Grimes tears up as she talks about billionaires; Public Policy Polling has her 8 points behind

A Sunday evening roundup that will go into Monday . . .

• Alison Lundergan Grimes teared up today as she urged supporters to get out the vote to overcome the influence of "millionaires and billionaires," who presumably have financed the political committees that have put her at a decided financial disadvantage. “You, you are people who can’t be bought,” she told "the largely union crowd here, her voice breaking slightly and her eyes welling with tears," Jay Newton-Small reports from Henderson for Time magazine. The Grimes campaign circulated the story in a press release that said "Alison is leaving it all on the field."
• Grimes plans to stop Monday in Pikeville, Somerset, Bowling Green, Paducah, Ownesboro, Newport, Louisville (at the Center for African American Heritage), her birthplace of Maysville and her home town of Lexington. Sen. Mitch McConnell also has a fly-around to Louisville, Northern Kentucky, Lexington, Hazard, Paducah, Owensboro and Bowling Green.
• A survey taken Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 by Public Policy Polling showed McConnell with 50 percent, Grimes with 42 percent and 3 percent each for undecided and Libertarian David Patterson. The poll's error margin was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
• McConnell has bought more than $1 million worth of TV commercials "with four different closing-argument commercials — all with targeted messages aimed at appealing to the tastes of viewers in those individual Kentucky media markets," Manu Raju reports for Politico. The ads in Western Kentucky tout McConnell’s work for cancer screening treatments at an industrial plant in Paducah and helping with fishing rights, while the spots in Eastern Kentucky vow to win the “war on coal” and help displaced coal miners. In the Lexington and Cincinnati markets, the ads highlight McConnell helping a woman locate her abducted daughter. And in Louisville, McConnell promotes his efforts to help an aluminum plant that was shedding jobs while also saying he’s “inspired” by an activist helping women who were victims of violent crimes."
• If McConnell wins by a strong margin, he could have coattails that would turn the Kentucky House Republican for the first time since 1921 and perhaps guarantee passage of a "right to work" law that bans union contracts that require workers to pay dues or fees, Mike Elk reports for Politico. Several other Republican measures would be in play, University of Kentucky journalism professor Al Cross noted in his column last Sunday.

McConnell uses Obama's recent words in new ad; conservative sees trouble with Grimes and labor

Friday's roundup of some recent events . . . 

• Joel Gehrke, a contributor for National Review Online, reports that labor activists are upset with their treatment by the Alison Lundergan Grimes campaign. An audio recording of a meeting between union activists and Phinis Hundley, a speaker for the campaign, was obtained by National Review. In the recording, union activists say there has been a lack of communication with Grimes and they are “not impressed” with those in her camp who are “not very good” at following up with supporters or potential voters. Additionally, one man in the call questions whether the Grimes’ campaign has abandoned organized labor altogether.
• Sen. Mitch McConnell has started a 30-second television commercial that claims, “A vote for Alison is a vote for his policies.” President Obama is seen giving a speech and is quoted as saying, “I’m not on the ballot this fall, but make no mistake, these policies every single one of them.” As Obama is shown, the words “war on coal,” “Obamacare” and “massive spending and debt” appear in capital letters below him.

• Grimes spoke at a stop by Nuns on the Bus, a group of Catholic women religious "who advocate for justice and peace and encourage voter participation," Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service. Among her talking points, Grimes reiterated she stands for increasing the minimum wage, extending unemployment benefits, keeping health coverage through Kynect, and decreasing interest rates on student loan debts.

As observers suggest different strategy for Grimes, new ad shows her saying she disagrees with Obama

New ads make news . . .

