Reporter's Notebook: Here are some notable quotes and insights from the frontrunners in Kentucky's U.S. Senate Democratic Primary.  I have attempted to group the candidates' responses according to the several points that were discussed in the intervews.

You can watch my original story filed on Monday as the candidates reacted to the WHAS11/Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll that showed Daniel Mongiardo with an 18 point lead over Jack Conway. 

Mongiardo:  I think it's the fact that I've been actually doing the job and I believe that the job of being in politics is not behind a desk but it's out meeting people and being around the state.
And I've gone through every county and the very fundamental of all of this, politics is nothing but personal relationships.
And I thrive on developing those personal relationships because in the end, if we're working together through those personal relationships, we find the problems and we find the solutions.
And I think that's reflected in this poll.
 

Conway:  (The poll)  doesn't jive with what we have internally. We have our own race within the margin of error.

Polls are all over the board
The Survey USA poll automated poll is sensitive to higher name ID

Survey USA had Steve Beshear down by double digits to Steve henry a couple of weeks before the gubernatorial election. 
We have been working hard and one of the areas we've been working hard is in fundraising to get our message out.
we have out-raised the Lt. Gov. significantly, about 2 1/2 to 1. 

Joe Arnold, WHAS11: Are you working hard enough to be competitive?

Conway:  .... absolutely, absolutely. I went on a multi week jobs tour after I filed my papers.  I've been to every county in KY as well.

On the point of name recognition

Joe Arnold, WHAS11:  How much money will it take for (Conway) to increase his name ID enough to be able to be more competitive with you?
 

Mongiardo:  Well I think people are smarter than that. I don't.... fundamentally they know that the majority party in Washington right now is not Democratic or Republican, it's the lobbyists and the special interests. and it's the money,
And we've got make it not about money anymore, and Jack wants to make it about money but it's about people and if we don't do that, then we're not going to solve our problems, so we've got to do that.

Conway:  I expected at some point in the spring there might be a poll that came out that said we were down based on lower name ID.  Evidently, that day has arrived.  Our own polling does not show what you show.  Our own polling shows we're within the margin of error despite having a name ID deficit.

He's run nine times in the last 12 years

What our polling shows is that voters who are able to identify both Conway and Mongiardo, they prefer our candidacy by 17 points.
We're winning Jefferson County and he's winning out in the state based on the name ID, according to your poll.
 

Joe Arnold WHAS11:  How much higher of a name ID does he have?
 

Conway:  You are all showing it somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 points and we show it just under 20 points
I do understand there's a name ID deficit, so what I have is a challenge to introduce myself to voters.
You do that through television, you do that by campaigning throughout the entire state, you do that by doing interviews on Tv and newspaper.

We like our position.

Joe Arnold WHAS11:  Your name ID deficit is why your war chest advantage is essential?
Conway:  Exactly. It's one of the reasons that we've been focused on fundraising. it's one of the reasons I focused on fundraising early.  It's one of the reasons that we knew we had to raise enough money to get our message out because people are hurting in Kentucky.

What our polling shows is that voters who are able to identify both Conway and Mongiardo, they prefer our candidacy by 17 points.

Attack ads vs. issues debate in campaign:

Joe Arnold WHAS11:  18 points is a big lead, you have to be bracing yourself for the inevitable attack ads against you.

 Mongiardo: I've been in multiple campaigns, I've never lost a primary.  And it always gets negative. It seems the way campaigns are run today, but that's what turns people off.  It's what creates this polarization and I've refused to do that because if we don't bring people more back together, we can't talk and we're not going to be able to develop the solutions we need.
 

Conway :  Don't look for us to go tearing anything down just because we're going to run a positive campaign.  The voters want to know what have you done, and what can you do for me when you're in the U.S. Senate.

Mongiardo:  I've never run a campaign that's been negative.  I  think we ought to contrast, we ought to look at the issues and contrast the issues.

cap and trade - Conway has changed his position
jobs specific to Ky is Mongiardo idea
rail system - Conway first called it irresponsible, now backs it

I think it's okay to contrast, we're not going to be negative in any way though.

Conway:  When we identify our campaign to the voters, as they get to know what we're doing, as they get to know the job I've done as Attorney General compared to the job he's done as LG, (they prefer Conway)...

prescription pills task force
cyber crimes unit vs. child porn
medicaid  fraud
consumer protection

It takes money to get that message out, and that's where we have the advantage, and that's where we expect to really surge here in the last two months.

Job creation. they want to hear us talking about fiscal responsibility, they want to hear their candidates talking about what they can do to break through in Washington because Washington doesn't seem like its working back here in places like Kentucky.