It’s been widely rumored for several weeks, but today it became official: Kentucky AG Jack Conway will be running for the Democratic nomination in the 2010 Senate race.
Attorney General Jack Conway said today that he will seek the Democratic nomination next year for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Jim Bunning….
The attorney general is expected to kick off his campaign with a press conference Monday attended by Luallen, Chandler, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, and perhaps other Democratic leaders who are backing him.
This comes hot on the heels of yesterday’s blockbuster PPP poll that showed every possible Democrat beating Jim Bunning. The poll showed Rep. Ben Chandler in the best position vis a vis Bunning, leaving me momentarily wondering if Chandler would try elbowing Conway aside, but it looks like the informal troika of Chandler, Conway, and Luallen have successfully resolved the issue of who gets to run for Senate, and will all be appearing together. (The same poll shows Conway beating Bunning by 9, so we’re still in great shape with him.)
This won’t be an uncontested primary. Far from it, as Conway will still need to get past Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, who doesn’t match up as well against Bunning according to PPP, but has the advantage of having come within a few points of Bunning in 2004, and who has the endorsement of Gov. Steve Beshear. As with the Democratic primary in Ohio, the trick will be keeping the primary competitive enough that the candidates get the free media needed to raise their profiles going into the general, but keeping it from lapsing into the negativity that can wound the primary winner going forward. (H/t MediaCzech and generalleeferd.)
May the best general election candidate win.
This is maybe some good news for the democrats… Minnasota is a state we need to get back in order to fofset the almost sure losses we will have in KS, TN, and the like.
Be the negative one, but I think even more so than Ohio this race has the potential to be very negative.
Who is the more progressive out of the two. I know this is Kentucky we’re talking about, but we might as well elect a progressive as long as Bunning is going down as Santorum did.
who thinks Conway kinda looks like Harvey Dent from “The Dark Knight”?
All the other major Democrats seem to be lining up around Conway while Beshear of course was forced to support his Lieutenant Governor less it be taken as a public slight. I feel that Conway will win this. I don’t think this primary will be more negative than Ohio. Ohio will be negative; there you have two ambitious statewide officers in a big state. Here, well ,Kentucky politics just doesn’t work like that. I think they will privately agree to stay positive and not go nuclear and damage one or the other’s chances of beating Bunning or somebody else if he loses.