With less than two months until Election Day 2014, the Comment on Kentucky panel had a long list of stories to discuss on this weekend’s program, from a perplexing ad strategy by one U.S. Senate candidate to a big endorsement in next year’s gubernatorial race.
As the campaign of incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell continues to tie challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes to President Obama, the Democrat released an ad last Monday designed to counter that message. The 30-second spot shows the Kentucky Secretary of State shooting skeet and saying that she disagrees with Obama on guns, coal, and EPA regulations. Jacqueline Pitts of cn|2 says it’s wise for Grimes to try to draw those distinctions, but the ad was a poor attempt to do so.
Sam Youngman of the Lexington Herald-Leader concurs, calling the ad a colossal misstep on the part of the Grimes campaign. He says it gave McConnell the opportunity to respond with a commercial showing Grimes and Obama both shooting guns – which his campaign did the next day.
To make matters worse for the Democrat, Youngman says the Grimes camp virtually ignored McConnell’s Senate vote against paycheck fairness that same day. Grimes has made pay equity a significant part of her platform.
“I don’t ever know if they’re trying to win an election or a news cycle,” Youngman says of Grimes and her campaign. “And I think they’ve really got a very short window now to figure that out.”
Second Ad Questions Medicare Votes
Ronnie Ellis of CNHI News Service argues that McConnell continues to dictate the conversation in the campaign. He says Grimes’ gun spot is an attempt to distinguish herself from the president, especially in the minds of voters in eastern and western Kentucky, where she is badly trailing McConnell.
In an effort to change the conversation to a topic that generally favors Democrats, Grimes released a second ad late last week featuring her grandmother detailing the financial problems she and her husband faced after he suffered a debilitating stroke. The spot ends with Grimes saying McConnell has voted to raise Medicare costs for seniors and that she will never do that.
Ellis explains the ad references a procedural vote McConnell cast on Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed 2011 budget, which would have changed Medicare to a voucher system and changed benefits for some future retirees. Ellis says McConnell routinely says Medicare and other entitlements must be reformed to save taxpayer dollars, but won’t say whether he’d do that by cutting benefits or by raising the eligibility age.
With McConnell’s favorability ratings at record lows, Ellis wonders why Grimes doesn’t produce ads that better explain her positions on issues. “She’s really giving them reasons not to like somebody they already may not like [in McConnell] rather than giving them reasons to vote for her,” Ellis says.
Vote on Response to Islamic Militants
Also last week, Kentucky’s U.S. Senators split over the president’s plan to help moderate Syrian rebels fight Islamic State terrorists. McConnell approved the measure in Thursday’s Senate vote, while Sen. Rand Paul opposed it.
Ronnie Ellis says Paul’s vote was consistent with his long-standing views that U.S. military actions on foreign soils should be limited and that Congress must authorize the United States going to war. Ellis notes that many of Paul’s fellow Republicans had initially argued for Congressional approval, but then backed away from it in this instance because they feared the potential political ramifications of voting to authorize military efforts.
Sam Youngman contends McConnell’s vote in favor of Obama’s proposal to train and equip Syrian rebels reinforces his recent campaign ads that depict the Republican as a leader and deal-maker who can work with the president to get things done.
What a Tangled Web (of Endorsements) We Weave
Just 10 days after formally launching his gubernatorial campaign in his small, southern Kentucky hometown, James Comer went to the state’s largest city to score a significant endorsement from a prominent Republican.
Former three-term Congresswoman Anne Northup appeared with the state Agriculture Commissioner in Louisville to announce her support for Comer’s candidacy in the 2015 race. Jacqueline Pitts says the endorsement highlights some interesting dynamics on the Republican side of the contest. Pitts explains that Comer, while serving as a state representative, supported Northup’s 2007 gubernatorial bid against incumbent Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
Ronnie Ellis says Comer delivered his native Monroe County for Northup in the Republican primary that year. But Northup lost that race, and Ellis reports many Fletcher supporters continue to be angry with her and Comer for challenging the incumbent.
A second dynamic at play, according the Pitts, involves another Republican running for governor in 2015: Louisville businessman Hal Heiner. Northup supported Heiner in his bid for mayor of the city in 2010. (That endorsement came even though Heiner supported Fletcher against Northup in the 2007 Republican primary for governor.)
Despite the various entanglements, Pitts reports that Northup says she has nothing against Heiner; she simply believes Comer has a better vision for the commonwealth.
Sam Youngman says the endorsement sends a strong message that Comer intends to be competitive in Louisville, and not cede the urban area to Heiner. Plus securing early endorsements can dissuade other candidates from entering the race, according to Youngman and Ronnie Ellis. They point to how Democrat Jack Conway has locked-up several high profile endorsements from people who won’t be available to support a potential challenger on his side of the contest.
And for one last wrinkle in the governor’s race, host Bill Bryant asked if Alison Lundergan Grimes would enter that contest if she loses her Senate bid. Ellis says that would take a tremendous amount of personal, organizational, and fundraising stamina to run two state-wide campaigns back to back. Youngman speculates that Kentuckians may not be interested in making the governor’s office a consolation prize for those who lose a Senate race.
–The opinions expressed on Comment on Kentucky and in this program synopsis are the responsibility of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of KET.