• Alison Lundergan Grimes has started a television commercial in which she personally makes explicit her differences with President Obama while she takes series of gunshots at clay pigeons and some verbal ones at Sen. Mitch McConnell. Grimes says "I'm not Barack Obama. I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA," the Environmental Protection Agency. She says McConnell "has done next to nothing" to save coal jobs. The 30-second spot ends with a still photograph of McConnell holding up a rifle at a Conservative Political Action Committee event this spring and Grimes saying "Mitch, that's not how you hold a gun." Earlier, she says "Mitch McConnell wants you to think I'm Barack Obama. Mitch is the same guy who thought Duke basketball players were UK." That's a reference to an early McConnell ad that used an incorrect photograph.
  UPDATE, Sept. 15: Grimes's campaign says the ad started Monday, but at least some stations started it Sunday. McConnell's campaign issued a press release noting that Grimes has raised money from and with supporters of new gun control measures.
• Bluegrass Rural, a super PAC with an Oakland, Ky., address, has bought some 60-second radio ads attacking McConnell for his votes for trade agreements and oil companies and against a 2005 bill to buy more armored equipment for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democratic activist Matt Barron of rural Massachusetts, who is involved in the effort, said the group was spending "four figures," or less than $10,000. His press releases say the trade and oil ads begin Monday on stations in Owensboro, Madisonville, Hartford, Glasgow, Bardstown, Liberty, Russell Springs, Mannsville and Mount Sterling. The military ad will run on stations in Lebanon Junction and Vine Grove, near Fort Knox; and Hopkinsville and Cadiz, near Fort Campbell. UPDATE, Sept. 20: Berry Craig writes about the PAC on Hillbilly Report.
• Ronnie Ellis of CNHI News Service writes of Grimes: "A plurality of respondents said they don’t know enough about her to form an opinion – providing McConnell with the opportunity to define her as 'Obama’s candidate.' . . . Maybe over the next two months Grimes needs to persuade undecided voters she’s more than just not McConnell."
• "Grimes might need campaign reset, observers say" is the headline over Joe Gerth's story in The Courier-Journal, which notes that the Bluegrass Poll "has seen her position erode by about 1 percentage point a month." The story quotes Democratic consultant Danny Briscoe as saying that Grimes needs to push a populist message and consider endorsing "the more popular parts of the Affordable Care Act." Al Cross explores the advantages and disadvantages of the latter idea in a column published online Saturday and in print Sunday.
• Gerth reports that the American Civil Liberties Union is objecting to KET's tightening of requirements for inclusion in its Oct. 13 Senate debate, which had the effect of exclusing Libertarian David Patterson. A KET spokesman said that was not the reason.
• Grimes doesn't support "fast track" trade authority for presidents, which McConnell favors, Kevin Wheatley reports for cn|2's "Pure Politics." Grimes told him that she appreciates business interests' “feeling and need to have fast-track approval because Congress isn’t working,” trade agreements “should be fair, especially for our American workers.” Wheatley notes Grimes is supported by labor unions, which oppose fast-track. "Grimes said in a statement emailed to Pure Politics after Saturday’s event that she would evaluate the final proposal 'to see if it is good for Kentucky workers and businesses based on these principles: Will it give Made in the USA goods and services a fair shot of getting into foreign markets or will barriers remain? Will new trading standards be strong enough on labor and legal requirements, or will they be like Chinese standards: filthy factories, sweatshop labor, and stolen patent rights? Will the U.S. and other like-minded countries be setting the rules on trade and commerce, or will it be taking the rules created by countries — like China — with command and control economies?'"

Grimes campaigns among union members, a key to the turnout she needs

By Anthony Pendleton
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Alison Grimes made stops in Lexington and Louisville at union-sponsored picnics on Labor Day. With nearly two months until Election Day, Grimes made the stops to appeal to union members, one of the important Democratic voter bases.

Grimes with Kathy and Max Thomas (Photo by Anthony Pendleton)

The Lexington Labor Day Picnic was held at the Bluegrass Fairgrounds at Masterson Station Park. The event did not include speeches, so Grimes spent most of her time taking photos and talking with people.

Grimes even took a group photo with some of the union members who want to show McConnell that “labor has a huge voice,” as master of ceremonies Mike Philbeck said as the directed the crowd to pose.

Turnout is important for Grimes because it is generally lower in midterm elections, especially among those who tend to vote Democratic.

This year was the first time the Labor Day Picnic had been held in 10 years, according to Bluegrass Central Labor Council President Robert Akin. he said the reason the picnic was revived was to show that labor is ”alive and well in the Bluegrass region.” But he also acknowledged that the election played an indirect role in bringing the picnic back, saying that “Because of the way the world operates in this day and age, we have to become involved in politics.”

When Grimes was interviewed, although she showed support for labor issues, she stuck to her main talking points. When asked how important the minimum wage issue is to her campaign, she immediately attacked McConnell by saying “It’s a holiday he forgot a long time ago,” then went on to say that Kentuckians are ready for change.

She referred to McConnell and used the phrase “millionaires and billionaires” quite often.

The Grimes campaign also sent out a press release detailing other labor issues she supports, such as equal pay for women, extending unemployment insurance, and “closing tax loopholes for companies the send jobs overseas.”

The campaign also released a new ad on Labor Day slamming McConnell for remarks that he made in a speech back in June at a conference sponsored by the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers, David and Charles, are billionaires in charge of Koch Industries. They have become infamous for being climate-change deniers and for opposing legislation that supports the average American.

Advertising from Grimes attacks McConnell for opposing legislation that would help the average American, such as increasing the minimum wage and extending unemployment insurance.

