Sunday, October 25, 2009

Kentucky Establishment In Full Spin Cycle In Senate Race

It appears that the Kentucky establishment is getting nervous ...

As widely reported, Kentucky Republican US Senate candidate, Rand Paul raised and astounding amount of money within the recent third quarter of just over one million dollars ... over $368,000.00 more in Q3 than his rivals.

This development has sent several media outlets into full spin mode as Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier Journal wrote this week:

"Paul's primary opponent, Trey Grayson, is making a big deal about the fact that 92 percent of his donors are from Kentucky — as if to say that he has the support of the states' voters. Paul seems to understand that he needs to fight the impression that his national support detracts from his electability in Kentucky. But he estimated that he has received campaign contributions from some 14,000 contributors — and only about 2,200 live in Kentucky."

2,200 Kentucky contributors for Rand Paul was equal to the total number of contributors for establishment candidate, Trey Grayson, from all states including Kentucky. Small omission there Joe.

With the media, there's often the case of lies, damn lies, and statistics. With the statistics in hand, blog PageOne Kentucky quipped this week:


"Comparing Grayson & Paul

Cash on Hand:
Grayson $1,117,655
Paul $912,416

Receipts:
Grayson $1,247,975
Paul $1,121,693

Disbursements:
Grayson $130,318
Paul $208,651

Debt:
Grayson $46,260
Paul $0

So Rand Paul is raising less money at a slower rate and has a burn rate far exceeding Grayson’s ..."

Here we go again. PageOne conveniently leaves out the fact that Paul raised $1,010,668.00 of those dollars in Q3 alone. That said, the trend is way past up. Furthermore, if one assumes Paul spent $70,000.00 more in Q3 than his chief rival Grayson who received $642,857.00 in Q3 that's a net gain by the Paul camp of almost $300,000.00 vs. his competition. Personally, if I could spend $70,000.00 to get $300,000.00 I'd be dumping the change outta Granny's purse to get that "burn rate".

But Rand Paul's Q3 number may not be the most important number in Kentucky politics today ...

For some of the Kentucky media pundits out there, what about 179? That's the number of days since launching his Exploratory Committee that former Democrat turned Republican US Senate candidate, Trey Grayson, has refused to state a position on one issue on his campaign website for the voters of Kentucky.