As Mitch McConnell primary challenger Matt Bevin officially announces his candidacy, McConnell's campaign is up with their first ad of the primary campaign ... and it doesn't have a single nice thing to say about their candidate's record. Instead, it skewers Bevin as a bailout king and tax delinquent:
McConnell's accusations have a grain a truth, but the tax accusation in particular appears to be fairly
misleading:
Jeff Jyllka, East Hampton’s finance director, and town manager Michael Maniscalco both said in interviews that it was probably accurate to label the company as No. 1 in tax delinquency in 2011. But they said it wasn’t surprising, given how small the town is, and both said Bevin moved quickly to pay off the back taxes.
“When he came in, that was one of his top priorities — to get those taxes paid off,” Jyllka said. “Those are taxes he more or less inherited when he took over the company.” Jyllka added that he believed the back taxes owed were in the $180,000 range.
Presumably, McConnell doesn't much care about the accuracy of his attack, because in order to defend himself, Bevin needs to spend time talking about his business interests in Connecticut, where his manufacturing firm is located. Bevin has lived in Kentucky since 1999, but he certainly doesn't want to dwell on his ties to New England.
Meanwhile, Bevin is on air with a 30-second ad that is split equally between attacking McConnell for doing terrible things like supporting "liberal" judges and extolling Bevin for doing great things like having nine children and being a conservative Republican.
In other news, Bevin's camp is
claiming that McConnell tried to intimidate Bevin out of the race, and when that failed, tried to bribe him with unspecified "shiny political prizes." McConnell's campaign hotly denied the claim, which probably won't have legs, but nonetheless reveals the emotional intensity of the race.
In news that actually could have an impact on the race, the Club For Growth PAC said it was open to considering Bevin. In addition, the Senate Conservatives Fund said it would consider supporting Bevin. SCF raised $25 million in 2010 and 2012, but it did so with Jim DeMint as its leader. With DeMint having quit the Senate to run The Heritage Foundation, SCF may not have the same fundraising ability that it had over the past two cycles.