Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) predicted Monday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would carry the state of Pennsylvania, pushing back against Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe's suggestion that GOP efforts in the state were a "desperate ploy" to find an alternative path to 270 electoral votes.
But Toomey noted that in 2010, Republicans swept statewide offices in Pennsylvania, and he predicted a similar electorate for Tuesday's presidential vote.
"If you take a look at what happened the last time Pennsylvanians went to the polls, which is 2010, Republicans swept," Toomey told CNN on "Starting Point." "I won a statewide office. We elected a Republican governor. The U.S. congressional delegation and the state House assembly. So the fact is Republicans control the government at all levels by big numbers, and I think that this election is going to be much more like 2010 than 2008. I think Gov. Romney's going to carry Pennsylvania."
President Obama has consistently led in polling of the state, although recent surveys show the race has been tightening. Both Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), campaigned in the state over the weekend, but a poll released Sunday by Muhlenberg College gave the president a 3-point advantage there.
Still, Toomey said he believed independents and undecideds would break hard for Romney in the hours before Election Day.
"One of the standard, time-honored rules in politics, which I happen to think is generally true, is that the undecided voters late in a race break for the challenger," Toomey said. "The person they know very well is the incumbent. Everybody knows who President Obama is. Everybody has an opinion of President Obama. If they're not with him now, they're not going to be with him tomorrow."
The Pennsylvania lawmaker added that Republicans in the state had "the enthusiasm and the momentum and energy."
"I've got to tell you the intensity and energy is absolutely electric," Toomey said. "That rally last night, almost 40,000 people ... that was just terrific. That's the way it's been across the commonwealth."
