Which McConnell would be Senate majority leader: the hard-line party stalwart or the pragmatic negotiator?

McConnell (Photo by Mark Cornelison)

In an article appearing in Saturday’s Lexington Herald-Leader, Washington Bureau reporter Sean Cockerham of McClatchy Newspapers asks "which version of" Sen. Mitch McConnell will appear if he wins re-election and is promoted to Senate majority leader.

Would it be "the pragmatic deal maker, or the partisan whose feuds the past several years with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have helped define the most dysfunctional Congress of modern times?" Cockerham looks at McConnell’s extensive history in the Senate, but focuses more on his recent leadership of the Republican caucus in opposition to President Obama: "McConnell is known as a skilled tactician and, until the election of Obama at least, as more a pragmatist than a partisan."

That suggests that McConnell has more to gain from his record as a negotiator in 2008 with Reid, and later with Vice President Biden, than as a hard-line party stalwart. However, Cockerham quotes Norman Ornstein, "a centrist scholar on politics and Congress at the American Enterprise Institute," as saying that McConnell's "use of the filibuster as a weapon of mass obstruction" raises doubts about McConnell’s assertion that a Senate led by him would not block amendments in the way Reid has.

"McConnell laid out a more confrontational vision at a private gathering organized by the billionaire Koch brothers in June," Cockerham notes, using "the spending bill" to targeting the Environmental Protection Agency, Obamacare and financial reform, perhaps under budget-reconciliation rules that block filibusters by the minority. "He'd risk a politically damaging government shutdown."

McConnell biographer John David Dyche "believes McConnell as majority leader would want to work with both parties to get things accomplished, but that it would be up to the other Republican senators how much he’d be able to do so," Cockerham reports. "He likely would be running a Senate with just a razor-thin Republican majority, riven by internal divisions between tea party acolytes and centrists over issues such as spending and immigration."

Voters say jobs top issue by far; Libertarian's role may be decisive; a 99 percent re-election probability?

Roundups may run twice or more a day from here on out . . .

• The Bluegrass Poll found that 54 percent of registered voters believe that jobs and the economy are the top issue in the race. "Ten percent said health care, 9 percent foreign policy and 9 percent immigration," writes Mike Wynn of The Courier-Journal. "Only 8 percent stressed taxes and spending, while 3 percent said social issues and 2 percent energy." Concerns of the economy were at the top of the list for voters of all ages.
• 

