Ouch:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
A tea party-affiliated group is urging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bow out of his reelection bid next year against Democratic rival Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, citing concerns with the longtime senator's electability.
Matt Hoskins, the Senate Conservatives Fund's executive director, told the Washington Post Tuesday that McConnell isn't a strong enough candidate to face off against Grimes and that it may be time for him to "pass the torch."
“Mitch McConnell is now the least electable Republican senator running for reelection in 2014,” Hoskins said. "He could lose this race and cost Republicans the majority. He needs to consider whether it might be time to hang it up.”
The Senate Conservatives Fund is a political action committee launched by former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) prior to the 2010 elections. - Huffington Post, 7/2/13
Sounds like Jim DeMint (R. SC) and his group are trying to get revenge by trying to pressure McConnell into retirement but I'm highly doubtful their plan will work:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
McConnell has never won his races by huge margins. With the exception of his 2002 race, which he won with 65 percent, McConnell has never won reelection with more than 55 percent of the vote; in 2008, he won a fifth term with 53 percent. And, polling done on McConnell this year — none of which is top-of-the-market stuff — suggests that more people view him unfavorably than favorably.
Still, McConnell is not a political dead man walking, the likes of which we have seen among some Senate incumbents — Chris Dodd in Connecticut in 2010, Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas in 2010, Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania in 2006 — in recent years. (One of those dead-man-walking senators — Missouri’s Claire McCaskill — managed to win her reelection race in 2012.) McConnell is a Republican senator running in a safely Republican state against an unknown challenger in Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. His poll numbers aren’t great, but neither are they catastrophic.
Could, to Hoskins’ point, another Republican without the long political history of McConnell be a better (or easier) bet to win in Kentucky? Sure. But, consider this counter-argument: McConnell’s leadership position in the Senate is worth the fight, given that replacing him with a freshman Republican would mean a massive diminution in the Bluegrass State’s power in the Senate.
To that, Hoskins responded: ”Senator McConnell certainly has a lot of power, but the sad truth is he rarely uses that power to fight for conservative principles. He tells everyone in Kentucky he is powerful, but then pretends to be powerless against Obama’s agenda in Washington.” - Washington Post, 7/2/13
It's no secret McConnell is more vulnerable than he's been in past elections but he's planning on running a nasty and ugly campaign. He's already off to a weird start attacking Alison Lundergan Grimes (D. KY):
Here's what people have been saying about McConnell's video:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
But the clever campaign collateral got less than stellar reviews from critics on Facebook.
"I'm a republican, this is dumb. You need to fire whoever is putting this stuff out," one Facebooker wrote.
Another asked, "Dude, what is this? I mean, seriously, are you letting a twelve year old make your videos or something?"
One Kentuckian accused McConnell of having the "emotional maturity of a five-year-old" for approving the video.
The clip was posted to YouTube, but the account wasn’t accepting reviews on the video site. - New York Daily News, 7/3/13
But hey, if YouTube videos and social media don't work for McConnell, he can always scare voters with the "Obama's war on coal" narrative:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/...
Mr. McConnell, a Republican up for re-election next year, wrote in an op-ed that appeared in the Hazard Herald that Mr. Obama is “waging a war on coal” that will kill jobs and increase energy prices on Americans who are living paycheck-to-paycheck.
“Even in the best of times, declaring a war on coal and imposing a national energy tax would be a bad idea. But in an era of unacceptably high unemployment, launching a war on coal is mind boggling,” Mr. McConnell said. “The president may as well call his war on coal what it is: a war on jobs in this country, and a plan to ship jobs overseas.”
Mr. Obama started to revive his climate change agenda last week, announcing during a speech at Georgetown University that he will direct the Environmental Protection Agency to draft rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants.
“There are no federal limits to the amount of carbon pollution that those plants can pump into our air, none, zero,” Mr. Obama said. “We limit the amount of toxic chemicals like mercury and sulfur and arsenic in our air or our water, but power plants can still dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free. That’s not right, that’s not safe, and it needs to stop.” - Washington Times, 7/2/13
Now being that Obama lost Kentucky in 2012 by double digits, Grimes will have to distance herself a bit from the President. But Democrats are united in helping her fund a winning campaign:
http://www.usatoday.com/...
A race against McConnell won't be easy. The GOP leader has about $8.6 million in campaign cash and has already launched Web and TV ads. Campaign manager Jesse Benton, who has close ties to Tea Party supporters, has said McConnell intends to run a presidential-style campaign.
Grimes is likely to have a big-name Democrat in her corner who can help raise money for an intense campaign. Former president Bill Clinton was among those who encouraged Grimes to run. Clinton is close to Grimes' father, Jerry Lundergan, a former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party.
Jimmy Cauley, a Democratic strategist and ex-chief of staff to Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, said Grimes is the Democratic Party's "best shot" to defeat McConnell next year.
"She's smart, young and capable of raising enough money to win," Cauley said in an e-mail. "Mitch went DC decades ago. The narrative of a 30-year incumbent vs. a candidate with energy and full of promise will play to her advantage." - USA Today, 7/1/13
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is already raising money for Grimes to defeat McConnell. If you would like to donate, you can do so here:
https://secure.actblue.com/...