It seems that the KY Libertarians find Paul offensive too.
Party Vice Chairman Joshua Koch said Wednesday that Paul has been a black eye for Libertarians because of stands he's taken on issues, including his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
And, according to Party Vice Chairman Joshua Koch, the KY Libertarians are considering running a candidate against him.
Why? Well, it seems that they don't like his positions on quite a few issues, and well, don't think much of him personally either.
More below and could this help or hurt Jack Conway?
On the issues, they don't like Rand's positions on his promised support for any measures to ban abortion and his opposition to same-sex marriage.
"Trying to impose a national standard for that would throw the whole system out of balance, and that's definitely not Libertarian," Koch said.
They also don't like his unwillingness to call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq and Afghanistan.
On the personal side, they seem to think he's cracking up:
"He had gone from being an outsider candidate to a tea party candidate to an establishment candidate in the past nine months," Koch said. "It's a complete identity crisis. I've never seen anything like it."
Mainly, Koch and KY Libertarians seem motivated to consider running someone in order to protect their good name as Libertarians.
"The reason why we would even consider running somebody in this race is because we're not going to let Rand determine what a Libertarian stands for," he said. "I'm here to say Rand does not have the Libertarian ideology."
Ouch.
Or, you might think that Rand Paul, and his campaign, might find such a rejection troubling, perhaps even a little painful. Afterall, Ron and Rand sure have been framing themselves as being Libertarian and as followers of the Libertarian philosphy for quite some time.
But young Dr. Paul doesn't seem to be all that much of a Libertarian, afterall. According to the now demoted David Adams, the Rand Paul campaign sees this as a possibly positive turn of events.
The Paul campaign said it wasn't concerned about the development. "If someone wants to split up Kentucky's non-conservative vote more than it already is, that's OK with me," campaign spokesman David Adams said.
Rand Paul likes to use the word interesting, and frankly, I find this very interesting. If Dr. Paul can so easily and cynically accept this turn of events, it makes me question if his apparent acceptance of discrimination really is all that rooted in this ideology, or if his acceptance of discrimination is more accurately driven by his corporatism and well, racism.
Does this help or hurt Jack Conway?
Conway had no comment out, today, and two local political scientists disagreed. One thought it might hurt both equally, and the other thought it would probably pull votes from Paul.
I have an opinion, but it's not based on anything other than my zip code, so I'm not sure it's worth much. But this is my diary, so I'll offer it up for what it's worth.
If the Libertairians do run someone, I think they could take some fiscally conservative Independents away from Paul, and they could even bleed off some of Paul's Tea Partiers from him, as well. There are actually quite a few fiscal conservatives who are fed up with the war spending around here. I think the left leaning Independents might like some of the Libertarian's ideas, but Jack would probably be a more exciting prospect. It would give them a chance to be part of that excitement.
The Libertarians don't have to declare until August 10th, so there remains time for the rift to heal, or for Conway to reach out to them. The only thing that seems clear about all this is that it will continue to be a pass the popcorn election year in KY.