State Auditor Crit Luallen has made her final decision — she won’t challenge Mitch McConnell next year:
Luallen, who won a fresh four-year term as state auditor last month, had emerged as the favorite of several prominent Kentucky and national Democrats to challenge McConnell following the party’s strong showing last month when Democrat Steve Beshear routed Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
But Luallen said in a statement Friday that “I have no plans to enter the race.”
“I have just been re-elected as state auditor and look forward to continuing to serve the citizens of Kentucky in that capacity,” she said.
It looks like Louisville attorney and Iraq vet Andrew Horne is gearing up to take her place:
Horne said Friday he planned to make a final decision soon but added, “I am a likely candidate.”
He said he put “some things on hold” while Luallen considered the race. “But obviously I’m going to turn things up again and start moving toward” his own run, he told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Horne has some connections from his advocacy work with VoteVets.org, but it will be a tough climb for him to build the fundraising network he needs to counter Mitch McConnell’s $10 million (and counting) war chest. On the other hand, should Horne make some noise here, I wouldn’t be surprised if money from all kinds of national sources would flow into his coffers.
Still, the loss of Luallen as a candidate is a setback here.
UPDATE: The Bluegrass Report reports that national Democrats are turning their attention to ’04 Senate candidate and current Lt. Governor-elect Dan Mongiardo. If he bites, this would be a surprise.
Those words are cautious at best. Plenty of wiggle room.
Bluegrass Report is reporting that buisnessman Greg Fischer looks ready to enter the race against McConnell. Anyone know much about him? How well could he self-finance a campaign?