According to the most recent Bluegrass Poll, McConnell is still leading. That poll, which has a margin of error of 4.2 percent, shows that McConnell is leading 46 percent to 42 percent, with big leads in Eastern and Western Kentucky.

Fayette County Democratic Party Executive Committee Member Ken McClanahan believes he knows why McConnell is ahead. McClanahan says it’s because people in rural areas “don’t use logic” and that they’ll vote for McConnell only because he’s done “specific things for them or their neighbors” during his nearly 30 years as a senator.

McClanahan and Michael Bowles, who said they have walked precincts in support of Grimes, they say a line that they hear too often as they go door-to-door is that people think McConnell will be better for the coal industry.

On the coal issue, Grimes is focusing on coal miner safety. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Grimes says she would support two pieces of legislation proposed by West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller. “One would strengthen whistleblower protections for miners and increase criminal penalties for safety violations. Another would make it easier to get black lung benefits and create grants for research into black lung.”

Labor Day roundup: Are we in for 'new levels of intrigue, venom and bare-knuckle brawling'?

A roundup for Labor Day, which may be the quietest day we have for two months . . .

• "As odds improve that the GOP will control both chambers of Congress next year, Senate Republicans are starting to plan an agenda intended to extract policy concessions from President Barack Obama without inducing the capital's market-rattling brinkmanship of recent years," Kristina Peterson reports for The Wall Street Journal., which rates the Senate race in Kentucky as leaning Republican and says Democrats see Sen. Mitch McConnell as "a formidable obstacle to Mr. Obama's legislative agenda." The story quotes McConnell's remarks to "a private June summit of conservatives and donors."
• In a wide-ranging "Political Paddock" column headlined "Making sense of Kentucky's soap opera U.S. Senate race,"  Sam Youngman of the Lexington Herald-Leader concludes, "The fact that McConnell is leading this race while being so unpopular indicates that, at the end of the day, the big question still remains, who do the majority of Kentucky voters find more repellent: McConnell or any candidate from the party of President Barack Obama? . . . Kentucky politics appears to be headed for new levels of intrigue, venom and bare-knuckle brawling."
• Alison Lundergan Grimes campaigned at unions' Labor Day picnics in Louisville and Lexington. The events didn't include speeches, but we were able to ask her and her supporters some questions, and student reporter Anthony Pendleton is preparing a report.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/08/31/3405894_making-sense-of-kentuckys-soap.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

Grimes endorsed by United Mine Workers of America

By Al Cross

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

FANCY FARM, Ky. – The United Mine Workers of America union is endorsing Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race, in a move aimed at blunting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s relentless effort to associate her with the anti-coal policies of the Obama administration.

The union, which abandoned its Democratic traditions by not endorsing President Obama for re-election in 2012, had planned to consider an endorsement in the race at meetings next month. The plan changed in an effort to have more impact on the race.

“Timing is everything in politics,” said Steve Earle, the union’s Midwest vice president and Kentucky political director, said before the political speaking at the Fancy Farm Picnic. “Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.”

Grimes announced the endorsement in her speech at the picnic, only her second joint appearance with McConnell since entering the race over a year ago.

Earle said, “There’s a lot of people supporting coal, but not a lot of people supporting coal miners, and Alison’s going to be a strong voice for coal miners in Washington, D.C., and for working families all across Kentucky.”

Earle said the union is trying to arrange for its president, Cecil Roberts, to appear with Grimes and former President Bill Clinton at a rally Wednesday in Hazard, Ky., a key town in the Central Appalachian coalfield hit hard by market forces and also by the Obama administration’s moves to control water pollution from surface mines and air pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Roberts said in a UMWA press release after the speaking, “Ms. Grimes is not only a strong supporter of coal and the coal industry. She is the only candidate in this race who is also a supporter of coal miners. She cares about their health and safety on the job.  She cares about what happens to them once they retire after a career of dangerous, backbreaking work. She cares about what happens to their families, and what can be done to make their communities stronger.”

McConnell and Grimes have embraced the coal industry with similar fervor in public settings. McConnell has said he is not for new laws on coal-mine health and safety because a reform law was passed eight years ago and more time is needed to see if stronger laws are needed.

UMWA Secretary-Treasurer Dan Kane noted in the press release that incumbent McConnell “passed up a chance to support retired miners and their widows earlier this week in Washington, when he voted against a measure that would have provided funding to help secure the pensions and health care of more than 12,000 Kentucky retirees.”

The UMWA no longer represents any working miners in Eastern Kentucky, but has some non-miner members there, and it represents workers at one mine and processing facilities in Western Kentucky, where the industry is healthier.

