By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, 2:45 p.m. — Kentucky Tea Party groups who seek to oust Sen. Mitch McConnell — whom they say has attempted to co-opt the movement’s message — will have friends with deep pockets in the Democratic party.
As noted in a McConnell campaign e-mail, big Democratic donors, the liberal group MoveOn.org and the super PAC Progress Kentucky are making it known they are ready to place financial and organization support behind a right-wing candidate if emerges to take McConnell on in the 2014 primary.
According to the McConnell campaign (and reported today on POLITICO.com), the idea would be to weaken McConnell with a primary challenger, or support a weak Republican candidate who would likely fail to win over a strong Democratic candidate in the general election.
According to campaign manager Jesse Benton, McConnell “has stood side-by-side with conservatives in Kentucky and they need to manufacture a movement against him to get attention to the race.”
Benton’s e-mail says the conservative movement in Kentucky “has never been stronger,” and cited McConnell’s work to “to build a powerful coalition that will get results and implement limited-government solutions both in Frankfort and in Washington.”
Benton, who was a grassroots activist who worked on Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and served as campaign manager on Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign, was hired to manage McConnell’s 2014 re-election bid.
“One of the reasons I was hired for this job was because of my longstanding friendships I made with the TEA Party conservatives during the year I spent living in Rand Paul’s basement as senior advisor and campaign manager,” Benton wrote in the e-mail. “I know the real grassroots, and I share McConnell’s commitment to carry their voices to Washington, and not allow them to be cynically co-opted by radical liberals.”
In a Sept. 2012 interview in Business Insider, Benton said the McConnell campaign expects a well-funding challenge in 2014, and said they are planning to be prepared for that challenge.
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