  Less than a month before the election, a new web-based application has been released to help undecided voters find their true match.
  VOTR, released Monday by digital news agency Vocativ, touts similar attributes to the popular matchmaking application Tinder by allowing users to enter information about themselves and see people with similar interests.
  This application is not for dating, though. VOTR uses questions about issues such as abortion, gun control and the decriminalization of marijuana to match you with candidates in all 37 Senate races this fall.
  You then see the candidates' profile with a 'fast fact' and their positions on the issue questions you just answered.
• The Daily Independent of Ashland says in an editorial that in a tightening race, "The role of a third party candidate like Libertarian David Patterson becomes increasingly important." Noting the recent Bluegrass Poll showing Grimes with a 2-point lead over McConnell, with Patterson getting 3 percent and others 1 percent (there are three declared write-in candidates) the paper says, "In a race that is as close as this one is shaping up to be, that 4 percent can be the difference between victory and defeat for the two major-party candidates." The editorial compared the race to the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore: "Long-time consumer advocate Ralph Nader was never considered a major candidate for president in that race, but in Florida, Nader, running as an independent, received just enough votes to tip the results in Florida to Bush." The editorial noted that Kentuckians have already showed sentiment for libertarian views, by electing Rand Paul to the other Senate seat in 2010. "We repeat: David Patterson has no chance of being elected to the U.S. Senate, but in a close race, he still could play a pivotal role in determining the winner of this coveted seat." --Tyler Spanyer
• McConnell’s seat isn’t as safe as it once was, suggests a change the Battle for the Senate Race chart on RealClearPolitics.com. In what had previously been considered a state that leaned towards the Republican incumbent, Kentucky has now been reclassified as a state in which the Senate race is a tossup. The news comes just five days after the new Bluegrass Poll showed Grimes with a 2-point lead. The lead reflects a 6-point swing from the previous Bluegrass Poll in late August. Real Clear Politics includes in its analysis that until there is a confirming poll, the poll should be treated as an outlier, contrary to the recent trend to McConnell. The Chicago-based political news and polling data collective shows McConnell in front of Grimes by 4.2 percentage points based on an average of surveys collected from Aug. 28 to Oct. 2.
• Dana Milbank, a columnist for The Washington Post, reports "Big Data" modelers are predicting Senate elections with mathematical precision, and cites a forecast by the Post’s Election Lab, run by George Washington University professor John Sides that McConnell has a 99 percent chance of winning.
• With the race a short four weeks away, the direct mail pieces being sent to households are flying in. Some are from lobbying groups that can give only $10,000 to a candidate but can spend unlimited sums on independent campaigns for or against candidates. McConnell is touted in pieces from the National Association of Realtors as someone who knows "our nation's economic recovery depends on a strong housing market." The pieces say "a job is created for every two homes sold." Unlike the recent representation of McConnell by the Grimes campaign, the piece says he supports middle-class Americans and will "fight to maintain the home-mortgage-interest tax deduction that middle-class homeowners depend on." The pieces also say McConnell supports the Rural Housing Program, which Kentuckians statewide depend upon for affordable financing. --Paige Hobbs
• The Republican Party of Kentucky has mailed an advertisement criticizing Alison Lundergan Grimes for hiding her "true agenda." Shotgun-style criticisms in the ad, illustrated with suitcases and stickers, include: "She is criss-crossing Kentucky, dodging questions about the issues." The claims that if elected, Grimes will cast her vote for Harry Reid as Senate majority leader, support "Kentucky coal killing liberals," and support the rest of President Obama's agenda.  The ad claims Grimes has held secret meetings with anti-coal liberals. Fund-raisers are typically private events. It also calls a "crooked bus deal" the arrangement between Grimes and her father, Jerry Lundergan, for campaign transportation. The mailer notes says that Grimes was part of the Kentucky delegation to the 2012 Democratic National Convention that nominated President Obama, and publicly supported the president's re-election bid. --Cheyene Miller

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.

McConnell backs bill to restore cuts that Obamacare is making to home-health providers

ERLANGER, Ky. -- Sen. Mitch McConnell spoke Thursday at a rally in Northern Kentucky to throw his support behind a bill to reverse cuts that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care made to the home health care industry.

The law cut Medicare home-health funding to be cut 3.5 percent annually over the next four years. The home-health industry cites a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate that 40 percent of all home health agencies will lose money by 2017.

In endorsing the bill to restore the cuts, McConnell again called the law the "worst piece of legislation in modern history," and said that it is a step on the path towards European-style, single-payer health care. He also said that its passage differed from other major social programs like Medicare, because it was passed on a partisan basis.

McConnell ended his speech by telling the group that if they wanted to change the law, "changing the Senate is a start." He has not said what he would do to replace what he calls “Obamacare” and declined to take questions after the event.

McConnell ad lauds deals; he touts bill for veterans, topic of ad targeting him; Grimes ad gets low mark

A rolling roundup as we head into the weekend . . .

• Sen. Mitch McConnell has started a new TV commercial touting his negotiation of budget agreements as Senate minority leader, with a series of laudatory remarks from a wide range of sources, including liberal commentator Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball."
  
