McConnell Turns Back Challenge From Tea Party, Setting Up a Key Fall Race
International New York Times | 20 May 2014
WASHINGTON
— Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky decisively turned back the first
well-financed Republican primary opponent he had faced since being
elected in 1984, defeating a Tea Party-backed conservative who claimed
the Senate minority leader had been too willing to compromise with
Democrats.
Once
thought to be vulnerable to such a challenge from the right, Mr.
McConnell won with ease over his opponent, the businessman Matt Bevin.
Mr. McConnell’s victory sets up what will be one of the most serious
tests of his political career, a general election matchup against the
Democratic nominee, Alison Lundergan Grimes. It is expected to be the
costliest Senate race this year.
Mr. McConnell’s victory came on a day when five other states — Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Pennsylvania and Oregon — held primaries.
In
Georgia, Republicans sent David Perdue, a former chief executive of
Dollar General, and Representative Jack Kingston, who has served 11
terms in the House, to a July runoff to fill an open Senate seat. The
winner will face the Democratic nominee, Michelle Nunn, a former chief
executive of the Points of Light volunteer group and the daughter of
former Senator Sam Nunn. She faced nominal primary opposition.
Republican Primary
Georgia
Democrats had hoped that the Republicans’ nominee would be one of the
two hard-line conservatives who lost on Tuesday and might have been more
vulnerable in the general election. Ms. Nunn has raised $6.6 million so
far.
The
races in Kentucky and Georgia are important to Democrats’ chances of
keeping control of the Senate because they are the only two states where
the party hopes to pick up Republican-held seats.
Republican Primary
In
Oregon’s Republican Senate primary, Monica Wehby, a pediatric
neurosurgeon, easily defeated a more conservative opponent, State
Representative Jason Conger. The Senate race there will be competitive
only if 2014 turns into a wave year for Republicans, but party leaders
think that Ms. Wehby positions them to challenge Senator Jeff Merkley, a
first-term Democrat, if that turns out to be the case. Pennsylvania
has no Senate race this year, but the governor’s race is being closely
watched. Democrats nominated Tom Wolf, a wealthy businessman, as their
nominee to take on Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican whose job is
considered one of the most at risk in the country.
A
Philadelphia-area House race has also drawn attention because one of
the Democratic candidates was Marjorie Margolies, a former congresswoman
who is the mother-in-law of Chelsea Clinton. She was soundly defeated
by Brendan Boyle, a state representative. Bill and Hillary Clinton had
helped raise money for Ms. Margolies, and Mr. Clinton had recorded a
turnout phone call.
Republican Primary
That
Mr. McConnell, 72, so easily defeated Mr. Bevin in Kentucky underscored
one of the main lessons emerging from the young primary season: Even in
an era of deep dissatisfaction with Washington, political fundamentals
like candidate strength, fund-raising and incumbency remain paramount.
Mr.
McConnell spent over $11 million of the nearly $22 million he has
stockpiled to cast himself as an effective conservative and to attack
Mr. Bevin, who had never run for office before.
Mr.
Bevin criticized Mr. McConnell for having been in Washington too long,
but Mr. McConnell emphasized what his 30 years in the Senate meant for
Kentucky and what benefits the state would receive if he became the
Senate majority leader after the election this fall.
Living
up to his reputation as a fierce political operator, Mr. McConnell also
took advantage of some of Mr. Bevin’s vulnerabilities, most notably
raising questions about his résumé and opposition to the 2008 bank
bailout.
Mr.
McConnell’s wide margin of victory was no surprise; he had been leading
in the polls for months. But his aides were quick to note that the
threat from Mr. Bevin had been real. He raised over $3.3 million, the
most of any candidate who has taken on an incumbent senator during the
rise of the Tea Party in the last two election cycles. Mr. Bevin also
had the support of some outside conservative groups.
With
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican,
having won renomination in March, Mr. McConnell’s victory is the second
time this year that a Republican senator survived a primary threat with
ease.
With
an eye on controlling the Senate in 2015, Mr. McConnell has made no
secret of his determination to send a message this year to hard-line
conservatives by defeating them in primaries. “I think we are going to
crush them everywhere,” he predicted in a March interview.
But
as he works to consolidate power in the Senate, Mr. McConnell must
first unify the Republican Party in Kentucky and ensure that Mr. Bevin’s
supporters do not stay home this November. Ms. Grimes, the secretary of
state, who has already raised over $8 million, faced no primary
opposition and has devoted months to hammering the incumbent as the
personification of Washington gridlock.
Mr.
McConnell will do so while carrying dismal approval numbers in
Kentucky: A New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation poll last month
found that 52 percent of Kentucky voters disapproved of his performance
and just 40 percent approved of his performance.
Addressing
supporters on Tuesday, Ms. Grimes touched on his vulnerability,
criticizing Mr. McConnell for not doing more for Kentucky’s economy and
saying he had lost touch with the state.
Yet
Ms. Grimes, 35, has serious vulnerabilities of her own, most
significantly the increasingly Republican tilt of a state that last
elected a Democratic senator in 1992 and where President Obama is deeply
unpopular. Mr. McConnell and his allies have already begun linking Ms.
Grimes to Mr. Obama, who lost Kentucky twice. Just 32 percent of
Kentucky voters approve of Mr. Obama’s performance, according to the
same New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
As
he spoke at his victory celebration on Tuesday, Mr. McConnell seemed to
preview the two themes of his campaign. He argued that support for Ms.
Grimes was effectively a vote for Mr. Obama, and, in an appeal to women,
he talked about his wife, his mother and three other Kentucky women who
are unhappy with the Affordable Care Act.
In
the race against Mr. Bevin, Mr. McConnell was aided by an early
endorsement from Senator Rand Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator, who is
popular in the national Tea Party and among Kentucky conservatives. Mr.
Paul is also openly considering a White House bid in 2016, and Mr. Bevin
suggested at the end of the primary race that the political alliance
between Mr. Paul and Mr. McConnell was fueled by their mutual ambitions.
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