All Entries in the "US Senate Race" Category

Grayson says he will not run for any office in 2011

FRANKFORT — Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who lost the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate last May to Rand Paul, said Wednesday he will not be a candidate for any office next year.

Grayson had been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general next in 2011. He is in his second four-year term as secretary of state and cannot legally seek a consecutive third term.

In a statement, Grayson said, “After many hours of reflection, conversations and prayer with family, friends, advisors and others, I want to announce today, that I will not be a candidate for attorney general — or any other office — in 2011. While I am not ruling out a campaign in future years, I am confident that this is the best decision for my family and me.”

Labor Secretary to retire

FRANKFORT — Kentucky Secretary of Labor J.R. Gray has decided to step down as head of the state’s labor cabinet. Gov. Steve Beshear has appointed Labor Deputy Secretary Mark Brown as acting secretary of the cabinet. Brown is a former state representative and a member of a plumbers and pipe fitters union.

Gray, who also served in the state House of Representatives, was the first person to head the agency after Beshear decided to restore the agency to cabinet-level status.

Gray, Beshear’s first labor secretary, appointed to the job in December 2007. Gray makes $137,865 a year, according to state records.

U.S. Sen.-elect Paul to write book about Tea Party movement

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – It won’t be available for holiday gifts this year but U.S. Sen.-elect Rand Paul of Bowling Green is writing a book entitled “The Tea Party Goes to Washington.”

The book will be about Paul’s plan and the Tea Party’s platform “to bring the U.S. government more in line with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to stop spending money the country doesn’t have, to stop borrowing, to balance the budget and reduce the size of the government,” said a release Monday from its New York publisher, Center Street.

Rand Paul supporter pleads not guilty in stomping incident

By Shawntaye Hopkins – shopkins@herald-leader.com

A campaign volunteer for Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Rand Paul who was caught on videotape stepping on a liberal activist outside a U.S. Senate debate in Kentucky has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge.

Tim Profitt, 53, of Bourbon County appeared before Fayette District Judge David Hayse for his arraignment Thursday afternoon on the fourth-degree assault charge.

A news crew shot footage of Profitt and other supporters of Paul restraining Lauren L. Valle, 23, an activist with the liberal group MoveOn.org. The confrontation happened outside the debate last month between Paul and his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway.

Profitt told the Herald-Leader that he was concerned that the woman was trying to attack Paul and acted only to subdue her.

A criminal summons says Profitt “intentionally placed his foot on the shoulder/head region on the victim.”

Profitt’s attorney, Michael Dean, reiterated Thursday that his client was trying to protect Paul.
“It was just wanting her to stay down until police could come,” Dean said.

Shortly after video surfaced, Paul’s campaign issued a statement condemning Profitt’s actions — without naming him — and said it had cut ties with him.

Hayse scheduled a preliminary hearing for Dec. 7.

State: Passport should repay state money

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state Cabinet for Health and Family Services will attempt to recover some of the money that a private contractor spent on questionable travel, entertainment and other expenses, officials said Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he expects the cabinet to aggressively seek repayment from Passport Health Plan, which administers Medicaid in the Louisville area.

Stumbo, speaking to a legislative committee considering ways to control costs in the state and federal Medicaid program, said Tuesday that he read the contract with Passportand it seems clear that the state could ask Passport to repay money the state says was not spent correctly.

Vikki Franklin, a spokeswoman for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said the cabinet plans to ask Passport to repay the state for some of the questionable expenses identified last week in a scathing audit by State Auditor Crit Luallen.

The cabinet is still planning a full audit of Passport to determine just how state taxpayer dollars were spent. Over the past three years, Passport has received more than $2.5 billion in state and federal taxpayer dollars to manage health care services for 164,000 people on Medicaid in the Louisville area.

Rand Paul got 69 percent of individual contributions from outside Kentucky

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen.-elect Rand Paul, R-Ky., is among a small cadre of politically well-connected freshmen who raised large sums from donors who live outside the states the lawmakers were elected to represent.

Paul, the son of former presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, ranks second behind U.S. Rep.-elect Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, in individual contributions raised out of state, according to an analysis of federal campaign data by the Center for Responsive Politics.

During his campaign, Paul relied heavily on his father’s donor base and well-organized Internet “money bombs” to rake in more than $1.4 million in individual contributions — 69 percent of which was raised outside the Bluegrass State as of mid-October.

Rand Paul: ‘The tea party actually is co-opting Washington’

By John Stamper – jstamper@herald-leader.com

Republican U.S. Senator-elect Rand Paul, a favorite of the small-government tea party movement, declared on national television Sunday that establishment Republicans can’t co-opt him.

Instead, “the tea party actually is co-opting Washington,” Paul told Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s This Week. “… We’re coming. We’re proud. We’re strong. We’re loud and we’re going to co-opt. And in fact, I think we’re already shaping the debate.” (TRANSCRIPT)

For example, Paul said the tea party is largely responsible for the ongoing debate about the nation’s $13.7 trillion debt.

Five days after delivering a 12-point pounding to Democrat Jack Conway in Kentucky, Paul avoided offering any new specifics about how he would balance the federal budget but said he would like to have a seat on the Senate Budget Committee.

“My hope is to be on the Budget Committee and to go through all of these numbers and, by January, to have a balanced budget that I will introduce,” Paul said. “I want there to be a Republican alternative — whether it wins or not, I want the Republican message to be one of balanced budgets. If they won’t do it in a year, we’ll say, how about two years? If they won’t do it in two years, how about three years? But someone has to believe it.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — Kentucky’s senior senator — was on CBS talking about extending tax cuts for those who make $250,000 or more a year, a move that would cost the government $700 billion over the next 10 years.

Republicans celebrate victories but eye Governor’s Mansion and White House

By Jack Brammer

jbrammer@herald-leader.com

ELIZABETHTOWN – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told state Republican leaders Saturday it is fine to bask in their party’s Election Day wins but he reminded them that the goal now is to capture the Governor’s Mansion next year and the White House in 2012.

“The appropriate reaction to last Tuesday is not spiking the ball in the end zone,” McConnell said at the fall meeting of the state Republican Party’s Central Executive Committee. “We do not control the government yet.”

MSNBC suspends Olbermann for political contributions

Politico reports that MSNBC has suspended commentator Keith Olbermann indefinitely without pay for making contributions to three Democratic candidates, including Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

Official count shows Chandler defeating Barr by 649 votes

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, leads Republican Andy Barr by 649 votes, according to official vote totals from all 16 counties in the 6th Congressional District.

The last of the county totals, which have been certified by county clerks but have not yet been given the final stamp of approval by the Kentucky Board of Elections, were submitted to the secretary of state’s office on Friday.

The official count is Chandler with 119,812 votes and Barr with 119,163 votes, said Les Fugate, spokesman for the secretary of state.

As county and state officials double-checked their math, there were slight adjustments to totals in Estill County, which Barr won, and Fayette and Franklin counties, which Chandler won.

Chandler declared victory on Tuesday night, but Barr, a Lexington lawyer, has not conceded and requested a recanvass, a machine-by-machine check of the vote totals. The recanvass is scheduled for Nov. 12.

Chandler gave a 45-second speech re-declaring victory at his campaign office in Lexington Friday.

“Today the county boards of elections certified their vote totals and sent them to the secretary of state, reconfirming our victory and showing that the people of Central Kentucky have again chosen me to be their voice in Congress,” Chandler said. “Andy Barr fought hard, and I commend his willingness to serve the people of Central Kentucky.”

Chandler did not take any questions directly from reporters, disappearing into a back office immediately after his statement.