Iowa advocacy group airs TV ad against Paul
FRANKFORT – An out-of-state issues advocacy group is spending big bucks on television ads in Kentucky to criticize Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul for threatening “Kentucky values.”
The 30-second spot says Paul is “opposed to helping farmers” and calls coal ‘the least favorable form of energy.”
American Future Fund, based in Des Moines, Iowa, launched the ad Friday, spending $104,296 to air the the spot 148 times in the Lexington TV market before the May 18 election, according to the public ad file at WKYT-TV.
That spending dwarfs the amount being shelled out for Lexington TV ads by either Paul or his chief opponent, Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Paul is spending about $26,000 to air ads on WKYT from May 3 to May 18, compared to $51,105 being spent by American Future Fund to air ads on the channel from May 7 to May 17. Grayson is spending $17,880 with WKYT for ads that air from May 3 to May 10.
It would cost more than $500,000 for the advocacy group, which says it speaks out for conservative and free market views, to make similar ad buys across the state.
Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon and son of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, holds a 12 point lead in the U.S. Senate GOP primary over Grayson in a Kentucky Poll released on Wednesday.
“If this attack group really cared about Kentucky issues they would be talking to Rand Paul instead of running misleading $100,000 ad campaigns against him,” said David Adams, Paul’s campaign manager. “Fortunately Kentuckians aren’t buying what these people from Iowa are selling.”
Adams said it was interesting that Grayson campaign pollster Jan van Lohuizen is affiliated with the American Future Fund.
Grayson’s campaign manager, Nate Hodson, said the campaign had no idea that American Future Fund intended to play a role in the race.
“We saw the ad yesterday on YouTube after our media buyer noticed that this group was buying ads,” Hodson said. “It’s not a great ad. We think our own ad and our own message works better.”
The ad also says “Kentucky’s great military families would be surprised to know what Paul thinks of nuclear Iran” and that Paul says “nothing” on creating Kentucky jobs.
“The people of Kentucky want to know when they are going back to work,” AFF spokesman Nick Ryan said in a statement.
“With unemployment at an all-time high, Kentuckians are looking for real solutions to Kentucky’s economic future, not deafening silence on that issue from their leaders.”
Meanwhile, Paul’s campaign launched its own new advertisement on Friday. It takes Grayson to task for saying that it is “not really practical” to promise that he would never vote for a budget that isn’t balanced.
The ad’s narrator responds: “What’s not practical is a trillion dollar deficit.”
–Jack Brammer
Filed Under: Rand Paul • Trey Grayson • US Senate Race
About the Author: 
hmmm. somebody worried. calling in the calvary
The American Freedom Fund has in its leadership Larry McCarthy (Grayson’s media consultant) and Jan Van Lohuizen (Grayson’s pollster).
Don’t believe for one second they’re innoncent or “independent”.
Kentucky does not need another career politician who’s campaign is financed by special interest like Trey Grayson. Grayson is part of the problem, not the solution!
If Iran got a nuclear weapon, they’d probably use it on Israel. There might be enough of Israel to lob a few back.
Then we’d be done with 2 countries full of yahoos.
Then the US and Russia could lob a few more in to get rid of the rest of the nitwits, and then go in and divide up the oil.
See, works out for everyone (who isn’t in the Middle East).
What Kentucky doesn’t need is an arrogant, self-righteous, know-it-all doctor like Paul who is funded by mostly out-of-staters who supported his dad’s fringe campaign. Grayson has common sense, conservative values, and governing experience, and is a much safer choice for Kentucky and the nation.
Would someone please tell me what “common sense” Grayson seems to have?
Does Philip have a problem with out of state groups like AFF attacking Dr. Paul on Grayson’s behalf?
Finally, how does an over-blown clerical position (Kentucky Secretary of State) qualify someone as having “governing experience”?
There is nothing new in this ad that hasn’t already been said. It’s just the same old lies being repeated by somebody else on Trey Grayson’s behalf. This amounts to redundancy, and will not help the Grayson campaign. As people figure out exactly who put out this cheesy ad, they are likely to link Grayson to them, which will have a backfire effect. If this strategy hasn’t worked up until now, what makes anyone think that it will suddenly work at the very end? May 18 2010 is the date that Trey Grayson’s campaign will probably peter out.
Double Digit Unemployment..That is the main concern.not conservative versus non.. no one cares! and what do they mean Conservative? if its Politically conservative then thay is great. less government, less taxes, and budgetary accountability.. but Social conservative should be called what it is, Fundamentalism: telling people what their religon should be, how they should act, and what their morales should be. now fundamentalism is something Marx Stalin and hitler could all agree on
Spotted on Interstate 77 in northeastern Ohio yesterday: a Rand Paul bumper sticker on a car with New York plates. So the Paulaholics have no right to complain about anyone from out of state supporting Grayson, seeing that most of Paul’s support on various blogs and much of his money comes from out of state.
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