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Thursday, May. 22, 2008

Senator challenges Lunsford on issues

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell charged into general election mode by moving to define his opponent and by offering an issues test to his newly minted Democratic challenger, Bruce Lunsford.

McConnell, speaking to reporters on a teleconference the morning after Kentucky's primary election, said he wanted to know how Lunsford, if he were a U.S. senator, would vote on the upcoming national spending bill and his reaction to an 11-year-old budget reduction act. He also said he was curious about Lunsford's position on how to address soaring gasoline prices.

The first volley of issue-based challenges opened what is expected to be contentious, nationally watched campaign between the four-term senator -- one of only two Kentuckians to serve as his party's leader in that chamber -- and Lunsford, a Louisville businessman and entrepreneur.

McConnell predicted Lunsford would "run the most negative campaign Kentuckians have ever seen."

He went on to link Lunsford to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama -- whom McConnell said he expects to be the Democratic presidential candidate -- as well as to Gov. Steve Beshear.

"Kentuckians will decide this fall if they support the Lunsford-Obama-Beshear plan for America or not," McConnell said.

Lunsford, in an interview, said that trio represents hope. He then lumped McConnell with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who he said create "despair."

Dubbing McConnell "Sir Mitchell," Lunsford questioned how much time the senator spends in Kentucky. That's similar to the tactic McConnell used in his first U.S. Senate race against Democrat Dee Huddleston in 1984.

"He sits up there in the ivory tower and doesn't want to get out in Kentucky," Lunsford said.

So he said he'd like to engage McConnell in Lincoln-Douglas-style debates across Kentucky before November.

"It's time to have some fun. Politics is supposed to be fun," said Lunsford, who won his first election in three tries on Tuesday.

Talking issues

With gas prices soaring near $4 a gallon Wednesday across Kentucky, McConnell questioned what Lunsford would do to address it.

McConnell pushed a provision last month that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil drilling as a way to possibly ease prices while conservation methods and alternative fuels are explored. McConnell noted that his proposal received just one vote from a Democrat.

"We've got to get serious about not ruling so much of our own production out of bounds," McConnell said. "We've got to have a balanced approach of both conservation and production."

Lunsford opposes seeking oil in that part of Alaska.

Drilling in 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."

He favors placing a wind-fall profits tax on oil companies and approving a federal gas tax holiday, which some -- including Obama -- have called a "gimmick."

Lunsford declined to speculate on how he would vote on the national spending bill, which McConnell opposes.

But Lunsford did criticize the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 that McConnell supported. He said "draconian cuts" to Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements crippled nursing home companies, such as the corporation Vencor that he founded.

"This was ill-fated public policy that destroyed the industry," he said.

Political road to November

McConnell also said he expects the presidential race to shade the Senate race, which could benefit his re-election.

He noted that Obama outspent U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 2-1 in Kentucky and lost by 35 percentage points. Clinton carried 118 of the state's 120 counties.

"That's not an indication of great appeal to Kentucky voters," he said. "I think Kentucky is likely to be strongly Republican this year."

Lunsford, however, said he will seek to appeal not only to Democrats but independents and supporters of presumptive GOP candidate John McCain as well.

"I'm not running from either Barack or John McCain," Lunsford said. "It would be hard for me to see a Barack Obama supporter supporting Mitch McConnell, but it would not be hard to see a John McCain supporter supporting me."

A Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll of 600 likely Kentucky voters conducted May 7-9 showed McConnell leading Lunsford in a hypothetical November match-up 48 percent to 36 percent. Sixteen percent were undecided.

The same poll showed McConnell's job-approval rating at 48 percent, with 44 percent disapproving and 8 percent unsure.