Tom Ridge Jumping in Senate Race?

Update on the Ridge vs. Toomey situation that Matt blogged about earlier. Roll Call via the scorecard POLITICO.com

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge is considering running for the Republican Senate nomination in his home state, according to a senior Republican aide with knowledge of the situation.

National and Keystone State Republicans have been publicly and privately urging Ridge to consider a Senate bid since Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) announced earlier this week that he was switching parties and would run for re-election as a Democrat in 2010.

Well, this is more than annoying. It smells again like the National GOP is jumping in to save the party from those annoying conservatives that make up a frustratingly large part of GOP voters.

Depending on what happens in the next year and a half, I can easily imagine Toomey winning over a damaged and weakened Arlen Specter, especially if Specter gets primaried. My gut reaction is that there is no need to save the party from Pat Toomey, and doing so will only anger grassroots PA conservatives.

Now, I may change my mind if I see some good polling data that shows Tom Ridge having a significant advantage over Arlen and Toomey, but for now it looks like Toomey is once again going to get screwed over by the national party, and unnecessarily.

Remember, social conservative Rick Santorum won in PA in happier times for the GOP, and it took a PA political icon to take him out. Republicans can win here and Toomey is primarily a fiscal conservative at a time when it's going to be very important for the GOP to build up their fiscal conservative credentials.