Rand Paul's early lead a sign of party division

By Jack Brammer and Ryan Alessi - jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Republican Elliot Polach is disenchanted with his party's leaders in Washington, many of whom voted for a bank bailout and other big-ticket spending bills in the past year.

These days, he'd rather be called a conservative than a Republican.

Polach, the 18-year-old founder of the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party in Paducah, is emblematic of deep and widespread frustration that has surfaced in Republican primaries nationwide.

Republican National Committee's 10 proposed principles
The Republican National Committee next month will consider whether to ask party candidates if they support 10 principles. Candidates who disagree with three or more of the policies would not get party money and endorsements.
Secretary of State Trey Grayson's campaign spokesman Nate Hodson said Grayson supports all 10 and that Paul disagrees with three of them — the troop surge in Afghanistan, nuclear containment of Iran and North Korea, and defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
Asked which of the policies he supports, Paul issued a statement that said he supports the Republican Party platform. "I find it interesting that some in the Republican Party are promoting a litmus test when many Republicans voted for government ownership of the banks, which is in direct contradiction to the Republican Party platform," he said.
The 10 policy positions under consideration by the Republican National Committee are:
1. We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like President Obama's "stimulus" bill.
2. We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government-run health care.
3. We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation.
4. We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check.
5. We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants.
6. We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges.
7. We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat.
8. We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act.
9. We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing, denial of health care and government funding of abortion.
10. We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

In Kentucky, first-time political candidate Rand Paul has harnessed the anti-Republican-establishment vibe among conservatives to raise $1.4 million and take a surprising lead in early polls in the race for U.S. Senate over Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

"The party definitely is split now philosophically between moderates and conservatives," Polach said.

Paul, the Bowling Green eye surgeon and son of Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, has attracted support from many of the free-market, low-tax activists who backed his father's 2008 presidential bid and has tried to frame this primary race as feisty outsider versus status quo establishment candidate.

"The conservative groups who are serious about balanced budgets and creating real jobs in the private sector without overspending and bailout nonsense know they have a champion in Rand Paul," said Paul campaign manager David Adams.

Adams said any party split "is between those who like big government trashing the Constitution and those who are ready to tame the beast and return the power to the people."

Meanwhile, Grayson says he's taking the big-tent approach and seeking the backing of a wide swath of Republicans, including the fiscal conservatives that Paul considers his base.

"I'm a mainstream, commonsense conservative," he says.

Brad Cummings, a Grayson backer and the former chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, acknowledges that there is unrest in his party, but said it's wrong for conservatives to unleash their displeasure on Grayson.

"In Kentucky, that is being thrust unfairly upon a very good man who has shown nothing but a conservative record when it comes to fiscal restraint in his office of secretary of state," he said of Grayson.

Both Grayson and Paul are seeking endorsements of two national groups that are receiving heavy media attention for their conservatism — the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund.

"These groups are known among conservatives as strong organizations and get behind candidates to help them win," said Grayson campaign manager Nate Hodson.

The Club for Growth is a fiscally conservative organization with a political action committee based in Washington. It endorses and helps fund Republican candidates who support limited government and lower taxes.

Founded in 1999, it claims over 40,000 members. The organization invented the "RINO (Republican In Name Only) Watch" list to monitor "Republican office holders around the nation who have advanced egregious anti-growth, anti-freedom or anti-free market policies."

Mike Connolly, spokesman for Club for Growth, said his group has met with both Grayson and Paul, but would not say if it will endorse in the Kentucky race.

The Conservatives Fund, established in 2008 and chaired by U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, is a political action committee "dedicated to electing strong conservatives to the United States Senate.

"We do not support liberal Republicans and we are not affiliated with the Republican Party or any of its campaign committees," the group says on its Web site.

Some observers think DeMint is using the fund to improve his chances of becoming U.S. Senate minority leader, a post now held by Kentucky's Mitch McConnell.

Grayson has criticized Paul for not saying whether he would support McConnell for the party leadership spot in the Senate.

"I'm not planning to endorse anyone at this time for leadership but I definitely think it is advantageous for Kentucky to have McConnell in leadership," Paul said. "I just wish he would campaign for me but I'm not the establishment candidate."