From the Washington Post:

Sen. Arlen Specter's support for President Obama's stimulus package has recharged a political rivalry, setting up what could be a divisive rematch between one of the GOP's leading moderates and a powerful conservative activist.

Pat Toomey, head of the anti-tax Club for Growth, stepped down from the post Monday, the first move in what his aides say is an almost-certain run against Specter in next year's Republican Senate primary. In the 2004 primary, Specter defeated Toomey by 17,000 votes out of more than 1 million cast.

Even though the race is a year away, Specter has taken the rare step of running attack ads against Toomey, attempting to link his work as a trader on Wall Street in the 1980s and 1990s with the current economic crisis.

Both men say the stimulus will be a chief issue. Specter, one of three Republicans who voted for the stimulus, is campaigning throughout the state to hold his job and appeared Monday at a police station in Darby just outside Philadelphia. Officers there praised him for backing the $787 billion stimulus bill, which will provide the department $220,000 in funding to buy equipment.