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| AP
Former President Bill Clinton, right, and Senate Democratic candidate Bruce Lunsford wave to the crowd as the campaign rally concludes at the Bowling Green/Warren County Regional Airport in Bowling Green, Ky., Friday. Lunsford is in a heated race with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, Ky. for the senate seat. |
Former president visits western Ky. for Lunsford
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) - Bill Clinton endorsed Democrat Bruce Lunsford on Friday, linking Sen. Mitch McConnell to the nation's economic turmoil and warning that the Senate's top-ranking Republican would obstruct a new course if re-elected.
The former president was greeted by a boisterous crowd of about 500 in Paducah, the first of two stops in western Kentucky, a key battleground in the state's tight Senate race. Clinton and Lunsford had another appearance in Bowling Green.
“If you want to change America, you send Bruce Lunsford to the Senate,” Clinton said.
McConnell, a four-term incumbent, was campaigning in eastern Kentucky alongside Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers, who calls McConnell a crucial partner in winning federal money for his Appalachian district. That message is being reinforced in new radio ads running in the region that feature the longtime Republican congressman.
In the radio pitch, Rogers says McConnell has the seniority “to help us get things done for eastern Kentucky. His opponent would be a freshman; they can't help you.”
Clinton said the country has gotten a bitter dose of Republican economic policies under President Bush and a GOP-led Congress for much of the decade.
“Sen. McConnell, as a Republican leader, was critical to the consequences of what we are now living with,” Clinton said. “And it's very important because I can't remember when we've been in a mess like this.”
The former president's visit was the latest assist Lunsford has gotten from the Clinton family. Last month, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke for Lunsford at rallies in Pikeville and Lexington. Both Clintons were mobbed by fans seeking photos, autographs or a handshake during their latest trips to the Bluegrass state.
Bill Clinton carried Kentucky twice in winning the White House in 1992 and 1996, and made a quick stopover in Paducah on the eve of his first election. His wife scored a lopsided victory over Barack Obama in Kentucky's spring Democratic presidential primary.
The former president's visit was fresh evidence that Democrats see McConnell as vulnerable.
A recent poll conducted by WKYT-TV and the Lexington Herald-Leader found McConnell had the support of 47 percent of likely voters surveyed compared to 43 percent for Lunsford. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Bill Clinton predicted Obama would win the White House next month. And he said Kentucky's Senate race will help decide the next Congress' course, crucial to the next president.
A Lunsford victory would make remaining Republican senators more willing to reach deals on new economic and health care policy, Clinton said. A McConnell re-election would embolden GOP members to block change through use of the filibuster, he said.
“The man who was the leader of implementing President Bush's policies, if you leave him there, will be the leader of stopping a new direction for America every time they can muster 41 votes,” Clinton said.
Lunsford kept hitting on economic themes, saying the nation lost 60,000 jobs in the past three weeks. He linked the trend to McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, the U.S. labor secretary.
“And where's the secretary of labor? Traipsing around in a bus trying to get Mitch McConnell elected senator,” he said.
McConnell campaign manager Justin Brasell responded that criticizing an opponent's wife is “the definition of a desperate politician.”
On another issue crucial to the region, Rogers called McConnell a friend of coal and questioned Obama's commitment to the resource.
It's part of a Republican strategy to link Lunsford to Obama, who trailed Republican John McCain by double digits in Kentucky in a Herald-Leader/WKYT poll released this week.
“We need all the help we can get on coal and Mitch McConnell is solid with us,” Rogers said. “The other side, if you listen to them, is not going to be a friend of coal.”
During a campaign stop in neighboring West Virginia on Friday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Obama sees “clean coal” as part of his energy strategy.
Story created Oct 25, 2008 - 00:56:24 EDT.
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