http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
PPP surveyed 1,509 Kentucky voters between December 12th to 15th. Now this poll delivers mixed news because PPP's October survey had Grimes leading McConnell by two points. But of course McConnell has been upping his attacks against both Grimes and Bevin lately. However, McConnell still remains highly unpopular:Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes trails Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) by just one point in the Kentucky Senate race, according to the latest survey from the Democratic Public Policy Polling firm.In a match-up between Grimes and McConnell, 43 percent of Kentucky voters said they would choose McConnell and 42 percent would choose Grimes.
In a race between Grimes and McConnell's primary challenger Matt Bevin, 39 percent they would vote for Bevin and 38 percent said they would vote for Grimes. - TPM, 12/17/13
McConnell right now is focusing on winning back the Tea Party Republican base and he's doing that by aligning himself with Kentucky's favorite Republican, Senator Rand Paul (R. KY):About a third of voters still don’t have an opinion on the Democrat, who's slightly underwater in popularity after taking a pummeling from GOP outside groups since she launched her campaign. Thirty-seven percent of respondents have an unfavorable view of her, while 31 percent of respondents view her favorably.Bevin fares worse, with nearly twice as many people viewing him unfavorably as favorably. But he’s got more room to grow, with two-thirds of respondents still unsure about him.And McConnell remains deeply unpopular in his home state, with 61 percent of voters disapproving of his job performance.It's those nearly two-thirds of Kentuckians unhappy with their senator that give Democrats hope for flipping Kentucky in 2014. It's the party's top chance at a pickup in a cycle that offers Democrats few chances for offense.
But one public figure remains even more unpopular than McConnell in Kentucky: President Obama. Sixty-four percent of Kentucky voters disapprove of him in the new poll.
Republicans believe that Kentuckians' distaste for the president will outweigh their dissatisfaction with McConnell. - The Hill, 12/17/13
He needs to do this so the Tea Party voters will forget about this:A conservative outside group plans to launch a heavy-duty ad campaign defending Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s credentials as a foe of the Affordable Care Act and telling voters that he and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul are “working together to stop Obamacare,” POLITICO has learned.The nonprofit Kentucky Opportunity Coalition will spend $382,000 over the next week on TV ads across the Bluegrass State, tying McConnell to his conservative junior colleague and blasting the national health care overhaul backed by Democrats.
“For Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, fighting Obamacare isn’t about politics. It’s a fight for the Kentucky families who are losing their health coverage,” the ad says, according to a script shared with POLITICO. “McConnell and Paul are working together to stop Obamacare — to stop the Washington liberals who are forcing families out of plans that include the doctors they trust.”
The ad continues, “McConnell and Paul say: Start over, repeal this bad law and cut costs, not choice.” - Politico, 12/16/13
And McConnell's campaign manager, Jesse Benton, isn't making life any easier for McConnell:The Bipartisan Budget Act, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., passed the House overwhelmingly on Thursday — 332-94. Only 62 Republicans voted against it. So great was the imperative to prevent a GOP revolt that House Speaker John Boehner broke his silence and excoriated the conservative pressure groups that have been trying to defeat it and thus invite another government shutdown.And in the end, it will probably pass the Senate, too. (While Sen. Dick Durbin said on Sunday that there were not yet enough votes to overcome a filibuster, Republican Ron Johnson came out in support of the bill, and many observers expect it will ultimately pass.) But it won’t be by the safe margins we’re used to.
The bill is in relative limbo for several reasons, but chief among them is that McConnell can’t affirmatively whip for or against it. He’s personally opposed to the legislation, supposedly because it eases sequestration’s budget caps, but you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to suspect that his primary challenge is motivating his opposition, too. At the same time, he doesn’t oppose it so strongly that he’s willing to kill it with a filibuster. He knows that if it dies, there’s a strong chance that the government will shut down again, and he’s vociferously opposed to letting that happen again.
So he’s in a familiar bind. “Vote no, hope yes.” His whip, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, faces the same conundrum.
Suddenly John Boehner is the adult figure in the Republican leadership. By uniting in support of the bill, and taking outside interest groups head-on, House GOP leaders offered their members protection from transgressing against the right. They created a human shield around their vulnerable members. McConnell, by contrast, created an every-man-for-himself environment in his conference. The leadership void has produced a dangerous collective action problem. It’s in the party’s interest for this bill to pass, but absent a guarantee that a large number of Republicans will vote yes, it’s in the interest of each individual Republican to vote no. - Salon, 12/16/13
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
So this race is still a toss up but McConnell is going to be upping the attacks to secure his party's nomination and take out Grimes. I say we help Grimes kick off the new year by keeping her campaign nicely fueled and ready to go. If you would like to donate or get involved with Grimes' campaign, you can do so here:But McConnell might need to add Kent Sorenson, an obscure former Iowa state senator, to his list. Sorenson resigned from office in October after a special investigator in Iowa found probable cause that he broke state law by lying about accepting payment to work on Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign. He's also suspected of taking money from Ron Paul's campaign to switch his support to that candidate—whose operatives are now deeply linked to McConnell's.Last month, the FBI seized Sorenson's family computers and told his attorney it was looking into his contact with 2012 presidential campaigns. It's not clear what aspect interests them, but if the Iowa investigator's report is any indication, the federal probe could have implications for McConnell's 2014 Senate bid.
The Iowa investigator found that while working on the Bachmann campaign, Sorenson knowingly tried to circumvent the state Senate's ethics rules barring Iowa lawmakers from work for pay on presidential races; he had the money sent to his own firm through the political consulting firm of a Bachmann aide. Just days before the Iowa caucuses, though, Sorenson's wife received a check for $25,000 from Paul's deputy campaign manager, Dimitri Kesari. Then Sorenson left Bachmann's faltering campaign and endorsed Paul.
After Sorenson's desertion, Bachmann claimed publicly that he had told her he'd been paid "a lot of money" to defect to the Paul camp. Sorenson denied it—until a former Paul campaign aide leaked to The Iowa Republican, a website that covers party politics, an audio clip in which a person said to be Sorenson admits receiving the check, written from the jewelry business of Kesari's wife. Sorenson, who never cashed the check, has since turned it over to investigators.
In August, the same Paul aide leaked another recording to The Republican of former Paul campaign Chairman Jesse Benton, who is now managing McConnell's campaign. In it, the aide asks Benton whether he knew about the check. Benton replies, "I don't know anything about that." But on another recording obtained by The Republican, Sorenson suggests that Benton was aware. "I know Jesse knows," Sorenson can be heard saying. The Republican also posted emails between a Sorenson ally and Paul campaign officials in which the ally details the money needed for Sorenson to make the switch. (Kesari and Benton did not respond to messages requesting comment.) - National Journal, 12/17/13
