Democratic senatorial committee to resume ads; WKU poll shows Grimes voters are heavily anti-McConnell

It's still a race, but . . .

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which dismayed many Democrats last week by stopping its Kentucky advertising, is back in the race, reports Manu Raju of Politico: "The party committee is reserving $650,000 in air time to boost Alison Lundergan Grimes after reviewing recent internal and public polling, a DSCC official told Politico. The polling, the source says, suggested that independent voters are moving in the Democrat's direction."
• Reid Wilson of The Washington Post writes in his daily "Read In" that Post reporter Paul Kane offers this take on the race: "Alison Lundergan Grimes wins if voters are thinking about Mitch McConnell and his lousy approval ratings. Mitch McConnell wins if voters are considering President Obama and his even lousier approval ratings. In an era of political negativity, there may not be a single race this year that's so dependent on turning attention to the other side."
• 
  "The Kentucky Senate race comes down this: whether voters are more willing to vote against a Barack Obama who is not on the ballot, or a Mitch McConnell who is," writes Aaron Blake of the Post, citing the Big Red Poll by Western Kentucky University social scientists. The poll was taken over two weeks, ending Oct. 19, so it has no value as a current snapshot, but it does reveal that "very few people are actually voting for Grimes. Rather, 60 percent of Grimes supporters say their vote is more about casting a ballot against McConnell," Blake reports. "Voters for McConnell, meanwhile, are much more likely to say it's about supporting the incumbent (62 percent) than opposing Grimes (33 percent)." Blake wonders "what these numbers would look like if you substituted Grimes's name for another Democrat, President Obama. A recent CBS News poll showed 56 percent of Republicans nationally say their midterm vote will be a symbolic vote against Obama. That doesn't mean equally as many McConnell backers would say their vote is more about Obama than McConnell. But given the tenor of the race and the repeated attempts by Republicans to tie Grimes to Obama (along with her all-too-telling refusal to say whether she voted for Obama), it's clear that the president is a major subplot of this race."
• Chris Cillizza of the Post answers the most-asked question about the race: Is it over? "There is a scenario by which Grimes wins, but it is not the most likely scenario. (Of the three major election models that aim to predict outcomes, the best chance Grimes has is a 22 percent probability of winning in the FiveThirtyEight model.)"
• The National Rifle Association is running full-page, color ad in rural newspapers saying that "Mitch McConnell Will Stop the Obama Gun Control Agenda." Here's the rest of the ad:
  
  

Groups say they'll protest Romney, McConnell; Grimes starts TV ad with Bill Clinton; McConnell ad has miner

There's a lot more going on than we have students willing or able to write about it . . .

• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is scheduled to attend fund-raising events Thursday in for Sen. Mitch McConnell. The private fundraiser will be held at Donamire Farm on Old Frankfort Pike in Lexington. In an advisory sent to the news media, activists said they would gather to protest outside the fundraiser. According to the advisory, the protesters will be members of People for the American Way, the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org and CREDO Action. The activists are expected to protest McConnell's support of the wealthy and push for a stronger voice for average citizens.
• Former president Bill Clinton is appearing in a television commercial for Alison Lundergan Grimes, who has campaigned with him twice in Kentucky and is expected to host him again. The 30-second spot shows footage of their campaign stop in Hazard. UPDATE, Oct. 2: John Harris of Politico writes of Clinton and his wife, "The Clinton Brand of 2014 is missing three key elements that vaulted Bill Clinton to power in 1992. First was new ideas. Second was an authentic populist connection. Third was the idea of generational change."
• McConnell is running an 30-second TV ad featuring Chris Sexton of Letcher County, who says he "got laid off because of the war on coal" and retrained as an emergency medical technician in a program McConnell helped fund. The McConnell campaign has not responded to a requst for documentation of Sexton's claim.
• The National Rifle Association, which started a TV ad last week calling for defeat of Grimes, has added one calling for McConnell's election, as well as a 60-second radio commercial that alleges Grimes supports the "gun control agenda" of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The only gun measure Grimes says she favors is background checks for gun purchasers at gun shows.

