Update from McConnell Campaign
Posted: Thursday, August 14, 2008
August 12, 2008
To: Friends and Allies of Team Mitch
Fr: Justin Brasell & Scott Jennings, Campaign Advisors
Re: Weekly Campaign Update
The battle of the campaign ads continues.
Senator McConnell Running Two New Ads
The McConnell campaign is now driving two messages on television across Kentucky:
LUNSFORD LAUNCHES MOST NEGATIVE ATTACK OF CAMPAIGN
Late last week—shortly after his media team quit and Chuck Schumer’s Democratic Senatorial Committee took over management of his campaign—Bruce Lunsford launched the most negative ad of this Senate race. No doubt you may be asked about it (it is the one where Lunsford is talking directly to the camera). Here are some points to keep in mind; let’s just look at Lunsford’s own words:
“Here's how it works in Washington.” Reality: Lunsford should know how “it works in Washington.” He spent more than $250,000 paying Washington lobbyists in just his final two years at Vencor before he bankrupted the company, leaving investors with losses while he pocketed millions. He has boasted of sending more than $140,000 to candidates and PACs, and just attended a fundraiser at the home of prominent oil company lobbyists in Washington D.C.
“The politicians get millions in campaign cash. The special interests get what they want.” Reality: Again, Lunsford should know. The bulk of his “special interest” contributions come from labor union bosses, who want to strip rank-and-file workers of their right to a secret ballot in labor union elections. Lunsford took his position on this issue in the primary this year in exchange for union support.
“And we get the short end of the stick.” Reality: It is pretty bold for a man with a personal fortune between $90 and $100 million and luxury homes in California, Florida, Chicago and New York to think he is getting the short end of the stick while he advocates policies that take more money from working families through tax increases on income and gasoline. Lunsford supports higher energy taxes and greater dependency on Middle Eastern oil.
“Mitch McConnell is the master of this system.” Reality: Senator McConnell makes no apologies about his efforts to meet the needs of his constituents, whether it is the $75 million he just secured for a brand new Veterans’ Hospital or the nearly $200 million he has sent to Kentucky’s universities at a time when state budgets were forcing cutbacks for Kentucky’s flagship institutions. Senator McConnell is only the second Senate Leader in Kentucky history, and this campaign is about all that we’ve been able to accomplish for Kentucky under Sen. McConnell’s leadership.
“It's how Big Oil gets billions in tax breaks, and we get $4 a gallon gas.” Reality: While Lunsford talks, McConnell acts. Senator McConnell introduced the Gas Price Reduction Act and is leading the fight to lower gas prices by expanding domestic exploration and encouraging conservation. Lunsford advocates policies – like the windfall profits tax - that will raise gas prices and make us more dependent on foreign oil. All manufacturers in the United States have gotten tax incentives from the federal government to create jobs and improve the economy. Lunsford wants you to think that only oil companies have received incentives. That is not true.
“It is how Wall Street gets bailed out, and people lose their homes.” Reality: While Lunsford talks, McConnell acts. Senator McConnell helped pass the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act through the United States Senate and into law. The law creates a $300 billion fund to help struggling homeowners refinance their mortgages. It passed on a bi-partisan 72-13 vote on July 26, 2008 and is now law.
“It’s how senators get indicted, and Mitch McConnell says nothing.” Reality: While Lunsford talks, McConnell acts. Following Senator Stevens’ indictment, Senator McConnell moved swiftly to ensure that conference rules were upheld and that Senator Stevens relinquished his position as Ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. The McConnell campaign promptly donated funds received from Stevens in the ’08 campaign cycle to charity. (Note: Any implication that Senator McConnell is unwilling to speak out against wrongdoing is demonstrably false. McConnell, as Chairman of the Ethics Committee, led the investigation into inappropriate behavior by the powerful Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Bob Packwood (R, OR). McConnell’s investigation led to the eventual resignation of Senator Packwood.)
“If you're tired of this system, I say it's time for a change.” Reality: Bruce Lunsford has been a political insider for 30 years. From tax increases and more dependency on foreign oil to advocating stripping workers of their basic democratic right to secret ballot labor elections, Bruce Lunsford does not advocate change we can afford.
Does He or Doesn’t He?
Bruce Lunsford does not support increased drilling in the United States, despite what he’s telling the press these days. Just look at his statements on the matter:
• "You can't solve the problem right now with drilling," Lunsford said in an interview Thursday. – Associated Press, July 25, 2008.
• Lunsford also re-iterated his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), an Alaska wildlife sanctuary targeted for exploratory drilling in recent legislation sponsored by McConnell. ANWR is estimated to hold at least 4.3 billion barrels of oil. "If you look at how little impact that has, that has become a political football. It has no effect on price, and it almost does nothing about our consumption," said Lunsford. The Democratic nominee also attacked the policy on the grounds of the damage it is predicted to inflict on the natural environment in ANWR. “Would someone in Kentucky want to see our environment destroyed like we are asking to do in Alaska? I don't think so. I think Kentuckians are much more environmentally conscious than that," said Lunsford. "It's a hoax." – PolitickerKY.com, June 13, 2008. http://www.politickerky.com/treypollard/878/top-democrats-praise-lunsford-louisville
• Lunsford said he opposes drilling in ANWR. "ANWR has the potential of being environmentally unsound and doesn’t do enough to help solve the problem," he said. "Again, that’s short term political thinking on the part of the Republicans and they’ve short-termed us to death, so now we’ve got nothing but long-term problems." – Lexington Herald Leader, May 21, 2008.
http://polwatchers.typepad.com/pol_watchers/2008/05/mcconnell-starts-fall-race-with-3-questions-for-lunsford.html
• “Bruce Lunsford…says Sen. Mitch McConnell misled the public by emphasizing expanded oil drilling when consumers are looking for quick relief from high gas prices. Lunsford says you can't solve the problem by drilling.” – Associated Press, July 25, 2008.
• "Increasing drilling - to keep us addicted to oil - is probably not the long-term right thing to do," said Lunsford. Lunsford was also asked if he supported a specific Republican proposal to drill in oil reserves in ANWR and the outer continental shelf. To the question, asked several times, Lunsford suggested the support of that policy by McConnell and other Republicans was "propaganda.” –PolitickerKY, July 24, 2008. http://www.politickerky.com/treypollard/1119/lunsford-launches-energy-plan-calling-republican-proposals-propaganda
In the news…
There are some excellent clips out there discussing the campaign.
First, the Paducah Sun’s Sunday edition offered their views on the energy debate in this campaign…
The true comprehensive plan for energy independence is the one McConnell champions day after day in the Senate chamber. It includes, like Lunsford’s plan, clean-coal technology, lifting the ban on developing vast shale oil deposits and alternative/renewable forms of energy. But unlike Lunsford, McConnell also calls for increasing nuclear power, the cleanest, most economical source of energy. And he calls for lifting the ban on offshore drilling and tapping ANWR’s vast reserves of recoverable oil... http://blog.teammitch.com/blog/_archives/2008/8/10/3833034.html
Columnist Deroy Murdock of Scripps-Howard offered up an interesting take on the Democrats’ 1970’s-era energy policies…
To plan a long and challenging journey, would you reject Mapquest and GPS and only consult an atlas from the 1970s? Unlikely. But to pinpoint America's offshore oil deposits, congressional Democrats, starting with Sen. Barack Obama, love disco-era maps. Despite his conditional, latter-day support for limited offshore drilling, Obama is the sole sponsor of legislation that would block geological research to locate offshore oil… http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/374020_murdockoinline08.html
Days Until Election Victory: 84
(Yes, we only have 84 days to go!)
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