McConnell ad hits Grimes on restaurant's pay; Reid's PAC hints McConnell was an inside trader

A rolling roundup as we head into the race's next-to-last weekend:

• Based on a report by CNN, Sen. Mitch McConnell has started a television commercial accusing Grimes of hypocrisy because she advocates raising the minimum wage while acting as a lawyer for her family's restaurant, which pays its workers $2.13 and hour. That is the minimum wage for tipped workers, a point the report made but the commercial does not use.
• The Grimes campaign pointed out that one of the young women in an ad McConnell started this week is a University of Louisville student who is registered to vote in Pennsylvania, while the McConnell campaign "said a new ad from Grimes supporters falsely accused the Senate minority leader of using his office to improve his personal investments during the 2008 financial crisis," Adam Beam reports for The Associated Press. The latter ad comes from Senate Majority PAC, overseen by McConnell's chief adversary in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The ad is based on a 2012 story from The Washington Post that detailed how 34 members of Congress updated their investments during the financial crisis after having phone calls or meetings with Treasury officials," Beam writes. "But the story quotes McConnell's financial adviser saying the four trades came at the suggestion of Merrill Lynch, not McConnell. The story said McConnell never spoke to his financial adviser and does not own individual stocks to avoid the appearance of a conflict."
• In an entertaining video report for Fusion, Alicia Menendez says the ads have been making more news than the candidates themselves.
• WAVE-TV in Louisville is asking both campaigns to stop using video clips from its news programs in their commercials. News Director Bill Shory" said the use of his station’s reports in campaign ads have led his viewers to believe WAVE is endorsing one candidate over another," Kevin Eck of MediaBistro reports. In an open letter on the station’s website, Shory said he has received complaints about the candidates' ads and sent letters to McConnell and Grimes "asking them to stop using clips from WAVE in their campaign ads," and saying the station would present "all facts, statements, and coverage truthfully and in the proper context."
• Eleanor Clift writes for The Daily Beast that in a new video, McConnell "brags about lowering the boom on sexual harasser Bob Packwood. The whole story is pretty different."

Bluegrass Poll: McConnell 44, Grimes 43, Patterson 5, undecided 8, plus or minus 3.9 points

Today is the midterm of the semester at UK, so we're cramming a lot of significant material into some short blips:

• The latest Bluegrass Poll shows Sen. Mitch McConnell with 44 percent, Alison Lundergan Grimes with 43 percent, David Patterson with 5 percent and 8 percent of self-described likely voters undecided. The poll, taken Oct. 15-19, has an error margin of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. "The small shift in McConnell's favor brings the SurveyUSA poll back in line with several others in recent weeks that have shown McConnell with narrow but steady leads," Sam Youngman writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
• Grimes's revelation of her 2008 primary vote for Hillary Clinton, which critics say undercuts her refusal to say if she voted for President Obama, was broadcast last night on KET, in the "Ballot Bomb" report on young voters by University of Kentucky journalism professor Buck Ryan. His son, Austin Ryan, asked the candidates who got their first vote; Grimes said she wanted to vote for Bill Clinton in 1996 but turned 18 just after the election. "I got a chance, though, to vote for Secretary Clinton in 2008," she said.
• Also on the half-hour program on KET, McConnell said the biggest issue young voters should be concerned about is the national debt; Grimes says it is student loan debt. She favors a bill to allow refinancing of student loans and pay for it with tax increases on the wealthy; McConnell voted against it.
• Grimes has campaigned on raising the minimum wage and accused Republicans of sexism. CNN did a story on Hugh Jass Burgers, a restaurant owned by her father, paying $2.13 per hour to tipped employees and the $7.25 minimum wage to others, and using double entendres on its menu.
• McConnell started a three-day bus tour of Eastern Kentucky; Adam Beam of The Associated Press has a coalfield scene-setter. Grimes toured Louisville and Central Kentucky; here's a report from Nick Storm of cn|2's "Pure Politics."

Coal, jobs, health care dominate the only real debate

By Brenton Ward, Cheyene Miller, Tyler Spanyer, Ben Tompkins and Megan Ingros
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

            LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coal, jobs, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were the major subjects of Monday night’s debate between Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.

 

Grimes, McConnell and moderator Bill Goodman before air.

           The hour-long debate on KET reflected the course of the race, in that Grimes spent most of her time attacking McConnell, and McConnell did likewise with President Obama, trying to link Grimes to him.