McConnell ad questions Grimes's attendance record; Democratic Senate committee starts ads

As a new month begins, so does a new advertiser . . .

• Today Sen. Mitch McConnell started a television commercial saying that his opponent isn't showing up for work, backed up with a press release with a link to a Washington Free Beacon video of an encounter between her and Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Sam Youngman's questions yesterday about the topic.
• "Democrats aren't giving up yet," The Washington Post reports in its "Read In" morning roundup. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will "start its first independent expenditure advertisements on behalf of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes on Tuesday. They're spending $295,000 this week and about $300,000 next week on Lexington and Louisville broadcast. Combined with Grimes' own spending, Democrats will be outspending Republicans about two to one this week." The first ad attacks McConnell as a creature of Washington who has voted six times to raise his own pay.
• An article by Chris Cillizza, Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan of the Post lists the 13 Senate races they consider the most likely to switch parties. The McConnell-Grimes race dropped to No. 13, from No. 11 on the previous list, making it the least likely competitive race to switch control. The writers say Grimes's chances of winning "seem to be fading" partly because "her gun ad backfired," and "was trumped by a commercial McConnell ran a day later," giving a tough reply and mocking her. –Anthony Pendleton
• Forbes magazine reports how Facebook analysts use data to predict a number of aspects of people's lives. One of the things they can predict is which candidate will win elections based on how many likes he or she has. According to a post on the Government and Politics on Facebook page, 82 percent of Senate candidates in the 2010 midterms who had more likes won their race. McConnell's Facebook page has almost twice as many likes as Grimes's page, nearly 152,000 likes to her almost 89,000. Such data do not reflect the engagement of people with such pages. –Anthony Pendleton

Grimes opposes gun-show exemption, calls for discussion on legalizing pot, won't answer '94 query

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

• "A week after running a dramatic TV ad in which Alison Lundergan Grimes said she disagreed with President Barack Obama on guns, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate told a radio interviewer Thursday she would work to close a loophole that allows private gun owners to sell guns at gun shows without a background check," writes Adam Beam of The Associated Press. "I believe it is worth having the discussion to actually work to close the gun show loophole that we see," Grimes told Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio. She said she opposes two gun measures Obama supports: "a ban on assault weapons and a proposal to make it more difficult for people to inherit guns from their parents and grandparents," Beam reports.
• In the same interview, Grimes said elected officials should discuss legalizing marijuana: "I would want to have the discussion, and I think it's worthwhile to bring the experts together and talk about the reclassification, especially for medical purposes." Sam Youngman of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, "Grimes criticized Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell for not realizing the 'economic benefits' the state of Colorado has enjoyed after legalizing recreational use of marijuana, adding that she's 'in favor of having the discussion, especially to reclassify the use of marijuana.' . . . McConnell's Senate office said in a statement later Thursday that 'Senator McConnell is strongly opposed to legalization of marijuana'."
• "The interview was among the most substantive she has given during the election, often limiting reporters to just a question or two here and there, during which she doesn't stray from what often sound like scripted answers," writes Joe Gerth of The Courier-Journal.
• "Grimes refused to say Friday how she would have voted on an omnibus crime bill in 1994 that would have pitted her support for the Violence Against Women Act against her opposition to a provision that banned the sale of military-style assault rifles," Gerth writes. "Grimes' campaign has criticized Sen. Mitch McConnell for his vote against the crime bill, characterizing it as a vote against women. McConnell has said he opposed that legislation because it included the assault weapons ban and other provisions that were added in the House and not because of the domestic violence language."
• On WVLK in Lexington Friday morning, McConnell told talk-show host Lee Cruse, “I’m against legalizing marijuana. Certainly it’s not in the same category as heroin, but I think to begin … to sort of send the message that we’re giving up, you know, that this is just the way it’s going to be, then one thing leads to another and pretty soon … you completely transform your society in a way that I think certainly most Kentuckians would not agree with.” For a story from Roll Call, click here.
• Grimes has been airing 60-second radio ads blaming McConnell for "the high abuse rates of heroin, meth and prescription drugs in Kentucky. It’s a fresh line of attack that could enter the TV war," Politico reports. In the ad a narrator, says of McConnell, "He refused to support a bill to crack down on heroin trafficking, saying that he doesn’t take positions on state legislation. Really? He thinks the only solutions come from Washington?" Grimes endorsed the 2014 heroin legislation, which "would have increased penalties for people who sell heroin while increasing treatment options for users." The Paducah Sun said in an editorial that Grimes's attack was a stretch, because "When McConnell was asked about it by a radio station, he replied, 'I don't generally take positions on issues in Frankfort. I work in Washington.'" Politico reports, "The ad ends with the narrator saying Grimes will fight the drug epidemic in the Senate 'by working to create jobs, increase funding for treatment and securing our borders'."
• The Credit Union National Association has joined the ranks of lobbying interests running television commercials for McConnell; the ads hail him as a friend of small business.

