Pro-Cameron PAC takes swing at Craft as Kentucky governor’s race tightens
After more than a month of ads attacking Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s record, a political action committee supporting Cameron has unleashed a television ad critical of the record of his top competition for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.
The advertisement criticizes former ambassador Kelly Craft for not getting the endorsement of former president Donald Trump despite working under him, absenteeism from her ambassador duties and the ‘empty chair’ ad that was criticized by some as insensitive to those who have lost a loved one to drugs. It’s
“Craft worked for president Trump and Trump endorsed Daniel, not Craft – maybe because while working for taxpayers, Kelly Craft was absent from her post half the time. And then Craft got caught misleading Kentuckians in her opioid ad,” a narrator states in the ad from Bluegrass Freedom Action.
The hit on Craft comes at a time where she appears to have significantly closed the gap between herself and Cameron.
Cameron’s lead over Craft now stands at just six percentage point, according to a poll done by Emerson College and Fox56/WDKY that has Cameron’s support among “very likely” GOP primary voters at 30% and Craft’s at 24%. Coming in third in the poll was Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles, who’s yet to spend money on advertisements this cycle.
In a January poll from Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategies, Cameron was up with 39%, while Craft only had 12% support in second place and Quarles came in at 8%.
Context to the ad
A PAC supporting Craft, Commonwealth PAC, has been airing ads critical of Cameron’s position within the “establishment,” as well as his record on criminal justice and coal for more than a month. Craft’s campaign has joined in on the hits against Cameron, particularly when it comes to his support for retiring a coal plant in West Virginia instead of approving a rate raise to keep it going.
While the ad bashing Craft touts Trump’s endorsement of Cameron over Craft, the former ambassador had not yet declared her intention to run for governor when Trump gave Cameron the nod in the summer of 2022. In recent interviews, Craft has pointed to this timing factor.
However, Craft had been openly mulling a run for governor for many months in advance of her announcement.
The ad’s hit claiming that Craft was “absent from her post” half the time comes from a POLITICO story published in 2019 that detailed the amount of time she spent away from the U.S. embassy in Canada when she was ambassador there. The findings were based on a report done by Democrats on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Republicans on the committee claimed that Craft spent slightly fewer days – 194 instead 210 – total in Kentucky or Oklahoma while on the job, where her husband Joe Craft’s coal company is based.
The referenced negative reception to Craft’s “opioid ad” came after some criticized it for implying that one of Craft’s family members had died from addiction. Craft’s “empty chair at the table” did not refer to a lost loved one, but instead a daughter who went to rehab. At one point, Craft “had to have her arrested,” she said on Friday. That daughter is now a “healthy young woman,” Craft said.
How much have they spent?
Craft, Cameron and groups supporting both of them have spent nearly $6 million on advertisements. Craft and Commonwealth PAC have dropped $4.8 million while Cameron and his PAC have spent close to a combined $1.2 million, according to Medium Buying.
The only other candidate spending money on advertising is Northern Kentucky retired attorney Eric Deters, who has spent more than $135,000 on cable television ads. Deters polled at a clear fourth place in the Emerson survey, claiming 6% support.