            The candidates swerved around many questions, avoiding definitive stances and leaving Kentucky voters unclear of the specifics.

            Perhaps the best example of that was discussion of the health-care law, generally known as Obamacare.

McConnell reiterated that he wants to repeal it “root and branch,” but he was pressed to say what he would do with Kynect, the state health-insurance exchange created under the law, which he repeatedly called a website.

Asked what would happen to Kynect if the law were repealed, he said, “The state exchange can continue it if they want to. . . . States can decide whether or not to expand Medicaid, and our governor has decided to expand Medicaid.”

            Obamacare funds subsidies for private insurance bought through the website. It pays the entire cost of Medicaid for newly eligible patients through 2016, falling to a floor of 90 percent by 2020.

            Pressed about whether he would support the continuance of Kynect, McConnell said, “That’s fine, yeah, I think it’s fine to have a website.”

            Grimes, asked how she would vote on a bill to repeal Obamacare, said, “There is work that we have to do to fix the Affordable Care Act, but we have to have a senator that actually realizes what the realities are here in Kentucky, and the fictional fantasy land that Mitch McConnell is in, doesn’t show the statistics here in this state.”

            Earlier, she said, “This is a matter of standing up for 500,000 Kentuckians” who have obtained coverage through Kynect.” She added, “I will not be a senator that rips that insurance from their hand.” But she offered no new specifics on how she would “streamline” the law.

            The debate was dominated by economic issues, which for both candidates included support of Kentucky’s declining coal industry in the face of Obama administration regulations that would stop construction of coal-fired power plants by putting limits on carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Asked if the U.S. should take the lead in fighting climate change, McConnell said, “My job is to look after Kentucky’s coal miners.”

Grimes said, “I recognize, unlike Senator McConnell, the realities of global warming, but I do believe we have to take a balanced approach” that protects jobs and “leave this world a better place.”

Grimes noted her endorsement by the United Mine Workers of America and said she supports measures to improve coal mine health and safety and guarantee miners’ benefits.

            McConnell said that Grimes’s first vote in the Senate would be to re-elect as majority leader Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who he said has blocked all legislation aimed at the anti-coal regulations. He said Grimes broke her vow to raise the issue at a fund-raiser Reid held for her.

            Grimes has said she raised the issue with Reid privately. Last night, she said, “I did have very strong words for Senator Reid regarding an energy policy that he is misguided on.”

            McConnell said in the debate’s opening exchange, “My opponent has spent most of her time trying to deceive everybody about her own views.” Regarding her widely reported refusal to say whether she voted for Obama, even though she was an Obama delegate to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, he noted that some Democratic officeholders chose not to attend the convention.

            Moderator Bill Goodman asked Grimes why she has been reluctant to say how she voted. She replied, “Bill there’s no reluctance. This is a matter of principle. Our constitution grants, here in Kentucky, the constitutional right for privacy in the ballot box, for a secret ballot.”

Grimes said that as secretary of state, Kentucky’s chief election official, she was obligated to protect such rights. “I’m not going to compromise a constitutional right . . . to curry favor with one or the other side, or members of the media.”

McConnell replied, “There’s no sacred right to not announce how we vote.”

The candidates argued some facts in the debate, and their campaigns kept arguing afterward.

Grimes said a bill to allow refinancing of student loans was bipartisan, but McConnell said it was not. Grimes campaign manager Jonathan Hurst noted afterward that there were 58 votes to end McConnell’s filibuster against the bill; the Senate has 55 Democrats.

            Grimes repeatedly advocated raising the minimum wage, but McConnell said that would cost too many jobs in a soft economy and said it would be better to expand the earned-income tax credit for the working poor. Hurst said McConnell introduced legislation to cut the credit in 2010.

McConnell senior adviser Josh Holmes disputed Grimes’s charge that McConnell had voted to keep tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas: “That’s received the worst possible false rating in almost every publication that’s reviewed it, yet she continues to talk about it.”

The candidates agreed on at least one thing, that the greatest accomplishment of the next six-year Senate term would be to bring more jobs to Kentucky. McConnell said he would be better able to do that because “there’s a great likelihood I will be the leader of the majority,” while Grimes said noted that she had released a jobs plan and McConnell hadn’t.

Debate didn't appear to have much impact on voters

By Paige Hobbs

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

            The only true debate of Kentucky’s U.S Senate race didn’t appear to change many votes, judging from interviews immediately after the debate with voters who said in the recent Bluegrass Poll that they had chosen a candidate but might change their minds.

