Mass. Sen. Brown headlines Pa. Senate fundraiser for Republican candidate Pat Toomey

Mass. Sen. Brown headlines Pa. Senate fundraiser

PHILADELPHIA — Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is headlining a fundraiser in Philadelphia for Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate for Senate, Pat Toomey.

The freshman Republican senator said Friday that Toomey is an independent thinker like himself and would be a valuable ally in Washington.

Toomey’s a former congressman and is in a close race with Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak.

Brown became nationally known in January when he won the seat of the late Ted Kennedy in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts.

Sestak also is in Philadelphia talking to people at a job training center. He calls Toomey an extremist who is out of touch with working Americans.

Sestak says middle class Pennsylvanians would suffer under what he calls Toomey’s extreme ideology favoring big corporations and special interests.