doesn't say, 'Send us your best, your brightest, your Ph.D.s and your engineers.' It says send us this little 3-year-old boy."

McGinty was the one most often attacking Toomey, calling him "part of the know-nothing crowd" on climate change, bashing the senator's vote against a bill to ban people on the national terror watch list from buying guns, and saying he has voted against "every single bill to lift up our" veterans.

Toomey's camp pointed to his numerous votes to boost veterans' benefits, and have noted that he voted for a less stringent GOP version of the gun bill - worried that people mistakenly on the watch list might lose Second Amendment rights.

McGinty's campaign pointed to Toomey's frequent votes against spending bills that include funding for veterans' affairs.

Speaking to a friendly audience, the trio of Democrats all embraced the Affordable Care Act, tougher gun laws, and immigration.

They also voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I don't know why anyone would feel brought down by recognizing and holding up one of our fellow citizens and feeling the heartbreak of those parents who are losing their sons and their daughters," McGinty said.

Fetterman said he leads a borough that is 80 percent black.

"As far as the way America treats African Americans, black lives don't matter in this country," he said.

Sestak emphasized his congressional record and said political leaders and "the establishment has lost the trust of the people on both sides."

A Toomey spokesman said the forum showed the Democrats "are becoming more liberal and out of touch with hardworking families who have seen an average health-care premium increase of 11 percent in Pennsylvania over the past year."

jtamari@phillynews.com

@JonathanTamari

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