And supporters of Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who has had some difficulty sending a clear, positive message to voters, said her appearance did nothing to change their minds, either.

Steve Clevinger of Kenton County, a retired postal worker, sad in the recent poll that he was for Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, but wasn’t sure if he had made up his mind. After the debate, he sounded more certain.

“If I had to pick a winner in the debate, I would say it was Mitch McConnell,” Clevinger said. “It didn’t seem that Secretary Grimes could address a subject without attacking the senator. His name came up more often than her own policies.”

Grimes repeatedly called in the debate for raising the minimum wage, but Clevinger said, “If she had her way, what she would be doing is creating a permanent underclass.”

Grimes supporter Alma Irvin, a retired business supervisor from Hopkinsville, thought differently.

“She sounded like she’s for the people and wants to help the people, overall I think she won the debate,” Irvin said. Asked her overall opinion of McConnell, she said “It seems like he’s been in there so long that he’s lost interest.”

Danny Stone of Paducah, a retired coal miner who said he has black-lung disease and got no help from McConnell’s office, said in the poll that he was for Grimes but could still change his mind. After the debate, he said “She’s more agreeable and aggressive. . . . She’s willing and able to work in a constructive manner with Republicans.”

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.

Where the race stands, six weeks before the election

By Anthony Pendleton and Megan Ingros

University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications

Information for this story was also contributed by Paige Hobbs, Cheyene Miller and Tyler Spanyer.

In less than two months, Kentucky voters will head to the polls to vote in the election for the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Republican Mitch McConnell is facing off against national Democratic newcomer Alison Lundergan Grimes.

This is arguably the most important and most-watched race in the nation. McConnell, 72, is the Senate minority leader, meaning he’s the top official of the party that has fewer members in the Senate. He is expected to become majority leader if the GOP wins enough seats to take control of the chamber.

Grimes, 35, would be Kentucky’s first female senator, and the state’s first Democratic senator since 1999. She is Kentucky's secretary of state – a position she won in 2011, her first elected public office.

             As the state’s chief election officer, Grimes got the legislature to approve changes to help overseas military voting, but the new law does not allow soldiers to vote electronically, as she wanted. Grimes also started a program that allows victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to "remove their addresses from public voter registration records in an attempt to stay safe from their abusers," as described by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

             McConnell says his leadership job puts him in the middle of every big decision in Washington, and that he will be even more powerful, as majority leader, if Republicans take control of the Senate. Grimes wants McConnell’s long history in Washington to be viewed as a liability, by painting him as an architect of Washington gridlock.  

             Over the course of his nearly 30-year Senate career, McConnell is best known nationally for his fights against limits on campaign contributions and spending. In a secretly recorded talk in June, he said the 2001 passage of the McCain-Feingold law limiting donations to political parties was “the worst day of my political life.”

             McConnell’s big issue in this race has been coal, blaming Environmental Protection Agency regulations for the loss of mining jobs in Eastern Kentucky. Disinterested observers have noted other factors, especially cheap natural gas that has displaced coal as an electric-generating fuel.

             McConnell has identified Grimes with President Obama, who is unpopular in Kentucky, based largely on her statement during her 2011 campaign that she supported the national Democratic platform. That seems to be working for him, as he has built leads in coal-bearing Eastern and Western Kentucky.

Grimes has replied with an ad saying “I’m not Barack Obama. I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA.” She also talks about coal miners’ safety and health, and her campaign has called McConnell’s record on those issues “deplorable.”

             The underlying issue is jobs. Kentucky’s unemployment rate remains higher than the rest of the country, and both candidates promise to promote job growth in the state.

Grimes has tried to make much of McConnell’s remark, when asked in Beattyville what he would do to bring jobs to Lee County, that “Economic development is a Frankfort issue. That is not my job.” McConnell has said he was in Beattyville to discuss jobs, and did so in a speech after the reporter left.

Grimes has focused on economic issues such as equal pay for women -- but has been unable to keep a clear lead among female voters – and raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour over three years, from $7.25.

McConnell, citing a report from the Congressional Budget Office, has said raising the wage to that level would cost half a million jobs, but has also said there might be circumstances in which it could be raised, after the economy improves more.

McConnell wants to repeal the federal health-care reform law while Grimes wants to delay its coverage mandate and make other changes. She says McConnell’s approach would risk the coverage of 521,000 people who have obtained it through the state exchange established under the law.