               

Grimes tries to turn coal conversation to mine safety

By Al Cross
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

In her bid to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell, Alison Lundergan Grimes has been trying to change the conversation from coal, where President Obama took it last month when he proposed limits on carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. But to keep the votes of Democrats in the state's two coalfields, Grimes has to confront the issue, and this week she tried a new strategy: coal-mine safety.

Grimes laid a wreath at a memorial to the 38 miners
killed in the 1970 Hurricane Creek Mine disaster.
(Lexington Herald-Leader photo by John Flavell)

At the site of a Leslie County disaster that killed 38 miners almost 45 years ago, Grimes told Morgan Lentes of WYMT-TV in Hazard that miners "need to have somebody in Washington D.C. that has their back instead of the big coal corporations," which support McConnell's campaigns. The senator's spokespeople defended his mine-safety record.

In a news release, Grimes accused McConnell of doing "next to nothing to enhance miners’ safety and health," and said she would work as senator to see that the Mine Safety and Health Administration "ensures that mines are as safe as modern technology will allow, deploys a sufficient number of mine inspectors, encourages supervisorial support for inspectors who enforce safety laws, and delivers effective corrective action for multiple, serious or repeated violations. In addition, MSHA and its parent Department of Labor must act aggressively to protect whistle-blowing employees who report safety problems and to back up inspectors who are subjected to intimidation by mine operators."

"Grimes said she supports two bills proposed by West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller," Sam Youngman and Matt Young of the Lexington Herald-Leader report. "One would strengthen whistleblower protections for miners and increase criminal penalties for safety violations. Another would make it easier for coal miners to get black lung benefits and create grants for research into black lung."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/07/03/3321946/grimes-focuses-on-miner-safety.html?sp=/99/322/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

Grimes's release also said coal dust in mines must be "within recognized safe limits," and "monitored frequently and accurately.  Violations must lead to effective corrective measures." In April, the Labor Department moved to reduce the dust limit by 25 percent; the coal industry has asked a federal appeals court to review the change.

The release Grimes also said McConnell "turned a blind eye" when the George W. Bush administration "cut more than 100 inspectors from MSHA, which reduced inspections." McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, was labor secretary at the time. The release didn't mention that point, but cited a 2007 Washington Monthly article that did.

McConnell's campaign replied that he supported the last major mine-safety law, which followed disasters in Kentucky and West Virginia in 2006, and his official spokesman, Robert Steurer, told Youngman that the law hasn't been in effect long enough to consider additional legislation.

McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore told WYMT that the senator "fights every day to protect Kentucky's miners from Grimes' liberal allies who need her vote to completely destroy the coal industry."

Grimes linked the coal issues with another major issue in the race, Obamacare. "Grimes also said McConnell's repeated calls for repeal of the federal health-care law [which] made it easier for widowers of miners with black lung to receive benefits," Youngman writes. "McConnell 'has called for a full repeal of these pro-coal miner protections,' said Grimes, in her most specific embrace of the controversial law, which she has said should be fixed instead of repealed."

The United Mine Workers of America is highly concerned about mine safety but is one of the few labor unions that declined to endorse Obama for re-election in 2012, because of his anti-coal policies. The union's Kentucky political committee of is scheduled to meet in Lexington Sept. 18-19 to hear from the Senate candidates and consider an endorsement. The union represents miners at only one Kentucky mine, in the western coalfield, and at some Kentucky processing facilities, but has many retired members in the state.

June 24 roundup: A bridge too far? Or not far enough?

The candidates' Brent Spence Bridge proposals clearly fell flat:

• Sen. Mitch McConnell proposed to recoup funds for the bridge by repealing the 1931 law that requires union-influenced wages to be paid on federal projects, while Alison Lundergan Grimes called for closing federal tax loopholes. Both have "virtually no chance of actually solving the region's top problem,"writes Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Amanda Van Benschoten. One of the Enquirer's story highlight said both plans "fall flat," and Louisville Business First put a "McConnell's bridge plan falls flat" headline on a story that said "The idea looks like a longshot at best" and cited a story by Chris Wetterich in the Cincinnati Business Courier that said "It looked more like an election-year political ploy than a serious effort to fund a new bridge." McConnell drew the most attention because he held a press conference and "leaked a few details," as Van Benschoten noted. "He took questions from journalists but was clearly irritated at their skepticism of the plan. Then he was whisked out the door to another meeting, less than 30 minutes after arriving. . . . McConnell needs votes from Northern Kentucky, a reliably conservative region in federal races, come November. But almost nobody in the region embraced his plan, even those desperate for any solution that doesn't involve tolls."
• McConnell cited a Congressional Budget Office study that said the nation could save $13 billion over 10 years by repealing the 1931 law. Grimes's campaign cited arguments against repealing the law, which the study mentioned, and referred to the CBO in the headline on its press release. McConnell's campaign said Grimes had  "once again" issued "a misleading interpretation of a CBO report." The link was to a National Review story about Grimes favoring a higher minimum wage, which the McConnell campaign did not mention. The CBO said a $10.10 hourly minimum wage cost jobs, but Grimes had not cited the CBO as a source in discussing the issue.
• Jill Bond of the liberal Blue Nation Review accused McConnell of being a hypocrite for proposing to replace the bridge by "lowering the wage of construction workers: The very people whose lives McConnell just swore he was working so hard to ease" in a speech last week that said "Republicans are looking out for the little guy; fighting to make 'life a little easier' and 'paychecks bigger' for 'working mothers' and 'middle-class Americans' while fighting against the same old big-government solutions."

