McConnell Plans to Fundraise with Other Senate GOPers for Grayson

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I can hear the conversation now:

“Mitch, I think we may have a problem.”

“What is it, Trey?’

“Rand Paul just dropped a ‘money bomb‘. It didn’t do as well as they expected, but Paul has a lot of money on hand now.”

“What do you want me to do about it?”

“Could you come help me out here? I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

And thus, this happens:

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and 22 other Republican senators are hosting a $500-per-person fundraiser Sept. 23 for Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson’s Senate campaign.

The event will be held at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters in Washington, Roll Call reported Tuesday.

This could be taken one of 2 ways: The Grayson camp is showing it’s grief after Rand Paul’s money bomb that earned over $600,000 OR, which I think is most likely, Trey Grayson and friends want to appear like they’re essentially already a shoo – in for the Republican nomination (they almost are). By giving themselves the legitimacy of Mitch and others joining him for a fundraiser, it would appear to most that the deal is done.

HOwever, that won’t stop Paul from using all that fancy cash he earned to exploit Grayson’s coziness with the GOP elite.

On a barely related note, tomorrow Trey starts his “announcement” tour and will be coming to “Ashland” which to him seems to meant the Worthington Airport. He’s probably landing, giving a speech and heading elsewhere. Niiiice.

Rand Paul (R) to Supoosedly Announce Run for Senate Next Week

Details are sparse but Rand Paul, who I’m sure you all know by now as the son of Ron Paul, is expected to enter the race for Bunning‘s old Senate seat next week, according to WTQV.com:

Rand is expected to officially enter the race next week.  Secretary of State Trey Grayson says he will transition his campaign from exploratory to official.

Paul also apparently never got a response from the senator himself when Paul’s committee reached out to Bunning for approval.

Jim Bunning Loses Over 100 Faithful Donors

Poor Jim Bunning, such a great conservative being thrashed by his party, for no legitimate reason than they don’t think he can win, which he probably can’t, and won’t if he keeps losing donors to Sec. of State Trey Grayson.

CJ is reporting this morning that more than 100 people who originally donated to his 1st 2 senatorial campaigns have defected to his primary opponent (sorta, kinda) Trey Grayson.

A Courier-Journal review of campaign finance reports and databases found that 164 people who gave to Bunning’s campaigns in 1998 and 2004 have contributed to Grayson’s exploratory campaign this year. Only 47 of them also gave to Bunning in this election cycle.

On the other hand, it’s hard to feel any compassion since Bunning urged Grayson to form an exploratory committee to start with. Perhaps that was his plan all along: see if another Republican would fare any better than him, and if so, call it quits. But Bunning isn’t that predictable.

Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said most of those former Bunning supporters who gave to Grayson understand the significance of their contribution.“It looked to me like 45 individuals hedged their bets,” she said. “The other 120 read the writing on the wall.”