Campaign ads return to Medicare; Grimes opposes bill to arm anti-I.S. Syrians; parties send mail pieces

The ads are so thick, at times they're running back to back . . .

• "Alison Lundergan Grimes said Thursday she would vote against arming and training Syrian forces combating the Islamic State," Phillip Bailey of WFPL reports. "The Senate is scheduled to take up a vote on the measure this afternoon . . . Grimes said in a campaign statement she backs military action but could not support the measure until trust between the U.S. and Syrian rebels is clearly established."
• Grimes has a new one-minute TV commercial featuring her grandmother, Elsie Case, talking about how the grandfather's stroke affected her family's finances and claiming that Sen. Mitch McConnell voted to increase seniors' out-of-pocket medical costs. The McConnell campaign says the claim is false, citing fact-checkers' disputation of Grimes's first Medicare ad in July, but The Courier-Journal's Joe Gerth notes, "The claim made in the ad is similar to, but not the same as the claims made in ads that were debunked by non-partisan fact checkers." The votes cited were procedural votes on budget bills.
• McConnell responded with an ad about his help to a Laurel County constituent who was having a problem getting Medicare to pay bills.
• Gerth examines the ads from McConnell and Grimes featuring guns. "This isn't the first time Grimes and McConnell have sparred over guns," Gerth notes. "Grimes criticized McConnell after his appearance at an NRA event in March when he walked to the lectern brandishing a musket, an award for outgoing Sen. Tom Coburn, over his head. . . . She challenged McConnell to shoot with her on a firing range — a challenge to which he never responded. McConnell has refused to say if he owns a gun." Grimes's ad tries to separate herself from President Obama, and McConnell's reply ad notes that she endorsed the Democratic Party's platform when he was its nominee. "The Grimes campaign notes that she never specifically endorsed any of the provisions and, in fact, has consistently opposed Obama on them," Gerth writes. McConnell is also running a radio ad with essentially the same message.
• Fact-checkers have found fault with many ads, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, offering a roundup of some of their latest reports.
• The National Association of Realtors Political Action Committee is running a campaign of 30-second television commercials promoting Sen. Mitch McConnell as "a fighter for the middle class." PACs of lobbying organizations can give only $10,000 per election cycle ($5,000 each for primary and general elections) to candidates for the Senate or House, but there is no limit on what they can spend on advertising, and a meaningful statewide TV buy costs at least $200,000 a week. For a table of all reported spending in the race, from the Center for Responsive Politics, click here. UPDATE, Sept. 20: The Realtors are also sending a direct-mail piece advocating McConnell's re-election.
• The Kentucky Democratic Party is mailing an attack on McConnell's committee voting record ("skipped 93% of his senate committee meetings in the last five years") and his April statement that it wasn't his job to bring jobs to Lee County. (The McConnell ad that says his voting record is 99 percent was based on floor votes, not committee attendance.)
• 
  The Kentucky Republican Party is mailing an edited copy of Politico pages with the story about Grimes not mentioning coal at a June 9 fundraiser with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The envelope includes a printed note with what appears to be McConnell's handwriting, saying, "Really sums up the whole race." The same handwriting appears on the page: "Grimes said she'd stand up for us. But she said nothing."
• AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka "said Wednesday Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race is a top priority for organized labor that could define the country’s direction over the next two decades." Phillip Bailey reports for WFPL.
• Gerth writes about neo-Nazi write-in candidate Robert Randsell.