• McConnell, who is being attacked in a TV ad for not supporting a bill to improve veterans' benefits, announced that a bill he co-sponsored to help increase their cost-of-living adjustments has passed the Senate. A press release said he was one of 15 co-sponsors, and voted recently against a reduction in COLAs that was authorized in the December 2013 budget agreement. "He later introduced a measure to reinstate this full benefit and voted for legislation enacted in February 2014 that reinstated the full COLA for all military retirees," the release said.
• Politifact found more fault with a long-running Grimes ad, this time with its assertion that McConnell voted "three times for corporate tax breaks that sent jobs overseas." The fact-checking service of the Tampa Bay Times says the ad is "mostly false" because tax law allowing deductions for business moving expenses does not specifically promote outsourcing, and McConnell cast three procedural votes that blocked bills that "would have given a tax benefit to companies that insource jobs and denied an already-existing tax break to companies that outsource them."
• Grimes criticized McConnell for blocking a proposed constitutional amendment that "would allow Congress and state lawmakers to override recent Supreme Court decisions that have struck down campaign-finance laws," as described by Politico. In a press release, Grimes said "Sen. McConnell remains more concerned about the whims of millionaires and billionaires than Kentuckians struggling to make ends meet. My opponent shamefully admits that the 'worst day' of his political life was not the VA scandal or the Great Recession that saw 118,000 Kentuckians lose their jobs, but rather when Congress decided to limit the money his wealthy friends could give him for re-election."
• Grimes issued another release saying McConnell had a bad week; among the examples were his refusal to disavow the remarks of a fellow speaker at the Koch brothers event in June, who called the minimum wage fascist and unemployed people lazy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., mentioned the remarks in a speech during the debate on the constitutional amendment.
• The remarks are the focus of a new TV ad attacking McConnell, being run by the liberal group MoveOn.org.
• Grimes has a new web ad, in which voters say "Hey, Mitch," and ask questions about McConnell's voting record.
• On KET's "Comment on Kentucky," WDRB's Lawrence Smith said Grimes released an internal poll to "calm the nerves" of contributors and "blunt momentum McConnell seems to have."
• The Kentucky Senate race is no longer in the list of "Top 10 Senate Takeovers" on NBC News' "First Read." It was No. 8 in mid-July. Could have somethign to do with these trend lines of poll averages as drawn by Real Clear Politics:

Grimes does friendly national TV interview, out-raises McConnell in N. Ky.; Bluegrass Poll coming 8 p.m. Sat.

Heading into Labor Day weekend with some interesting developments . . .

• Joe Gerth, political writer for The Courier-Journal, reports on his Facebook page that the results of the latest Bluegrass Poll will be published at 8 p.m. Saturday.
• Alison Lundergan Grimes has raised more than twice as much money in "conservative Northern Kentucky" as Sen. Mitch McConnell, which "might indicate tepid support for McConnell among Republicans," writes Scott Wartman of The Kentucky Enquirer. "Some suggest residual resentment over tea party candidate Matt Bevin’s loss to McConnell in the primary might be in play among Republicans in Northern Kentucky."
• In a video of less than two minutes, Madeline Marshall of Politico nicely sums up the how Kentuckians' concerns about leadership figure in the race.
• Grimes appeared on MSNBC's "The Last Word" last night, and host Lawrence O'Donnell said it was "her first national television interview about her campaign." Aside from her usual talking points and her mantra of "30 years," Grimes said this about Sen. Mitch McConnell's recently revealed remarks in June to a group of big Republican funders: "These audio recordings, they go farther than any stump speech Mitch McConnell has ever offered" or votes he has cast, she said. "These tapes reveal that if re-elected, he won't even consider a vote to raise the minimum wage," extend unemployment benefits "and making college more affordable for our students" by reducing interest rates on student loans. . . . "I believe the majority of Kentuckians believe in these common-sense solutions as to how we grow the middle class and finally get Washington working."
• O'Donnell, who was a friendly interviewer, asked Grimes about McConnell's recent statement that he would not shut down the government as part of his plan, if he is majority leader, to attach policy riders to funding bills. She said voters "can no longer trust him" because he let the Farm Bill lapse and the government shut down last year. "He’s the one who is so out of step with the values we have in the commonwealth of Kentucky, he’s willing to choose millionaires and billionaires over the hardworking people here in this state," she said.
• Asked to cite her main disagreements with President Obama, she said of McConnell "wants to run this race against anyone but me," and "The gridlock, the mess that he’s created in Washington, well, it’s why the president is wrongly ruling by executive order. … The people of Kentucky, they know that I’m a strong, independent Kentucky woman who will do what’s right for the people of this state. You seek to have the best interest of this state at heart, and I’ll work with you, but you seek to strike at the good jobs that we have here in Kentucky and you will find no stronger opponent." McConnell's campaign noted in a press release that she didn't name an issue on which she disagrees. For a nearly complete transcript of the interview, click here.

