http://www.courier-journal.com/...
But then this happened:About 70,000 voters in seven Kentucky counties were erroneously sent letters from the State Board of Elections on Monday telling them they are not properly registered to vote and need to contact their county clerk.The voters, however, were supposed to have received letters telling them where their polling places will be for the May 20 primary.
Lynn Zellen, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes, said a state vendor sent the wrong letters to voters and that Grimes — who is also running for the U.S. Senate — acted quickly to ensure the error was rectified.
Zellen said Publishers Printing Co., the state contractor that made the error, has taken full responsibility and already begun printing corrected letters that it will mail to voters at no cost to taxpayers.
Josh Holmes, an adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell, blamed Grimes for the problem. "Certainly it's not up to a private company to be responsible for keeping voters abreast of where they vote," Holmes said. "If so, what do we have a secretary of state for?"
When asked if Simon, the Publishers Printing president who is running as a Republican for state representative in Jefferson County's 31st district and who has contributed $5,600 to McConnell campaign since 2001, bears any responsiblity, Holmes said, "I'm sure a lot of people share the blame."
Zellen said Grimes acted aggressively and appropriately when the problem became known. "She worked diligently with the affected county clerks to assess and address the problem," Zellen said. "The secretary has ensured that correct information is being sent immediately at no expense to the state and that the printer will be held accountable." - The Courier-Journal, 4/10/14
http://www.courier-journal.com/...
Again, what a dumb ass. But McConnell needs to hit Grimes with anything he can and letting other right-wing sexists attack Grimes for him:The president of a large Bullitt County printing company and a donor to Sen. Mitch McConnell, said Thursday that Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes was not to blame for an erroneous mailing that suggested to 74,000 that they were not properly registered to vote in next month's primary.Publishers Printing sent out the letters to voters in seven counties on Monday as part of a contract with the state to inform voters when their voting locations change. More than half of the letters went to voters in Oldham County where County Clerk Julie Barr asked that the letters be sent to all voters.
The letters were supposed to tell voters their polling places but instead, urged voters to call their county clerks to provide additional information necessary before they would be allowed to vote.
Nick Simon, president of Publishers Printing, said the error was all his company's fault and that Grimes and her staff should not be held responsible. He said the error occurred when the wrong computerized file was used by the company and that it was in the process of sending out new mailings by first-class mail to rectify the situation.
"We're at fault. We plead guilty," Simon said in a voice message. "There was no malfeasance here, it was just a mistake. ... It's our fault and the Secretary of State didn't do anything wrong."
Simon, a Republican who is running for the state House of Representatives in the 31st District, has contributed $5,600 to McConnell's campaigns since 2001. - The Courier-Journal, 4/11/14
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Again, McConnell is doing whatever he can to take the attention off him because the Tea Party has been attacking him a lot lately:The conservative-leaning Washington Times has published an editorial about a female candidate for U.S. Senate that could help to explain why some women are hesitant to run for public office.The editorial compares Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, to Hollywood's "beautiful plastic people pretending to be someone else."
"Mrs. Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state, has smiled and chirped her way across the state trying to avoid debate like a terrified Dracula dodging sunlight," the editorial charges.
Grimes, who is in a dead heat with McConnell in the polls, has served as Kentucky's secretary of state for two years. During that time, she has launched a program to protect domestic violence and sexual assault victims and introduced a bill to help the military vote from overseas, among other accomplishments.
In its Wednesday editorial, the Washington Times writes that Grimes' job as secretary of state "sounds considerably grander than it actually is" and has not prepared her to deal with any serious issues she might face in the Senate. The editorial calls Grimes a "nice lady" who, if elected, would only be playing dress-up as a senator, just like the Hollywood actors who have donated to her campaign.
"She’s probably wise to stick to mouthing harmless platitudes," the editorial says. "She’s an actress who wants to play senator, and that’s why Hollywood can’t get enough of her."
Aside from issues with its tone, the editorial contains at least one factual inaccuracy. It says McConnell "has few famous contributors, but nearly all of his contributors actually live in Kentucky," in contrast with Grimes, who "has raised more money from Californians than Kentuckians." But the Courier-Journal reported last fall that nearly 90 percent of McConnell's contributions come from out of state. In addition, a super PAC supporting McConnell raised over $1 million from out-of-state donors. - Huffington Post, 4/10/14
http://www.courier-journal.com/...
Of course Bevin has been struggling to become the next Rand Paul (R. KY) and defeat an establishment candidate:A group supporting U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin is accusing Sen. Mitch McConnell of hypocrisy for attacking Bevin over late payment of property taxes despite having gone through a similar issue of his own.The Madison Project, which has aired radio ads supporting Bevin, noted that the Washington D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue’s website shows that McConnell and his wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, paid penalties and interest in paying property taxes on their $1.3 million Washington townhouse in 2006 and 2007.
McConnell’s campaign provided evidence that the website is simply wrong regarding the 2006 tax payment and that the city refunded nearly $1,100 in penalties and interest after Chao protested, saying she didn’t receive a 2007 tax bill.
McConnell has repeatedly criticized Bevin, his opponent in May’s Republican primary, for late payment of property taxes on his $1.2 million Maine vacation home and for late tax payments by Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Co., a family bell-making company he now runs in Connecticut.
