Many people are focused on the upcoming presidential election, but there are several other competitive races that local voters will play a role in this Nov. 8.

One of Pennsylvania's sitting senators came to Carbon County on Friday to unofficially mark the beginning of the general election campaign.Pat Toomey, who has served in the senate since 2010, visited Carbon County GOP headquarters Friday afternoon. He talked about his record in Washington, criticized his Democratic opponent, and reminded voters what is at stake this fall."The entire federal government is what's at stake here. That's what this election is about. It's the White House, the Supreme Court, control of the Senate, and maybe even the House of Representatives and all that that implies, and man, that's a lot," Toomey said.Among those in attendance at the event were state Reps. Doyle Heffley and Jerry Knowles, Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein, and Carbon County GOP Chairman Lee Becker, who introduced Toomey.Toomey talked about his work against the Obama administration's nuclear treaty with Iran. He pointed out that even though the deal has provided millions of dollars for Iran, their own parliament has not ratified it. He also talked about his work to keep the Guanténamo Bay prison in Cuba open, saying the only problem with the facility is it has too many empty beds.Toomey said he knows that voters are looking for officials who won't abuse the system, as well as lower taxes. He said that McGinty would be in 'lockstep' with Hillary Clinton, and would lead to the policies of the Obama administration becoming more binding.He talked about how McGinty served as chief of staff for Gov. Tom Wolf before departing to run for the senate. Toomey linked her with the Wolf administration's proposal last year to raise income and other taxes. And he praised Republican state legislators for helping to prevent that increase from becoming law."They were raising all kinds of taxes to the point where the average middle-income Pennsylvania family would have paid another $1,500 per year, Just in state taxes. How can that be good?"Many in the audience were concerned about the wind farm proposed in Penn Forest Township. Toomey said he opposes Washington's support of clean energy projects, because they often result in tax breaks to foreign companies for technology that is less than efficient."You understand there would not be a windmill in America if not for the fact that you're forced to subsidize them. This is not an efficient way to produce energy," he said.And he claimed that McGinty was given a seat on the board at Iberdrola after giving the company contracts to do work in Pennsylvania when she was head of the Department of Environmental Protection. Toomey said that is the kind of abuse of the system that is leading many voters to support Donald Trump."People are tired of this kind of abuse of the system and abuse of our government. if you get Katie McGinty in the Senate there's more of it," he said.Contacted after the event, the McGinty campaign responded to Toomey's comments."Pat Toomey's recycled attacks against Katie are just another desperate attempt to distract voters from his long history of putting Wall Street first. Between his long-held support for privatizing Social Security and deregulating Wall Street, it is crystal clear Toomey is a voice Wall Street can count on to fight for its interests in Washington, even at the expense of middle-class families."