Grimes's office says guns-and-gay rights Libertarian candidate filed enough signatures to get on ballot

Libertarian David Patterson filed a nominating petition with more than enough signatures Monday to get on the Nov. 4 ballot for the U.S. Senate, adding a dose of uncertainty to the close race.

Patterson, a Harrodsburg police officer who openly carries a gun while off duty, "turned in more than 9,100 signatures to the secretary of state's office," run by Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, reports Jack Brammer of the Lexington Herald-Leader. "At least 5,000 valid signatures of registered voters are needed to get on the Nov. 4 ballot. Grimes' office took about two hours Monday afternoon to determine that Patterson had provided an adequate number of valid signatures." The filing deadline for third-party and independent candidates is Tuesday.

In the Bluegrass Poll taken in July, Patterson drew 7 percent of the vote, apparently equally from Grimes and Sen. Mitch McConnell. He "does best among younger voters and independents along with those who might change their mind, at 18 percent," notes Phillip Bailey of Louisvile's WFPL.

On his campaign home page, Patterson, 43, says "Our government has overstepped it's [sic] bounds and has compromised our way of life. . . . My goal is to maximize individual liberty, by curbing government interference into your personal daily life. I will accomplish this by working with other elected officials in voting to eliminate wasteful government spending, to consolidate redundant government functions, and to phase out government departments and programs that have outlived their usefulness. I will fight for us to allow Kentucky to determine its own future, and not have the Federal government mandate the details of our lives. And I will protect our civil liberties as Kentuckians, Americans, and individuals."

Other pages on the site also illustrate how Patterson might draw from both major candidates. On the biographical page, Patterson calls himself "an outspoken activist for equal rights for minorities and LGBT persons, and for his strong opposition on violence against women and children." His platform page says he opposes limits on civil liablity, a position held by most Democrats, and favors replacing the income tax with a sales tax, an idea favored by many Republicans. His regional issues page mentions only ideas for the Brent Spence Bridge in Northern Kentucky.

Grimes and McConnell duke it out over student loans; bill's sponsor to campaign for fellow Democrat

By Megan Ingros
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes attacked Sen. Mitch McConnell for blocking a bill that would have let Americans refinance student loans and paid the cost by raising taxes on the wealthy.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), announced soon after the June 11 vote that she will be campaigning for Grimes in Kentucky. Asked on MSNBC how she planned to fight back, she said, "One way I'm going to start fighting back is I'm going to go down to Kentucky and I'm going to campaign for Alison Lundergan Grimes. She's tough, she's feisty, she endorsed the student loan bill, said she wanted to bring down interest rates for Kentuckians."

Warren told interviewer Chris Hayes, "Mitch McConnell is there for millionaires and billionaires. He is not there for people who are working hard playing by the rules and trying to build a future for themselves."

McConnell said on the Senate floor, "Senate Democrats don't actually want a solution for students. They want an issue to campaign on -- to save their own hides in November. . . . Students can understand that this bill won't make college more affordable. They understand it won't reduce the amount of money they have to borrow. And students know it won't do a thing to fix the economy that's depriving so many young Americans of jobs."

McConnell said Democratic Whip Charles Schumer said two years ago that if Democrats "wanted to be, quote, political about this" issue they would have paired it with a tax increase on the wealthy. "His words show, without equivocation, that Senate Democrats are now playing politics with the futures of young Americans -- instead of doing something about the VA crisis."

McConnell said the Democrats who run the Senate should give "full attention" to legislation addressing problems in the Department for Veteran Affairs health care system rather than passing bills to create issues for the election.

Warren's bill died Thursday, June 11 on a 56-38 vote, four votes short of the 60 needed to pass significant legislation in the Senate. Only three Republicans voted with Democrats to proceed with the bill.

Grimes, in a statement, said the bill would have helped 360,000 Kentuckians with student loan debt."The Obama administration estimated the bill could have helped 25 million borrowers save $2,000 over the lifetime of their loans," The Washington Post reported. The default rate for student loans is higher then for other types of loans.

Grimes said the average Kentuckian's student loan debt is $22,384, and "this vote against our middle-class families underscores the fact that my opponent has been in Washington for far too long and just does not get it."

Grimes released a record and background of McConnell's history with student loans. One example given was in 2013 when McConnell "voted against ending filibuster on plan to extend student loan interest rates for two years and keep them from doubling by closing tax loopholes including those for oil companies."

Grimes called on the Senate "to pass both the legislation to ease student loan burden as well as the bipartisan bill to address problems within the Department of Veterans Affairs."