The campaign also has criticized him for taking a $200,000 government grant to help the business.
As for McConnell’s tax issue, online records at the Washington D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue show he and Chao paid penalties and interest totaling $521.48 in 2006 and $1,176.05 in 2007.
But Josh Holmes, an adviser to McConnell, said there was never any delinquency in 2006 and provided documentation to prove it. The website says that McConnell and Chao paid $4,882.39 in taxes that year but it broke it down into three payments of $4,320.91 for the tax, $73.24 for interest and $488.24 in penalties.
Holmes provided a copy of the original tax bill, which was for $4,882.39 — and included no assessments for interest or penalties.
In Washington, property tax bills are split in half and owners are billed twice a year.
In 2007, the couple was six months late in paying their March bill — paying that only when the September bill came due. Holmes provided paperwork showing Chao quickly paid the full bill — including penalties and interest — but that she appealed, saying she never received the original tax bill or notices that she was delinquent.
Early in 2008, the tax office credited $1,089.99 — all but $86.06 of what Chao paid in interest and penalties — to the next year’s tax bill.
Since then, the records indicate that McConnell has been prompt in paying taxes on the 3,031-square-foot row house.
Stephen Voss, a political scientist at the University of Kentucky, said Thursday that it’s not terribly important that McConnell was late in paying his taxes but that the senator erred by attacking Bevin on the issue.
“Back when the Bevin story broke, I remember dismissing it. I’m equally inclined to dismiss this gotcha paperwork scandal,” Voss said.
“Now he (McConnell) has to look a little bit hypocritical, perhaps. ” - The Courier-Journal, 4/7/14
And McConnell cannot take anything for granted at this point in his race:There is a model for a candidate like Bevin winning on an anti-accommodationist platform in Kentucky. Four years ago, Republican Rand Paul rode grassroots support from tea party and libertarian groups to defeat McConnell’s favored candidate, Trey Grayson, in an upset.Without exception, every single Bevin volunteer who talked to msnbc was a Paul supporter counting on the same activist network to lead Bevin to victory in 2014.
Not surprisingly, it’s more than a little disappointing to them that Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender and the son of libertarian hero Ron Paul, has endorsed McConnell.
In a slick, defensive move, McConnell has spent the last several years courting the iconoclast Paul even as Paul uniformly opposed the McConnell-brokered deals Bevin is running against. In addition to securing his endorsement, McConnell chose Jesse Benton, a former Paul aide married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter, as his campaign manager.
The Paul-McConnell alliance is a sore subject for Bevin supporters. Bevin himself often cites Paul as a model senator.
“Rand and I ideologically are two peas in a pod and that’s the irony,” he told msnbc. “It makes a lot of these folks first curious, then irritated, and in many instances now angry, which is a shame, I hate to see that, because I like Rand.”
Every Bevin backer seems to have a theory as to what’s going on. Many believe Paul’s secretly rooting for Bevin even if he won’t say it.
“You notice a pained look on Rand Paul’s face,” Rhonda Cook, a FreePAC attendee from Shepherdsville, told msnbc. “He’s not happy.”
The McConnell-Paul alliance is not the warmest pairing. In a leaked phone conversation, Benton said he was “holding my nose for two years” in order to boost Paul’s presidential prospects. Paul, pressed by Glenn Beck in February over his support for McConnell, noted that he made his decision before Bevin entered the race.
Nonetheless, by taking Paul out of the equation, McConnell has denied Bevin’s campaign precious oxygen. - MSNBC, 4/10/14
And if there is one person who would love to see McConnell go, it's this guy:Republicans are favored to retake control of the Senate in November, but if they do, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may not be around to become the chamber's top lawmaker. That's because McConnell remains deeply unpopular back home in Kentucky — so unpopular, in fact, that he's trailing Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.A new PPP poll finds Grimes leading the incumbent 45 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. Though the survey was commissioned by MoveOn.org, that finding is in line with other recent surveys that have found McConnell in a vulnerable position.
It's possible that McConnell's vociferous opposition to ObamaCare may become a liability now that the health care law is becoming more popular. And Kentucky in particular has been one of ObamaCare's greatest success stories, which might make McConnell's calls for repeal fall flat on his constituents. - The Week, 4/8/14
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/...
If you want to help Grimes beat McConnell next year, you can click here to donate and get involved with her campaign:Fallout from last year's fight over filibuster rules in the Senate is still being felt on Capitol Hill.Senators had hoped to finish their work and begin a two week spring recess Thursday but instead ran into a roadblock when Democrats and Republicans clashed over whether to quickly confirm two presidential nominees before leaving.
In a spirited back-and-forth, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sparred with his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other GOP leaders over who was to blame for the slow pace of clearing executive and judicial nominations. A frustrated Reid called all senators to the chamber to complain Republicans were using parliamentary rules to require up to 30 hours of debate on a judicial nominee yet no one had taken the floor to speak.
"Why in the world would we want to waste 30 hours?" Reid asked. "That's what we're doing."
He asked for immediate votes on Michelle Friedland to be a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and another nominee, David Weil, to be the Administrator of the Hour and Wage division at the Department of Labor. - CNN, 4/10/14
