U.S. SENATE RACE Official says Specter spokesman tried intimidation

A Specter spokesman recalled another version of the remarks.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Lehigh Valley official said Thursday he was told his request for federal funding for a local rail project depended on whether he would support Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's bare-knuckles Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
But when Lehigh County Commissioner Andy Roman said he acknowledged he is backing GOP challenger Rep. Pat Toomey in the April 27 election, he was told the rail project "will never happen."
A Specter spokesman flatly denied that a staffer ever suggested that federal project approval was contingent on a primary endorsement.
Toomey said the episode, if true, is "obviously an appalling abuse of power."
Roman, a first-term Republican county lawmaker who formally endorsed Toomey on Thursday, said his April 7 talk with a staffer in Specter's Senate office began with "a very good discussion about the benefits" of a rail line through the Lehigh Valley.
"And at the end of the conversation, the question was, 'By the way, we understand there's a possibility you may not be supporting the senator.' And I said, 'Well, you're right, I'm supporting congressman Pat Toomey.' And the tenor of the conversation changed very quickly. They said, 'If that's the case, your rail initiative will come to a sudden end, and it will never happen.'"
"This kind of intimidation is widespread across the whole state," Roman said. "Arlen Specter has put the fear of God into every elected official you talk to, and people are given the message quite clearly: That if you cross Arlen Specter, you will pay a price."
Another view
Specter spokesman William Reynolds confirmed that a Senate staffer spoke with Roman about the rail project, but "the references to supporting Congressman Toomey were not the same that he has characterized."
Specter, who chairs a powerful Senate Appropriations subcommittee, is largely running on his ability to personally earmark hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year for various Pennsylvania projects. Toomey, by contrast, is a fiscal hawk who has criticized such earmarks that he charges bloats the federal deficit.
"What was said is, that without Arlen Specter being in the Senate to champion these issues, there are not going to be funds available," Reynolds said. "And that is the cold reality of this race. Congressman Toomey has made it a point to not help local communities in their funding initiatives. And that was the extent of the conversation when it came to talking about Congressman Toomey.
"The bottom line is, the conversation did not occur as he now says it did," Reynolds said.
Reynolds also noted that Specter is actively seeking federal funds for several local Lehigh Valley projects that are championed by declared Toomey supporters and friends.
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