Casey endorses McGinty for Senate

WASHINGTON - Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. on Friday endorsed fellow Democrat Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate primary, calling her the party's best chance to unseat Republican Sen. Pat Toomey this fall.

"The challenges we face this year and the likelihood of getting a Democratic victory in November is too significant to stay on the sidelines," Casey told reporters in a call.

Casey chose McGinty over Joe Sestak, a former admiral and member of the House from Delaware County, who has had an edge in polling and narrowly lost to Toomey in 2010, but whose campaign style has worried party leaders in Washington and Pennsylvania and stirred them to look for an alternative.

McGinty, Gov. Wolf's former chief of staff, had already won widespread support from the Democratic establishment, including Wolf; the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid; and major unions.

But Casey, who met with Sestak when the former congressman launched his campaign early last year, had stayed quiet until Friday. Casey said he spoke now because voters are just tuning into the race.

He said he knows McGinty the best of all the Democratic candidates - she is a former environmental aide in the Clinton White House and in Gov. Ed Rendell's administration - and admires her record and platform, such as raising wages, ensuring equal pay for women, and making college affordable.

Two other candidates, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman and Joseph Vodvarka, are also vying for the nomination in the April 26 primary.

Even before the endorsement, Sestak cast it as another sign of his independence.

"I have had no politician's endorsement in this campaign," he said in a news release. "With Bob Casey's endorsement of my primary opponent today, it completes an all-inclusive rejection by Washington and Pennsylvania's Democratic politicians of what I believe in, and stand for."

A similar situation played out in 2010, when Casey and the rest of the Democratic establishment endorsed Sen. Arlen Specter over Sestak in the primary. Despite McGinty's wave of endorsements, she has not caught up to Sestak in public surveys.

Many voters are still undecided and most polls show the race is close, she told reporters. Both campaigns have only recently started taking to the airwaves.

McGinty argued that Sestak's early advantage is due to his name recognition as the 2010 nominee and a candidate who has barnstormed the state for years. Momentum is on her side, she said.

"Today, we just get a big battery pack strapped to a campaign that's already been charging ahead at a pretty good clip," McGinty said of Casey's support.

Later in the day, he stood alongside her at a news conference at 30th Street Station.

jtamari@phillynews.com

@JonathanTamari