Raining on the Kentucky Senate Campaign

Kentucky Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Rand Paul has been questioned as to whether he would vote for Mitch McConnell as Senate Minority Leader if elected, and some have thought his answers to be ambiguous. Sen. McConnell supported Dr. Paul's opponent in the primary campaign.

However, Dr. Paul is not the only candidate for that Senate seat that is having trouble supporting current Senate leadership. His opponent, Jack Conway, effectively threw current Majority Leader under the bus during an interview this morning on WHAS radio. Asked whether he would support Mr. Reid if elected, Mr. Conway would only say that answering such a question would be premature given the fact that Mr. Reid is in an election campaign that he may not win against Sharon Angle.

Meanwhile, word around the NCSL meeting is that Dr. Paul is having trouble raising money from traditional Republican sources. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush was brought in this week for a fundraiser, but some party leaders resisted considerable arm twisting aimed at getting them to attend. Shortly after Dr. Paul won his primary, he became embroiled in a needless controversy over whether he would have supported the Voting Rights Act 40 years ago, and some political leaders fear associating their names with him based on that issue. In addition, Republicans who know the views of his father, Texas congressman Ron Paul, consider him to be radical and suggest that the younger Paul may not have fallen far from the tree.