Kos had a diary up today (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/27/887867/-KY-Sen:-The-latest-on-Rand-Paul-hilarity) mentioning the latest on Rand Paul's hijinks, and also the welcome news that Jack Conway has evened the race in internal polling, and even leads among voters who know both candidates.
However, the Lexington paper and McClatchy are reporting tonight (http://www.kentucky.com/2010/07/27/1365946/supreme-court-fallout-coal-industry.html) that major coal companies have been approached by a lawyer from the International Coal Group of Scott's Depot, WV, about starting up a 527 advocacy group in order to target Democratic incumbents - specifically, Jack Conway and KY-6 House member Ben Chandler.
(I don't know how to make the URL's turn into links above; any help will be appreciated.)
The letter from ICG's general counsel, Roger Nicholson, was undated. The Lexington Herald-Leader obtained a copy. The text only asks the recipients if they would be willing to join in an anti-Democrat 527; no information is available on how far the effort has gotten.
Chandler's vote for cap and trade is pretty far in the rear view mirror. Conway has not even expressed support for cap and trade. But apparently Big Coal considers them anti-coal, and wants to use a recent Supreme Court ruling (opening the floodgates for unlimited corporate contributions to a 527 group) to try to tip the balance in these election contests.
Conway has kept pace with Paul as regards fundraising, but had to contribute a fairly large sum to his own campaign. Chandler has a much larger war chest than hardline teabagger Garland "Andy" Barr, but Barr is a more serious opponent than Chandler has had in previous general elections. (Barr has some Rand Paul-like problems, too; he has belonged to a whites-only country club.)
There are a number of solid points that can be used by anyone who wants to take issue with coal companies.
- Cap and trade does not make electric bills go up. The electric companies do that. And anyway, we don't have cap and trade.
- Coal companies use the actual coal miners as pawns and almost as "human shields". Bathetic busloads of miners and family members are bussed around to photo-ops, but it's easy to verify that only about 17,000 people in the entire state of Kentucky are employed in strip mining coal. The actual number of coal miners is much lower than it used to be, mainly because strip mining is so heavily automated, requiring fewer human workers.
- The entire economic value of coal to Kentucky per year is less than what BP has already spent on cleanup in the Gulf (about 1.5 billion dollars). Now, if you're going to have an ecological disaster, it could be argued that the sea is a better place than some. It tends to clean itself up, given half a chance.
But the destruction of natural landforms through strip mining is in some ways worse than the oil in the Gulf, and has been going on for far longer. Just train your Google Earth on southeastern Kentucky. You'll find a number of large gray areas. Zoom in. These are strip mine sites.
Even Democratic candidate Dan Mongiardo signed on to the coal-company myth that mountaintop-removal strip mining somehow creates buildable land. There are areas in which grass has been persuaded to grow. There are small sites that have been reinforced to use as building sites.
But the vast majority of strip mining sites cannot be reclaimed in any meaningful sense. "Reclamation" cannot repair damage to flora and fauna. The natural watersheds and landforms are destroyed forever - and map-makers recognized this by creating a special "no-landform" designation for strip mining sites. Instead of being designated as forest land or marsh land, etc., printed maps now show gray areas with gravel-like designs.
Some mining advocates have tried to argue that the streams that are buried under thousands of tons of crushed rock laced with toxic metals were not really streams at all, because they weren't full of water all year. That's about the level of reclamation expertise being employed. And since some of Kentucky's top emitters of toxic materials, such as the Osram Sylvania plant in Versailles, KY, are allowed to fill out their own inspection reports, it's unlikely that regulatory efforts are successful inspecting mines that are often in remote locations.
One rather positive development - regular Republicans like Mitch McConnell are only giving Rand Paul lip service. Soon-to-be ex-Senator Jim Bunning repaid McConnell for years of propping him up by essentially bolting party candidate Trey Grayson in the primary. Now the hatred between McConnell and Bunning, plus general inexperience at working with the party structure, may work against Rand Paul.
This Senate seat is a real pickup opportunity for Democrats. McConnell's unwillingness to go to work for Paul - and his evident lack of desire to have him as the junior senator - may keep Paul from connecting with the Republican Party organization throughout Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Jack Conway has seemed to hit his stride as a campaigner lately. Please consider contributing to Jack through his ActBlue page (Jack is #5 with a bullet there right now).