Penn State students and members of the local community met with U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to voice their concerns about issues ranging from social security to gay and lesbian rights to the war on AIDS.

Toomey spoke to a crowd of about 60 in a town-meeting setting, sponsored by Penn State's Political Science Association.

The meeting began a 30-day awareness campaign titled "30 days till you have your say -- Penn State raise your voice and vote," which will lead up to Pennsylvania's April 27 primary election.

"Events like this help increase student awareness on what the issues are and where the candidates stand on these issues," said Sean Misko, Political Science Association president. "Rep. Toomey shows he cares about students by coming today and interacting with them."

Before answering questions from the audience, Toomey said he was running because of the fundamental differences between what he and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., believe.

"I tend to be more conservative; he tends to be more liberal. I want there to be a difference between the two. I want to maintain the ideals of a true Republican Party," he said.

He also said this election occurs at an interesting time because the nation is going through a rare political realignment.

"They only happen twice a century," Toomey said. "Since 1994, Republicans have controlled both houses, and this is the first time there has been ongoing Republican control since 1932."

However, he said this is a problem because Republicans do not know what to do as the majority party.

"Previously, as the minority party, since we couldn't get our bills passed, our job was to make sure the majority party's bills were not passed," Toomey said.

"Now we actually have a responsibility to govern, and that's a big responsibility."

Toomey touched on the issue of the economic policy in conjunction with social security.

"The economic policy ought to be a policy to maximize economic growth," Toomey said.

"We should take this opportunity to change the rules on social security for younger workers. We ought to allow people to accumulate savings by taking their payroll taxes and investing them for themselves."

Hands went up with concerns over the bill passed by President Bush to provide $15 billion for the fight against AIDS.

Toomey said that although he was often considered one of the most fiscally conservative members of the House, he voted for the bill because he realized its importance.

One member of the audience asked Toomey whether he would also vote for the appropriations needed to actually put the bill into action.

"I don't want to stand here and promise to vote for a bill, but I do support the principle," Toomey said.

"In all likelihood, I will support the appropriations for the bill I already supported, but I can't promise anything," he added.

Students in attendance had mixed opinions about the representative's 45-minute question-and-answer period.

"I am a Republican and came in thinking that I would support Specter, but now I'm supporting Toomey," Todd Taylor (freshman-economics) said. "He seems more fiscally responsible."

Other students disagreed, saying Toomey was evasive with his responses.

"I thought he did a good job of not answering the questions he didn't want to answer," Tricia Fitzgerald (junior-history) said.

"He just restated his opinion rather than answering the question."

Misko said the Political Science Association plans to create more open forums like this for other candidates and elections.

"It's great to see students engaging in democratic discussion about important issues and to see they're all interested in the upcoming election and campaign," Misko said.