The much anticipated flood of special interest groups investing big dollars in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race is beginning to take shape. Earlier this week, this WHAS11 story forecast a record year for political commercials in Louisville, including an expected $29 million in the Senate race, alone.
The first half-million is already here.
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (GPS) is spending $520,000 for two weeks of commercials attacking Jack Conway's support for ObamaCare, and urging voters to tell him to join the lawsuit filed by the attornies general of other states challenging the constitutionality of the health care plan. As significant as the message is the visual pairing of Conway with President Barack Obama, who is unpopular in Kentucky.
The politicial action committee is closely aligned with American Crossroads , a 527 that is part of a network of burgeoning groups associated with Karl Rove and other high level conservatives focused on Republicans reclaiming Congress and the White House. Inez, Kentucky banker Mike Duncan, the former Republican National Committee Chairman, is the founding chairman of American Crossroads.
“When Jack Conway had to choose between defending Barack Obama’s agenda and defending Kentucky, he chose Obama,” said Crossroads GPS director Steven Law. “The new Crossroads GPS ad is aimed at mobilizing concerned Kentuckians to take action on Jack Conway’s endorsement of ObamaCare – including its Medicare cuts and tax increases – and Conway’s refusal to legally defend Kentucky from the new federal insurance mandate.”
The Conway campaign says the "Republican Shadow Group" is "funded with secret donations from the same establishment Republicans Paul once ran against," and is attempting to bailout Paul's campaign as it copes with a wave of scrutiny.
“After Rand Paul said the growing drug epidemic is not a 'real pressing issue,' he now needs a bailout from the very kind of establishment group he once railed against," said Conway spokeswoman Allison Haley, "But no amount of shadow funds can hide the fact that Rand Paul doesn’t understand the drug epidemic and doesn’t understand Kentucky.”
Meanwhile, the liberal Media Matters Action Network, which is "dedicated to analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," says the ad is misleading and "neglects to mention the benefits of health care reform."
Another issues-advocacy group that is expected to attack Conway on the air is the Coalition to Protect Kentucky Jobs (CPKJ). Like the Crossroads GPS, the organization is also criticized as a front group for wealthy and unnamed backers. On Monday, CPKJ released a Web video highlighting Senate candidate Jack Conway’s support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or 'card check" which makes union organizing easier.