On immigration, Grimes supports the bipartisan, comprehensive reform bill that passed the Senate and would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. McConnell has said only legal residency is needed to attract needed workers, and immigration reform should be done through separate bills after the border is secure.

Grimes and McConnell have had one joint question-and-answer session, before directors of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation. KET will host a debate between them Oct. 13. The debate will not include Libertarian David Patterson, a 43 year-old Harrodsburg police officer who didn’t get his name on the ballot until August.

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 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.”

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.

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 gets some heat at state fair; McConnell makes 5 stops in western coalfield

At the breakfast starting the Kentucky State Fair, politicians serve food and make news:

• Alison Lundergan Grimes is taking some heat on social media today as she attends the state fair. WHAS-TV reporter Brooke Hasch quoted her as saying she was there "with the people," while Sen. Mitch McConnell was in Washington. Actually, Congress is in recess and McConnell is in Bowling Green today, as Hasch later noted. 
• At the Commodity Breakfast kicking off the fair, Grimes was "the face everyone was looking for," but wouldn't do live interviews, reports WDRB-TV, which tweeted that it was going to get one and asked after it learned otherwise, "Grimes walks away from with interview Rachel Collier seconds before going live. Why?" She did record an interview with the station, discussing McConnell's votes against the most recent version of the Violence Against Women Act, saying "I guess he was before it before he was against it," and defending her support for raising the minimum wage.
• Following the theme of his latest commercial, McConnell made five stops in the West Kentucky Coalfield yesterday, three with Sen. Rand Paul, including "a Greenville trucking business that hauls coal to power plants," Joy Campbell reports for the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer. "It was a near perfect backdrop for McConnell to try to convince jobs-hungry Muhlenberg countians that he needs a sixth term to help defend the coal industry against the Obama administration. McConnell has only carried the strongly Democratic county once, "But this is a different kind of year, and the people here care about the Obama administration's 'war on coal,' he said." Campbell notes that Grimes "touts her endorsement by the United Mine Workers of America and says she supports not just the coal industry, but specifically coal miners, their jobs and their safety."

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."

Magazine recalls last time Democrats used the minimum wage as a big issue, looks at Kentucky race

By Al Cross

The latest issue of The Washington Monthly (June/July/August) has two references to Sen. Mitch McConnell's bid for re-election, both in prominent articles.

Paul Glastris, the magazine's editor in chief, writes that Democrats are "working the GOP's weak spot" by pushing for an increase in the minimum wage, a strategy that worked for them when Bill Clinton was running for a second term as president in 1996. Republican Bob Dole was so "flummoxed" by Democrats' pressure on the issue that he resigned from the Senate to campaign full-time.

Glastris notes that at a February fund-raiser in Louisville for Alison Lundergan Grimes, Clinton "said . . . that McConnell's opposition to the minimum wage is reason enough to support Grimes. If she wins in November it wouldn't be the first time Clinton used the minimum wage to help drive a GOP Senate leader out of office."

Glastris notes several differences "that complicate the comparison. Then it was a presidential year; now it's a midterm." I think what he means is that a wage hike just before the election boosted Democrats' chances more than it would in a midterm election because Clinton was on the ballot and they rode his coattails and shared the credit. In this non-presidential year, a compromise appears to be available between the current $7.25 an hour and Democrats' proposed steps to $10.10 over three years, but Democrats appear unwilling to cut a deal because they think the more effective political strategy is to have an issue rather than a higher wage. Without a president on the ballot to offer coattails, credit for passing the bill would be too diffuse.

In the "Tilting at Windmills" column that opens the magazine, Monthly contributing editor Michelle Cottle of the National Journal finds it ironic that Sen. Mitch McConnell is "trying to weather an incoming storm of hostile free speech" after doing "his damnedest to smother any attempt to smother any attempt to reduce the influence of money in politics with his big, fluffy, money-equals-free-speech pillow" and seeing the Supreme Court put many of his views into case law.

Cottle notes that Grimes has out-raised the Senate Republican leader in two of the last three quarters, but "I assume that, in the end, McConnell will live to serve another term. . . . Still, it's been a while since Darth Vader had a real race on his hands, and nobody more deserves to have to go out and grub for campaign cash." What Cottle apparently doesn't realize is that McConnell, unlike most politicians, actually enjoys raising money.