Will Alison Grimes Run Against Mitch Mcconnell Again
To understand why 34-year-old Alison Lundergan Grimes would choose to vault into a nationally watched U.South. Senate race against the most powerful, well-funded Republican in the state, it'south instructive to start with her father.
Though Grimes has been Kentucky secretary of state for only 18 months and remains largely a bare slate to voters, Jerry Lundergan is 1 of the most influential Bluegrass State Democrats of the by three decades. If they're able to buck the odds and dethrone Mitch McConnell next year, it volition be in no small-scale part due to the combination of Grimes' untarnished profile and her father's deeply forged relationships.
"Her dad conspicuously is a huge asset. He will be a strong adviser," said a Grimes political adjutant.
Lundergan runs a lucrative Lexington catering business -- "If yous've ever been to the Autonomous National Convention, y'all've eaten his food," quipped i longtime Kentucky journalist -- but he earned his political stripes as a long-time legislator, country party chairman and Play tricks (Friend of Bill ... Clinton, that is). Lundergan helped plan Chelsea Clinton's hymeneals, and when Clinton comes to Kentucky, he stays at Jerry'southward house -- so political observers say the one-time president's private pledge of back up and resource weighed heavily on Grimes' ultimate conclusion. A Clinton spokesperson declined to annotate farther.
But the true test of Lundergan's political muscle came in 2011 when his daughter chose to wade into balloter politics for the showtime time with a challenge to a sitting secretary of state from her own party.
Democratic Secretary of Land Elaine Walker, appointed by Governor Steve Beshear to fill up the position after Republican Trey Grayson resigned, knew what she was up against when she was greeted by Grimes banners and signs in the farthest flung corners of the state.
"I call up probably the biggest asset that she had is that tremendous grassroots support that her father congenital and she built upon," Walker recalled in an interview. "She had a very strong political background, had grown upwards in the political loonshit and was very knowledgable about the people involved."
Despite holding the office and being boosted by Beshear robocalls, Walker was outspent 3-to-1 and trounced on primary twenty-four hour period by 10 points.
"When Jerry Lundergan sets his mind to a chore, he is relentless," wrote Al Cross in The Louisville Courier-Periodical at the time. "He and his girl have run rings effectually Walker and Beshear, organizationally and financially."
(Beshear is on lath this go-round, just clearly wounds are notwithstanding raw from the feud: He told reporters he wasn't given a heads-up on Grimes' entry into the competition.)
In the general election, Grimes' entrada was largely based on a unmarried issue: opposition to requiring a photo ID to vote. She also placed her ii grandmothers in a highly effective television spot where they promoted her ideas to ease the business-licensing process. "What rhymes with Alison Lundergan Grimes?" asked one. "Oh, such a long name," quipped the other.
The issue: She more than doubled her margin against Republican Bill Johnson -- thumping him by 22 points.
Johnson, who predicted after Grimes would run against McConnell, said he now thinks she tin beat him.
"I think information technology's a very winnable race for her. I don't say this as a fan of hers, I'm just existence honest," he said in an interview. "She'southward an aggressive apostle, she's going to be smart on how she speaks on bug, she's going to try to have it both means. And frankly there'due south no record to run against. I think it will be very difficult for McConnell to run a negative entrada against her on any kind of problems. It'll have to exist personal. And information technology's very hard to run against a woman and be negative. Other women don't like that."
Nevertheless, under the harsh gleam of a nationally tracked Senate race, Grimes will be pelted with tough questions on clearing, energy policy, and taxes, and be forced to navigate thorny cultural minefields like abortion and gay marriage -- issues she was clearly not prepared to address during her shaky July one announcement.
"She'due south clearly untested," said Billy Piper, a sometime principal of staff to McConnell. "There'south non a lot of there there."
But her lack of a lengthy record is exactly what could throw a kink in the well-oiled McConnell auto known for surgically picking autonomously opponents. Portraying Grimes every bit Barack Obama'south Siamese twin could exist trickier than imagined.
"I'm sure it'due south driving Mitch McConnell a little bit zingy," said Dale Emmons, a longtime Democratic consultant and Lundergan Grimes family unit friend.
Too her staunch opposition to requiring a voting ID and an unsuccessful legislative push this year for online balloting for overseas military, Grimes is bereft of public-policy positions. "She doesn't similar to bargain with the printing. They continue her in a pretty tight cocoon. Yous tend to run across a wall unless the issue is on her terms, which is odd for a secretary of land," observed one longtime political reporter in the state who requested anonymity to speak without restraint.
But the generational and demographic contrast with the dour, characterless 71-year-old McConnell couldn't be brighter. In her first entrada email to supporters, she began to outline her frame of McConnell equally a antediluvian, promising to "build a Kentucky that nosotros can all exist proud of. One that isn't dead-set on obstructionism." The frame Grimes hopes to construct: She'due south for what works for Kentucky; he'south Senator Gridlock.
"While McConnell's certainly a formidable opponent, people are tired of the same old matter. They're going to acquaintance McConnell with some of the problems. That's baggage he has," said Johnson. "I think the energy's going to exist on her side. She's an up-and-comer in the party. I don't think the Tea Political party's going to come up out energized for McConnell. I recall she can win it."
History says otherwise, given McConnell's massive war chest, the midterm election dynamic and the land'due south GOP tilt on the federal level.
This wasn't the race Grimes was originally eyeing, according to land political observers. Attorney general looked like a promising spot, or perchance even governor in 2015, when Beshear is term-limited. Merely sometimes the all-time laid long-term plans are disrupted by the volatile high-pressure politics of the moment. After other Democrats, including actress Ashley Judd, passed on the race, Grimes opted to jump in. "She was born premature and been a fighter ever since," said Emmons.
Whatever the consequence of the entrada, if Grimes' political profile is lacking at present, information technology will be filled in past the stop of the next 16 months.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/meet-the-underdog-who-could-beat-mitch-mcconnell/277888/
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