To Grimes ad, McConnell quickly counterattacks

A busy Tuesday . . .

• Sen. Mitch McConnell has a new ad, responding to Alison Lundergan Grimes' ad distancing herself from President Obama.
• Grimes's ad "is a continuation of what has become a central theme of Grimes' campaign: Telling voters who she isn't instead of telling them who she is," Sam Youngman writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "For more than a year, Kentuckians have heard Grimes say in every conceivable way that she is not McConnell, with cursory efforts to introduce herself or what she stands for — a couple of bio ads and a jobs plan short on specifics. . . . Meanwhile, McConnell's portrayal of Grimes as an appendage of Obama found a receptive audience in the eastern and western parts of the state, and polling shows that McConnell has amassed enormous leads in those regions."
  
  Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/09/15/3431013/sam-youngman-does-alison-lundergan.html?sp=/99/164/329/#storylink=cpy
  
  Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/09/15/3431013/sam-youngman-does-alison-lundergan.html?sp=/99/164/329/#storylink=cpy
• The "99 percent" voting record referred to in another McConnell ad is for Senate roll calls, his campaign says. The ad is a response to a Grimes ad saying he has missed 93 percent of Senate committee meetings since 2009.
• "Kentucky is arguably one of the health law’s biggest early success stories," but "There is little evidence that the expansion of health coverage will help Kentucky Democrats in this fall’s midterm elections," Abby Goodnough writes for The New York Times. "Despite his unyielding attacks on the law, Mr. McConnell also takes positions that suggest he knows it would be difficult to dismantle. He has hedged on whether he would take away Medicaid from new enrollees and suggested — without explaining how — that the Kynect marketplace could survive even if the law was repealed."
• The "hedged" line is based on a statement McConnell made to Times national political correspondent Jonathan Martin, who reported it in a collection of leftovers from reporting for his recent Times Magazine profile of McConnell: "When I pressed him about the politics of taking away Medicaid from those individuals that now have it, he suggested that was unlikely – even while still faulting Beshear for the decision. 'I don’t know that it will be taken away from them,' McConnell said of the expanded Medicaid coverage. Speaking about Beshear and Kentucky’s state government, he added: 'They’ve made the decision to expand it, they’re gonna have to pay for it.'"

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?'"

McConnell agrees to KET debate (no Patterson), gets help from NRA mailer; editor defends jobs quote

Finally, a real debate has been scheduled; and there's more news and commentary:

• Sen. Mitch McConnell has accepted KET’s invitation to debate Alison Lundergan Grimes Oct. 13, three weeks before the election and about six weeks after Labor Day, when he wanted to end a series of debates he proposed. "Host Bill Goodman will moderate the debate and ask questions, and viewers will be allowed to call in with their questions, said Tim Bischoff, a spokesman for the state's educational television network," reports Joseph Gerth of The Courier-Journal. "Josh Holmes, an adviser to McConnell, said that the campaign is in discussions about other potential debates but has nothing to announce at this time." Grimes campaign manager Jonathan Hurst said their campaign hopes for "several more debates."
• Bischoff said Libertarian Party candidate David Patterson did not meet the criteria that the network said must be met by Aug. 15, including acceptance of at least $100,000 in campaign contributions and getting at least 10 percent support in an independent, professional poll.
• The National Rifle Association has sent a mailer to Kentucky residents that says,"McConnell will stop the Obama/Bloomberg Gun Control agenda . . . the biggest threat to your Second Amendment rights in Obama's final years in office. ' of President Obama and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg." Kevin Willis of WKYU-FM in Bowling Green notes that the mailer was sent shortly after it was revealed that McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, is on the board of a charity created by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
  