McConnell says he wouldn't force government shutdown; GOP challenges Libertarian's signatures

Sen. Mitch McConnell keeps leading the news about the race, and the bus won't go away:

• "In his strongest words to date, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell tried to quash talk that he would allow another government shutdown if he becomes Senate majority leader next year," Dana Bash reports for CNN. "It's a failed policy," McConnell told her.
• Bill Goodman of KET interviewed Jonathan Martin of The New York Times about his 6,000-word profile of McConnell, which will be in the newspaper's printed magazine Sunday. Martin said of the senator, "The fact that his career has been interpreted as, not accidental, but not necessarily illustrious, bothers him, and he wants to really put an exclamation point on his career by winning this year, in what could be his last race." Near the end of the 18-minute interview, there's a great story about how McConnell developed his tough attitude at an early age, and Martin reveals that some of the material he gathered will be posted in smaller bits on the magazine's website later.
• The controversial bus being used by Alison Lundergan Grimes's campaign "does not appear to have the proper permits required to operate the charter bus," Joe Gerth of The Courier-Journal reports.
• Grimes will appear on "The Last Word" on MSNBC tonight at 10 ET.
• The state Republican Party has asked county clerks to verify the names and addresses on the petition filed to get Libertarian candidate David Patterson on the ballot. Grimes, the secretary of state, certified Patterson's name to the clerks Monday for placement on ballots. Ballots must be printed by Sept. 15. State Republican Chairman Steve Robertson told the Lexington Herald-Leader on Thursday that Republicans found "clearly fictitious and fabricated names," and "We believe very strongly" that Patterson has not qualified. Patterson told the newspaper that more than 5,700 "good signatures" were among the 9,000 submitted. "At least 5,000 valid signatures of registered voters are needed to get on the Nov. 4 ballot," Sam Youngman reports.

Magazine's audio, transcript: McConnell disses wage-floor boost, extra help for student debtors, jobless

A recording of Sen. Mitch McConnell, apparently done in secret, has him disparaging minimum-wage increases, extended unemployment benefits and relief for student-loan debtors, according to The Nation, a liberal magazine that published the barely audible recording and a transcript today.

After discussing his recently revealed plan to attach policy riders to funding bills, to force President Obama to veto them and/or negotiate, McConnell said, according to the transcript:

"We’re not going to be debating all these gosh-darn proposals. That’s all we do in the Senate, is vote on things like raising the minimum wage (inaudible) – cost the country 500,000 new jobs; extending unemployment – that’s a great message for retirees; uh, the student loan package the other day, that’s just going to make things worse, uh. These people believe in all the wrong things."

McConnell was answering questions after speaking June 15 at a California "donor summit" held by Charles and David Koch, brothers who have been two of the leading financiers of conservative causes and Republican campaigns in recent years.

"The main thrust of McConnell’s remarks to the Koch conference were about his pet issue, campaign finance, which he regards as a matter of free speech," Lauren Windsor reports for The Nation. According to the magazine, he said "the worst day of my political life" was when President George W. Bush signed the McCain-Feingold law, "the bill that banned soft money and unlimited donations to party committees," Windsor writes.

"McConnell promised his party’s rich backers that he stands with them, no matter the cost to Kentuckians and this nation," the Alison Lundergan Grimes campaign said in a press release.

The McConnell campaign didn't dispute the transcript, but cast the senator's remarks as no different from his stump speeches and a forthright defense of the coal industry that it said Grimes has been too timid to defend: "Earlier this summer Grimes failed to utter a word of support after promising Kentuckians she would defend Kentucky coal at a Harry Reid fundraiser and lord [sic] knows what she said to Tom Steyer and anti-coal billionaires when she attended their conference in Chicago."

Roundup: Grimes claims McConnell plans to shut down the government; contest has Georgia connections

Roundup for Aug. 25:

• Alison Lundergan Grimes launched a 30-second web ad casting Sen. Mitch McConnell's plan to attach policy riders to funding bills as a bid to "shut down the government again." The ad is based on McConnell's interview with Politico, published last week, in which he said that if he becomes Senate majority leader he would attach the riders on environmental and other issues to force President Obama to accept policy changes or veto the bills and/or negotiate. The ad accurately uses Politico's description, "McConnell has a game plan to . . . risk a government shutdown," but also uses this line from MSNBC: "McConnell isn't even being subtle . . . Republicans will simply shut down the government." That leaves out an important qualifier in the story: "If the White House refuses to go along." A Grimes fundraising solicitation, emailed today, mentions the shutdown last October and says "McConnell said that if he wins, he'd do it again," incorrectly implying that he caused the shutdown. McConnell said after the Politico interview was published, "I'm the guy who gets us out of government shutdowns. I don't believe in government shutdowns." UPDATE, Aug. 26: The Grimes campaign went farther in an email today, saying McConnell "promises to shut down the government again."
• E.J. Dionne, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and columnist for The Washington Post, writes for The National Memo that "Grimes and the Democrats need to confront McConnell forcefully on the issue he has tried to fudge: A flat repeal of Obamacare would mean taking insurance away from the more than 521,000 Kentuckians who, as of last Friday, had secured coverage through Kynect. How would that sit with the state’s voters?" Dionne cites polls showing voters have a marginally favorable opinion of Kynect, the state's health-insurance exchange, and an ad by Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor in the Arkansas Senate race, "touting his vote for the health-care law as a positive for the people of his increasingly Republican state. Pryor’s ad is so soft and personal that it’s almost apolitical." That's because it involves his own cancer, and his father, former Sen. David Pryor, says “Mark’s insurance company didn’t want to pay for the treatment that ultimately saved his life.”
• Grimes and McConnell will appear together tomorrow afternoon at the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce's Red, White & Blue Picnic on the north lawn of the Daviess County Courthouse, on Second Street. "The event begins at 5 p.m., and McConnell and Grimes will be the first two speakers, beginning at 5:15 p.m," Steve Vied reports for the Messenger-Inquirer. "More than 20 other candidates for national, state and local offices are scheduled to speak."
• Kentucky is one of two states where a female Democrat is trying to capture a Republican-held seat. In Georgia, Democrat Michele Nunn, daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, posted a 7-point lead over recent Republican nominee David Perdue in an Aug. 20-21 poll by Landmark Communications for WSB-TV, mainly on the strength of an 18-point lead among women. However, Nunn trailed by 7 in an Aug. 12-13 poll for InsiderAdvantage and WAGA-TV and by 9 in a SurveyUSA poll taken Aug. 14-17. Grimes and McConnell were virtually tied among women in recent polling. For a report by David Lightman of McClatchy Newspapers, click here.
• Perdue and McConnell met recently and buried the hatchet, reports Phil Kent of InsiderAdvantageGeorgia: "In answering a question during a primary debate, the “outsider” Perdue vowed that he wouldn’t vote for McConnell as the Senate GOP leader in a party caucus vote. But that was then and this is now. This writer questioned Perdue spokesperson Derrick Dickey as to whether his boss, if elected, would “re-consider” voting for McConnell as caucus leader whether the Republicans take control of the Senate or not. Dickey, who once handled communications for former Gov. Sonny Perdue, was precise: Perdue “would support the GOP leadership when he comes to D.C.” Dickey also pointed out that, at this point, no other senator is running against McConnell. And Dickey concluded by proclaiming that Perdue “felt good” about the McConnell meeting. This “era of good feeling” is a welcomed sign – especially when one considers that a Perdue Facebook posting says that, if elected, he will request a seat on the Senate Agriculture Committee," an appointment McConnell would make. Kent asks, "Will the Kentucky media and/or McConnell’s Democrat opponent bring up that GOP candidates like Perdue said they “oppose” the veteran Republican as their leader? And how would McConnell respond?"

McConnell says his plan for policy riders on funding bills is not intended to shut down the government

In a wide-ranging interview with Manu Raju of Politico last week, published today, Sen. Mitch McConnell made clear that if he becomes Senate majority leader, he would use appropriations bills to force concessions from President Obama on environmental and other issues, including anti-coal and water-pollution regulations.

Raju described the strategy as forcing Obama to "accept bills reining in the administration’s policies or veto them and risk a government shutdown," and that brought almost immediate howls of protest from Democrats. But McConnell said after a forum today with Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, "I didn't use that word at all. ... I'm the guy who gets us out of government shutdowns. I don't believe in government shutdowns."

McConnell told Raju, "We’re going to pass spending bills, and they’re going to have a lot of restrictions on the activities of the bureaucracy. That’s something he won’t like, but that will be done. I guarantee it." Raju notes, "If Obama refuses to accept such measures, a government shutdown could ensue. Republicans bore much of the blame for last year’s government shutdown, which was prompted by conservative tactics McConnell opposed, and their fortunes rebounded only when the administration bungled the rollout of Obamacare."

