Published: August 07, 2008 05:22 pm      

McConnell wants to talk gas prices, Lunsford about McConnell

So far campaign is all on television

LOUISVILLE — Fancy Farm is considered the official kickoff of fall campaigns in Kentucky. But the airwaves were already filled with ads by the two U.S. Senate candidates, Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford.



Those ads have nearly all been about the price of gas, an issue Republicans in general and McConnell especially believe is a winner for their party. McConnell talks non-stop about drilling for more domestic oil while pursuing alternative forms of energy and conserving more of what we have.



His ads have hammered Lunsford for supporting an automatic increase in Kentucky’s motor fuel tax – 30 years ago. Democrats and some editorial pages have criticized the ads, but McConnell – true to his history – relentlessly sticks to his message.



“There is only one big issue right now in America,” McConnell said in Glasgow this week. “That is the price of gasoline at the pump. That is obviously what I think we ought to be talking about.”



He does – relentlessly.



Some Lunsford supporters are frustrated he hasn’t been able to alter the focus of the debate.



“I don’t think it’s going to be the singular issue,” Lunsford said of the back-and-forth on gas prices. He said the war in Iraq is an issue but the economy and its impact on Kentucky families is a bigger one.



Lunsford wants to focus on it the length of time McConnell has served in the Senate and tie the Republican Leader in the Senate to special interests. At Fancy Farm, Lunsford said McConnell should “hang a for-sale sign around his neck” and said the policies of McConnell and Kentucky’s other Republican Senator, Jim Bunning, “have put the screws to the middle class.” He says McConnell’s “24 years in Washington is enough and it’s time for a change.”



His latest television ad derides the Washington political order, claiming special interests influence produced $4 a gallon gasoline.



“Mitch McConnell is the master of this system,” Lunsford says in the ad.



McConnell’s perspective, not surprisingly, differs.



“It would be a dramatic loss of influence and clout for our state to trade me in for a freshman member of probably the majority party,” McConnell said.



He said Pennsylvania’s Democratic freshman Senator, Bob Casey, is credited with returning $16 million in federal funding to Pennsylvania last year as a member of the Democratic majority. He compares that with $500 million he brought back to Kentucky as the Republican Leader. And he said the war won’t be much of an issue because things are better in Iraq and voters aren’t talking about it.



No matter what Lunsford says, McConnell ignores it and hammers away on two themes: the Republican plan to drill for more oil and his clout as Republican Leader.



Danny Briscoe, a longtime political consultant and former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party who isn’t working for either campaign, said neither candidate has run as good a campaign as he expected.



“McConnell’s campaign has been short of his standards,” Briscoe said. “Admittedly, McConnell’s standards are very high. And I’m surprised by the mediocre campaign Lunsford has run so far.”



Briscoe thinks Lunsford must more effectively respond to McConnell’s ads and do a better job of linking McConnell to unpopular Republican President George Bush.



Lunsford recently shook up his campaign – changing spokespersons and media consultants, a sign he’s not happy with the direction of his campaign so far, Briscoe said. But voters are taking a “summer break” after a very long primary season, he said, and the two campaigns have plenty of time to win them over.



Lunsford and McConnell might need to keep an eye on the flanks of their own parties. Lunsford has been endorsed by labor in the Senate race, but there remain some lingering wounds from Lunsford’s endorsement of Republican Ernie Fletcher in the 2003 governor’s race. McConnell was accused by some of not being sufficiently supportive of Fletcher during the Merit System investigation.



Dean Johnson, the Republican Laurel County Clerk, said those problems are in the past.



“McConnell will do well down here,” Johnson said. “Oh, his margin might be down some but he’ll win big here and I think he’ll win the state.”



Asked if a closer margin might reflect disenchantment from Fletcher supporters, Johnson said it is more the effect of how things have gone over the past six years. And he thinks there’s disenchantment among some Democrats.



“Some of them aren’t too excited about Lunsford,” he said.



Gov. Steve Beshear plans to work for Lunsford, although he hasn’t been very visible thus far. At Fancy Farm, Beshear took on McConnell and the policies of Bush, urging Democrats to retire McConnell by electing Lunsford, and he said again this week he’ll actively work for Lunsford.



“I’m going to very active,” Beshear said. “We’ll be doing fund raising and retail campaigning out on the stump.”



He said no specific dates have been chosen but he and the Lunsford campaign are discussing dates later in the campaign.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. or (606) 326-2651.