  
• McConnell "might have kept in mind his wife’s membership on boards of a couple of organizations that aren’t enamored of coal before he based his case against Alison Lundergan Grimes on her association with some who also don’t love coal," writes Ronnie Ellis of CNHI News Service. McConnell now must "defend his own association through his wife’s involvement on the boards of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Wells Fargo." Meanwhile, Grimes's allies in the legislature "squirm as the Kentucky Coal Association and its president, Bill Bissett, come to McConnell’s defense time and again. After years of kowtowing to King Coal, no matter how outrageous some of its excesses, they clearly have no leverage over KCA, which supposedly doesn’t endorse candidates — but clearly supports McConnell over Grimes."
• McConnell introduced legislation that addresses infants born on opiates and maternal addiction, a problem that is increasing in Kentucky. He said in a press release that the bill would "help identify and disseminate recommendations for preventing and treating maternal addiction so that we can reduce the number of infants born dependent on opiates and other drugs," and "encourage the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work with states to improve the availability and quality of research data to help them respond more effectively to this public health epidemic."
• Edmund Shelby, editor of The Beattyville Enterprise, wrote a commentary for The Courier-Journal standing by his article in April on McConnell's statements about jobs, a prime focus of attacks by the Grimes and her allies. Shelby had asked McConnell basic questions in a brief interview before a luncheon. When Shelby asked the senator what he was going to do to bring jobs to Lee County, an off-guard McConnell said, "Economic development is a Frankfort issue. That is not my job. It is the primary responsibility of the state Commerce Cabinet." McConnell added that he was fighting the Obama administration's proposed restrictions on coal, and Shelby reported that, too. McConnell claimed Shelby quoted him out of context, but Shelby said the context was very clear: "I firmly believe that Sen. McConnell committed the cardinal sin of all career politicians: He gave an honest answer to a journalist’s question."

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 faces balancing act on women's issues; Libertarian says he has signatures to get on ballot

Rounding up much of the news and commentary in the race since our last post:

• Alison Lundergan Grimes faces "a balancing act" as she as she works to get female voters to cast ballots for her "while avoiding the pitfalls Democrats often face in Kentucky on social and cultural issues such as abortion," Sam Youngman writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
  
  Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/07/17/3341075/in-anti-abortion-kentucky-grimes.html#storylink=cpy

• Independent Senate candidate Ed Marksberry of Owensboro announced a few days ago that he was abandoning his effort to obtain 5,000 signatures by the Aug. 12 deadline to get on the Nov. 4 ballot, but the Libertarian Party of Kentucky "announced Thursday that its candidate, 42-year-old David Patterson of Mercer County, appears poised" to get enough signatures, Phillip Bailey of WFPL reports. "We're currently sitting right at about 5,000 as of today actually," Patterson, told Bailey. "The 8,000 is our comfort zone." Patterson, right, is a Harrodsburg police officer who makes a habit of carrying a pistol in a holster while off duty.
• The candidates should accept Centre College President John Roush's proposal for a Sept. 3 debate at the Danville school, Joe Gerth writes in his weekly column for The Courier-Journal, and the Louisville newspaper says likewise in an editorial. A Herald-Leader editorial called on Grimes and Sen. Mitch McConnell to accept the Centre debate and one proposed by the League of Women Voters of Kentucky.
• Pikeville lawyer Larry Webster, who typically sprays several rhetorical shotgun blasts in his Herald-Leader column, included the Senate race Sunday: "Any place where it is worth spending $100 million to elect a senator ought to be worth staying in. Maybe if we spend $200 million to elect a senator, we might get one with enough foresight to anticipate the obsolescence of coal and do something about the future other than blaming the colored guy."
• Former Sen. Wendell Ford announced that he is starting chemotherapy for cancer in one of his lungs and another unspecified location, and thus won't be campaigning for Grimes, at least any time soon. Ford's announcement prompted an appreciation from C-J Washington Correspondent Jim Carroll in his weekly column.
  
