Patrick J. Toomey

Disputes over the government's sugar program break down regionally rather than politically. It pits lawmakers from states like Pennsylvania where candy making is big business against those from states where sugar is grown. Helping to lead the candy...

Some of Baltimore's best-known candy makers are pressing Congress to overturn a decades-old sugar policy they say is leaving a bad taste in their mouth. Goetze's Candy Co., Wockenfuss Candies and others want lawmakers to rethink long-standing...

WASHINGTON – The outgoing head of the IRS said the agency still doesn’t know which staff members were responsible for using politically loaded language to screen out nonprofit groups, as senators pressed them to explain how certain...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey said Tuesday that without knowing who at the Internal Revenue Service is responsible for the extra scrutiny applied to tea party groups, it's impossible to conclude it was not politically motivated. Toomey made the...

WASHINGTON – Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators both worry the controversy surrounding the Internal Revenue Service could slow progress in an already divisive and stymied Washington. Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Pat Toomey spoke out Monday...

Although polls nationwide and in Indiana show overwhelming support for tightening background checks for gun purchases,Sen. Dan Coats, Indiana's Republican senior senator, voted "no." He says most constituents who contacted him wanted him to do just that....

WASHINGTON — First came the letter-writing campaigns, then the protests at town hall meetings and now the television ads. The last several weeks in New Hampshire have had the feel of a heated electoral season — but the target of this siege,...

Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators sit on the powerful tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, which will begin its investigation of the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups at a hearing on Tuesday. Republicans and Democrats are...

WASHINGTON — Joe Sestak is readying for a rematch. The retired Navy admiral and former congressman from Delaware County announced Tuesday via email blast that he's formed an exploratory committee to run for the U.S. Senate in 2016. Sestak, a...

The Admiral is readying for a rematch. Former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who has played it coy since his narrow loss to Pat Toomey in the grueling 2010 Senate race, announced Tuesday morning by email that he's formed an exploratory committee to run again for...

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak has ruled out a campaign for Pennsylvania governor, but he said Tuesday that he is seriously exploring another run for U.S. Senate, possibly setting up a rematch against Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in 2016. Sestak said he...

I suppose this is how it must be in the world of politics. The realization that I was fooled, overeager or just naive still hurts and has my cynical nature blazing. To think that for a brief time Sen. Toomey had me duped that there actually was a person...