The senator's main target is the Environmental Protection Agency, which has proposed to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants, a dagger to the already suffering Appalachian coal industry, and to extend its Clean Water Act regulations to all "waters of the United States," which McConnell called "every puddle in America" at a forum sponsored by the Kentucky Farm Bureau, whose national parent is a leading opponent of the idea.

Raju's story dealt mainly with the workings of the Senate, and he did not delve into policy details, but McConnell has already tried to add an EPA rider to an appropriations bill, and he made clear during and after the forum that those two regulatory efforts will be his targets if he is re-elected, Republicans take control of the Senate and he becomes majority leader. And he indicated that he hopes for some bipartisan leverage: "There are many Democrats who share our concerns."

UPDATE, Aug. 21: Democrats have been "firing back" at McConnell's "suggestion that Republicans, if they win control of the Senate, would possibly threaten to shutdown the government to force policy changes from President Barack Obama," reports Mark Murray of NBC News. White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, "McConnell's case for a GOP Senate -- more shutdowns, more brinkmanship, more gridlock, less progress." Murray reports, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, "Once again, we're seeing that Republicans see government shutdowns as partisan tools, not economic disasters. It's exactly this kind of reckless gamesmanship that led to the last shutdown and is leaving the door open for another at the end of September. For the sake of our economy, this Republican Congress needs to take shutdowns off the table once and for all."

'These people are against everything we stand for,' McConnell says of Clintons, Obama and EPA

By Cheyene Miller and Al Cross
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

CORBIN, Ky. -- Starting a two-day, 10-county bus tour through the East Kentucky Coal Field, Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers linked Alison Lundergan Grimes to President Obama, his anti-coal policies and loss of miners' jobs in the region.

Mitch McConnell speaks in Corbin. (Photo by Cheyene Miller)

After recounting his history with former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned with Grimes in Hazard and Lexington the day before, and Hillary Clinton and Obama, McConnell said in Corbin, “These people are against everything we stand for. They're against our way of life and we're going to stop 'em.”

Noting in Middlesboro that Grimes had labeled herself "a Clinton Democrat" in Hazard, McConnell said, "There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between a Clinton Democrat and an Obama Democrat when it comes to coal. We will not be fooled!"

Speaking at Whayne Supply in Corbin, a major vendor to the coal industry, McConnell said Clinton "wildly applauded" Obama's proposed limits on carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. He said “Congress would not pass what the administration is now doing by itself,” when Democrats controlled it. He was referring to a "cap and trade" plan that would have created a market for air-pollution credits; Obama's plan has caps, but no trading.

At Middlesboro, McConnell argued that Obama's plan to fight global warming "is going to be about as effective as dropping a pebble in the ocean" because the rest of the world is moving toward coal. In Corbin, he called for actions to allow coal to make resurgence in Kentucky, and for the EPA to “get off our backs.”

McConnell, in his 30th year as a senator, pressed voters to give him a sixth term. He and Rogers held out the prospect, considered more likely than not by most experts, that Republicans will take control of the Senate in the Nov. 4 elections and make McConnell the new Senate majority leader.

In Corbin, McConnell called Grimes “new face for the status quo” and said “We have an opportunity to begin to change our country.”

In Middlesboro, he said, “You’re unhappy with what they’ve done to our country, the way they’re turning us into a Western European country, the way they question our values, the way they question the way we live. These are people who do not understand us and do not respect us, and this is the year that we begin to take America back. . . . It begins by making me the leader of a new majority to take us in a different direction."

To applause in Middlesboro, Rogers said he and the Republican-controlled House had "cut the EPA’s budget three years in a row by upwards of 20 percent," only to be thwarted by the Democratic-controlled Senate. "I can’t wait to be able to send that bill back over there with a 20 percent or whetever cut to the EPA and its personnel, send it to Mitch McConnell as majority leader and he passes it through the Senate," Rogers said. "That’s gonna be sweet."

Rogers, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, blamed the loss of 8,000 coal-mining jobs in his Fifth District on Democratic and EPA policies, though industry experts have said the major factor in the job losses has been a flood of cheap natural gas from horizontal hydraulic fracturing, switching power plants from coal to gas.

"If we can just survive through the Obama presidency and live, we’ll be lucky," he said. "We need the strongest, most powerful voice we can find to rep Kentucky and our coal-mining industry and the coal miners, active and retired, to fight to Kentucky’s cause in Washington."

