HARRISBURG — Pat Toomey, a conservative former congressman who narrowly lost the 2004 Republican primary to Sen. Arlen Specter, said Monday he may demand a rematch next year.

Toomey, who is president of the anti-tax Club for Growth in Washington, recently had said he was considering running for Pennsylvania governor. But a written statement he issued Monday marked the first time he acknowledged publicly that he is contemplating taking on Specter for a second time.

Toomey, 47, said he is concerned that the federal government's response to the recession has put the nation "on a dangerously wrong path."

"Pennsylvanians want a U.S. senator focused on real and sustainable job creation that gets our economy growing again," he said. "That is why I am considering becoming a candidate for the U.S. Senate."

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Toomey said he had been "absolutely inundated with phone calls and e-mails, and sometimes people literally coming up to me in the middle of the street asking me to run against Sen. Specter."

Toomey, then a congressman from northeastern Pennsylvania, lost the 2004 GOP primary by 17,000 votes out of 1 million cast.

Specter, 79, is a moderate with a reputation as a maverick. He angered many members of his party when he cast one of three Republican votes in the Senate for the $787 billion economic-stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed last month.

Specter is seeking a sixth Senate term.

The senator's spokeswoman, Kate Kelly, did not comment on Toomey's statement but noted that her boss said in a statement after the vote that he felt his duty was to "look out for the public interest and not my own personal political interest."