June 20 roundup: Candidates offer ways to rebuild a major bridge, but neither idea is likely to become law

The biggest issue in Northern Kentucky took center stage in the race today:

Kentucky Enquirer photo by Patrick Reddy

• Sen. Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes "dueled over the Brent Spence Bridge," an aging, outdated span that carries Interstates 75 and 71 across the Ohio River from Covington to Cincinnati, Scott Wartman of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Grimes has rejected the idea of tolls to finance a new bridge; just before a McConnell press conference on the issue today, she proposed getting the money "by closing tax loopholes that benefit millionaires and billionaires" and other tax breaks. McConnell proposed to get funding by repealing the law that requires union-influenced wages to be paid on federal projects. Neither idea can become law, panelists on KET's "Comment on Kentucky" said tonight. The Grimes campaign called McConnell's plan "a gimmick," said he had done nothing about the bridge during his nearly 30 years in the Senate, and noted that he said earlier this year the project was up to Kentucky and Ohio. For a more detailed report and video from Jacqueline Pitts of cn|2, click here.
• The American Federation of Government Employees endorsed Grimes. Last week, two locals of the union, in heavily Republican southeastern Kentucky, endorsed McConnell.
• Grimes "strains to distance herself from Washington, President Obama and all the insidery politics condemned by folks outside the Beltway," write Al Kamen and Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post, but defeating McConnell "requires a lot of money, so a candidate can’t afford to be too choosy about whose checks she cashes — even if they’re bound to raise a few eyebrows back home," so next week Grimes is set to attend a cocktail-party fundraiser in Manhattan hosted by producer Harvey Weinstein and Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who "have donated heavily to PACs working to unseat McConnell, and have given the max contributions to Grimes . . . the 2014 'it' girl. Although the Democrats’ hold on the Senate is tenuous, ousting the would-be majority leader would be quite the coup for the party."
• The race ranks No. 7 among the 12 that The Washington Post says will decide control of the Senate: "Republicans are feeling more confident about McConnell's chances following the Republican leader's convincing primary victory last month and their sense that the GOP is quickly uniting behind him. And, President Obama didn't do Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes any favors with his announcement on power plants earlier this month. But, as we have written in this space, McConnell's numbers suggest his vote ceiling is very low. And, in a cycle where they have very few opportunities, Democrats will pour everything they have into this one." The only other Republican-held seat among the 12 is the open seat in Georgia.

June 16 roundup: Local unions for guards at 2 federal prisons endorse McConnell; Grimes seeks coal votes

As summer heat arrives, campaign heat increases:

• McConnell announced that he has been endorsed by corrections officers at federal prisons in Clay and McCreary counties, both heavily Republican areas. Officers of both American Federation of Government Employees locals said McConnell had always been responsive to their safety and security concerns. McConnell has also been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

• Alison Lundergan Grimes, dressed in overalls, visited an underground coal mine and had a roundtable discussion in Floyd County Friday. WYMT-TV reports she said, "I don't agree with what the president has done, his energy philosophy. It's a stark contrast to mine. But I also don't agree with the 30 years of failed leadership; Mitch McConnell has had now three decades to address the issues facing Kentucky, and he has not saved one coal job." Grimes has blamed Sen. McConnell for the decline in Kentucky coal jobs while he has been in office; he blames President Obama for the decline in the last two years. For a release from the Grimes campaign, click here.
• EMILY's List, which supports female candidates, is running a TV commercial in North Carolina to re-elect Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and says it will spend $3 million on a statewide voter mobilization effort, raising the question of whether the group might also make an effort for Grimes. The group's name stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast" and it is known for its early involvement in races.