Ad ties Grimes to Buffett, blames him for plant closure; senator hit for absences for other events

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

• Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, a "super PAC" supporting Sen. Mitch McConnell, is starting a 60-second radio ad attacking Alison Lundergan Grimes for a fund-raising event, the invitation for which said billionaire Warren Buffett would participate by conference call. The call was canceled, apparently after Breitbart.com reported Buffett's role, and a further report noted the decision by one of the companies he owns, Fruit of the Loom, to close a plant in Jamestown with 600 employees. The ad stretches the truth, making it appear that Buffett was to be at the event and personally closed the plant, adding, "Buffett destroyed 600 families to make a buck." Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton told PoliticoPro that Buffett "was invited by a host who has a personal connection" with him. "However, our campaign made clear that we did not think it was appropriate. We agree with Buffett that millionaires and billionaires should pay their fair share in taxes. However, Alison strongly disagrees with him on the outsourcing of good Kentucky jobs — just as she disagrees with Mitch McConnell's record of voting for tax breaks that encourage companies to send jobs overseas." UPDATE, Sept. 23: KSL says the ad is running in the Lexington and Bowling Green media markets, and addition "rural radio in that region of Kentucky."
• A new Grimes ad redoubles her attack on McConnell's lack of attendance at Senate committee meetings, saying he missed some to attend a lobbyist's fundraiser and appear on two television shows and skipping a meeting on rural jobs to toast China's vice president for "China's great achievements. And the rest of the time, he created gridlock. Thirty years is long enough."
  
  The issue is similar to the one McConnell used to unseat two-term Democrat Walter "Dee" Huddleston in 1984, missing votes to make speeches for money. But that attack didn't take hold until McConnell and ad consultant Roger Ailes used the famous hound dogs to look for Huddleston. A McConnell ad replying to the first ad on this issue is still running, claiming his "voting attendance" is 99 percent. However, that's for floor votes, not committee meetings.
• Former two-term state auditor Crit Luallen is being heard in a recorded "robocall" for Grimes, which is going to more than 100,000 households, Norton said. A tagline after Luallen's 40-second message says it is paid for by the state Democratic Party but is authorized by the Grimes campaign. UPDATE, Sept. 22: The campaign says former Gov. Martha Layne Collins was heard in robocall that went to more than 200,000 voters.
• Kevin Wheatley of cn|2 has a pair of stories looking at the potential and pitfalls of the Oct. 13 KET debate for Grimes and McConnell.
• Grimes's ad showing her shooting a gun and saying "I'm not Barack Obama" was "a colossal misstep" because it gave McConnell another opportunity to air a reply ad hammering on her endorsement of the national Democratic platform, Sam Youngman of the Lexington Herald-Leader said on KET's "Comment on Kentucky" Friday night. He noted that on Monday, McConnell against voted against paycheck fairness for women, one of her key issues: "Her own campaign got them off message."
• On the front page of Sunday's Herald-Leader, Youngman has a story headlined "Grimes owns small stake in company city threatened legal action against over unpaid fees, fines." Her father, Jerry Lundergan, said she owns a 1 percent interest. He paid part of the amount after the threat, and most of it the day after a Republican-oriented research firm requested records about it.
• Herald-Leader columnist Larry Dale Keeling says it's too late for Grimes to campaign on the health-reform law, and doing it now would look panicked and desperate.

July 2 roundup: Another military-women mailer, this one more specific

Women's issues are in play today:

• Adam Beam of The Associated Press looks at Sen. Mitch McConnell's vocal support of the Supreme Court ruling that lets closely held companies opt out of the federal health-reform law's requirement to include contraceptive coverage in mandatory insurance for their employees: "Political observers said McConnell has been talking more about social issues such as abortion during this campaign than he has for most of his 30-year Senate career. That could be a byproduct of this year's Republican primary, where McConnell had to defeat Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin." (Read more)

• The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a "super PAC" supporting McConnell, has sent its fourth direct-mail advertisement touting McConnell's support of women in the military. It mentions the same issues as before, one with more specifics: bills to take sexual-assault cases out of the chain of command and to allow women to fly combat missions. Earlier ads said the latter bill would give them "more hands-on opportunities." For a copy of the latest ad, click here.

First general-election ads: McConnell allies target Grimes' Hollywood money, she decries Washington

Alison Lundergan Grimes appeals to populist, anti-Washington feelings, and Mitch McConnell's allies target Hollywood money and President Obama, in the first pair of dueling television commercials in Kentucky's general election for the U.S. Senate.

"This is a frustrating time in our country," Grimes says in her one-minute ad. "The economy is still struggling, people are working harder for less, and here in Kentucky, we feel it more than most," a reference to the state's higher-than-average unemployment, driven partly by coal layoffs.

"And it seems no matter how many elections we have, nothing gets better in Washington, it only gets worse," Grimes continues, then implicitly criticizes both Obama and McConnell: "A lot of that is because of the people at the top in both political parties. If we keep sending them back, nothing will change."

Grimes says "We need a senator who puts partisanship aside . . . and no matter who the president is, I won't answer to them, I'll only answer to you." If she is subtly reminding voters that a new president will be elected in 2016, it's likely that she will later remind them that Obama will have only two years to serve when the next Congress begins, and the senator elected this fall will have six.

Grimes' closing line is that Washington "should put the good of our people ahead of the bad that comes from acting petty and small. We've had too much of that for too long." Sounds like she has some polling that shows some persuadable voters apply those adjectives to McConnell.

The 30-second ad from Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, a so-called "super PAC," or politivcal action committee, combines narration, still photos and quotes from news stories to make the case that Grimes is the candidate of President Obama and "liberals coast to coast," including "Hollywood's most liberal political activists." Barbra Streisand and the controversial Woody Allen are among those pictured.

A female narrator says, "Michelle Obama let the truth slip out at a New York City fundraiser, calling Grimes' election critical to President Obama's liberal agenda that's hurting Kentucky." A quote from a news story says "Obama's . . . plan aims straight at coal." The missing words are "climate plan," referring to Obama's proposals to limit greenhouse gases that cause global warming and climate change, measures that threaten the already weak Central Appalachian coal industry.

Grimes says she is pro-coal, but the narrator concludes, "Where's Alison Grimes on the issues? Just look at her friends."

Similar advertising before the primary appears to have affected Grimes's vote in the state's two coalfields. In percentage terms, her 28 worst counties all produce coal, or have recently produced it, and five of the other eight coal counties gave her a smaller share of the vote than her unofficial statewide figure of 76.47 percent.