  
  Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/07/20/3343978/e-ky-kids-trek-south-haunted-by.html#storylink=cpy

Warren's visit for Grimes is covered somewhat differently by different reporters and news outlets

Different takes on Sen. Elizabeth Warren's campaigning for Alison Grimes:

• In Louisville, where today's events occurred, Joe Gerth of The Courier-Journal says Warren "brought her brand of populism to Kentucky" and accused Sen. Mitch McConnell of "betting against you vote after vote after vote, year after year after year," most recently on Warren's bill to allow refinancing of college loans. Gerth notes that Grimes "refused to take questions following the event, ignoring a gaggle of reporters," and ends his 603-word online story with one brief line from the other side: "McConnell's campaign has been critical of the Warren visit, saying that it showed that Grimes is out of touch with Kentucky voters."
• In the second paragraph of his 610-word online story, Sam Youngman of the Lexington Herald-Leader plays off a Warren line about being surprised to be in Kentucky because she is surprised to be a senator: "Given that Warren's stances on guns, coal and health care align closely with those of President Barack Obama, Republican allies of ... McConnell also were surprised but delighted when Warren announced she was coming." Among his quotes from Warren: "Alison and I don't agree on everything. We don't. But we agree that there is a lot on the line here. Our economy, our country, our values." The story ends with two paragraphs from McConnell's campaign, including a 50-word quote.
• Adam Beam, Frankfort correspondent for The Associated Press, led his 674-word story with an example of a student who would benefit from loan refinancing and the fact that "Tuition and fees at Kentucky’s public colleges and universities have increased 110 percent over the last decade." Beam summarizes the candidates' and Warren's positions on the issue and notes, "McConnell’s campaign has not countered Grimes on college tuition, instead focusing on the person Grimes has chosen to promote the plan." He concludes with a quote from a McConnell news release.
• Ronnie Ellis of Community Newspaper Holdings ends his 718-word story likewise and starts by saying that Warren cast the race as a simple choice: McConnell, who "represents the interests of the wealthy and says 'no, no, no' to measures to assist the middle class. Or voters from a relatively poor state can vote to replace him with ... Grimes, who will represent their economic interests." But "in a brief interview" with Ellis, Waren wouldn't get more personal, saying, "This is about Alison." She said her populist message would work in Kentucky, and Ellis writes, "It worked Sunday morning. Warren evoked echoes of a former kind of Kentucky Democrat, like Wendell Ford who was governor from 1971 to 1974," when he began a 28-year Senate career.
  
  Or voters from a relatively poor state can vote to replace him with Democratic Alison Lundergan Grimes, who will represent their economic interests. - See more at: http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/local/x1760117504/Warren-stumps-for-Grimes-blasts-McConnell-on-economic-issues#sthash.isgnXB7v.dpuf
• Matt Viser of The Boston Globe, in Warren's home state of Massachusetts, says she "was in full campaign mode Sunday, thrusting her fists in the air and delivering folksy aphorisms with a slight twang as she relentlessly attacked" McConnell; and her trips to Kentucky and West Virginia "represent a test of whether her brand of liberal populism, which has captivated the national left, can also appeal in the South and help Democrats defend their hold on the Senate majority. The results of this experiment could have far reaching consequences, not only for her own political fortunes but for the party’s efforts to reconnect with Southern, white, working-class voters." Viser's story includes material from Warren's first of two fund-raisers for Grimes, Saturday night in Northern Kentucky; no story on any of the events could be found on The Cincinnati Enquirer's website by 11:20 p.m. Sunday.
• For a text and video report on Warren's speech to a rally of about 500 students and others at the University of Louisville, from Nick Storm of cn|2's "Pure Politics," click here.
• The event was "Observers, however, noted the crowded Grimes event lacked a high number of college-aged students in the audience," Phillip Bailey of WFPL notes in a story that ends with good back-and-forth from the two sides.