At Corbin, Rogers was asked whether Obama had delivered on what he said last year in a speech outlining his climate-change policies, that areas affected by the policies should get special help. “I’ve not seen any help,” said Rogers, who accused the president of “flooding our minds with spectacles.”

July 15 roundup: Local coverage, big money, abortion-group ads and more gender politics

Here's an illustration of why local news media should cover and record (preferably on video) the Senate candidates when they come to town:

• Sen. Mitch McConnell "seemed to have little sympathy for students who have accumulated massive amounts of student debt during a town hall with constituents last week," Amanda Terkel writes for the Huffington Post. Asked in Oldham County "what changes should be made so that students aren't leaving school with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt," McConnell said there should be any government intervention and that students should look into schools that are cheaper. "Not everybody needs to go to Yale. I don't know about you guys, but I went to a regular ol' Kentucky college," McConnell said. He is a graduate of the University of Louisville and the law school at the University of Kentucky. Terkel's report was based on a story by The Oldham Era's Taylor Riley, whose report included a 36-minute video of McConnell's remarks.
• Grimes said she raised more than $4 million in the second quarter of the year, setting a Kentucky record and besting McConnell's $3.1 million. She having reported $6.2 million in her campaign treasury while McConnell reported $9.8 million. Complete reports aren't readily available today because senators have blocked making their reports digital. 
• Over the weekend, NPR reporter Tamara Keith provided a synopsis of what you could buy in Kentucky for $100 million, the predicted total expenses in the Senate race. "You could buy a bottle of the state's own Maker's Mark whiskey for nearly every man, woman and child in the state," Keith said. The race could end up being the most expensive in history. McConnell's unpopularity in Kentucky created an opening for Grimes, and "not only are the candidates and political parties spending big; so are outside groups," reports Keith.
• "A national abortion rights group is launching an attack ad against McConnell for 'never doing the right thing for Kentucky women'," Joe Arnold of Louisville's WHAS-TV reports. A NARAL Pro-Choice America spokeswoman told Arnold the group made "a mid-range five-figure ad buy for cable and another mid-range five figure ad buy online in the Lexington and Louisville markets," both of which are modest. Alison Lundergan Grimes said "the Supreme Court 'got it wrong' in the Hobby Lobby case," reports Arnold. McConnell's campaign spokeswoman said, "If you need to know who Alison Lundergan Grimes intends to represent if elected, consider that radical abortion groups are now descending upon Kentucky to run ads on her behalf. The fact that Alison Lundergan Grimes cannot even support Sen. McConnell's common-sense efforts to curb late-term abortions shows Kentuckians that her agenda aligns with President Obama and extreme pro-abortion groups in Washington."
• McConnell's campaign released a statement regarding McConnell's remarks on the Senate floor today on the "struggles of middle-class women under Obamacare," but the only distinction he made about women was to say that "Research shows that women make about 80 percent of the health-care decisions for their families in this country."
• McConnell played a little gender politics in criticizing President Obama's decision to replace Cheryl LaFleur as chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with “a male nominee with less experience,” reports Ramsey Cox of The Hill. "McConnell pointed out that Bay has never served as a state utility regulator or as a FERC commissioner. Republicans and some pro-fossil fuel Democrats opposed Bay’s nomination in committee."
• "In a web video released Monday, McConnell's campaign counters Grimes's claims about McConnell's stance on Medicare policy with excerpts of last week's news coverage which uniformly reported that Grimes's commercial is misleading," Joe Arnold of WHAS 11 reports. The first 20 seconds of the video begins with Grimes's ad, "then proceeds with clips from local television stories and national fact-checking wings of newspapers which reached similar conclusions about the commercial," Arnold says, but the video does not include "critiques of factual problems with McConnell's commercial produced in response to the Grimes ad.".
• Grimes' campaign released a statement regarding McConnell's history in Washington and his 2011 vote to advance the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. McConnell "voted against extending unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed," the statement noted.
• Harry Enten of Five Thirty Eight writes that polls have over-estimated Democratic Senate candidates' strength in Kentucky and Georgia, the two states where national Democrats are trying to unseat incumbents. In Kentucky, polling data shows Grimes trailing McConnell by only 1.5 percentage points, but the political-statistics website gives her less than a 20 percent chance of winning.