Rand Paul has been running a counter on his website since day one, updating in real time the contributions being sent into his campaign for the United States Senate. Trey Grayson has been quietly reporting his numbers as required by law on his periodic FEC reports. Now it seems, according to Grayson, that the men are neck and neck.
This week Rand Paul generated a lot of attention when his unlikely campaign crossed the $2million mark. Just to make sure people didn't get too excited about that announcement Grayson's camp said, in effect, "Big deal, we did that last month, with out all the fanfare."
No doubt the most notable difference between the Paul campaign and that of Grayson is the decidedly greater media attention Paul seems able to attract. And as every candidate knows, "earned media" is worth a ton of dough in saved campaign dollars. Paul seems to be leading in free advertising, exposure that Grayson will have to buy or earn on his own.
No doubt Grayson's fun basketball ad reportedly run only on the Internet shows that he seems to be catching on to the value of the new media, a forum mastered by Paul's father, Ron Paul and which Rand has tapped as the vehicle for disseminating much of his message. That's why Grayson's campaign said that Paul's “attempt to break into the family business has benefited from his father’s decades of being a wily political operative.”
Nice volley by Grayson to expose Paul's political background in contrast to the "outsider" image Paul has tried to create for himself. Yet Grayson's campaign can't run too far with that rhetoric without risking rank hypocrisy. Grayson is a two term politician seeking to advance his career in that field and his campaign benefits from many decades of experience from what is perhaps the wileiest republican politician in America, Mitch McConnell.
And true to form, Grayson, with McConnell's name attached has been raising money out of state, in New York specifically, from traditional sources like lobbyists representing special interest groups with a vested interest in keeping wily ol' Mitch happy.
From the looks of things, Grayson's meal ticket (breakfast, lunch and dinner) comes from that group of special interests which an increasing number of Americans hope will have a decreasing amount of influence in politics.
But no doubt about it, while Grayson is pursuing money and attention in the shadow of McConnell, his opponent is an equal beneficiary of the basketball ad and the media attention it generates, which this week resulted in a lot of "Hoop-Paul-Awe"
Marcus, according to Congressman Paul's sources in Washington, AIG actually held a high dollar fundraiser for Grayson, this is the firm that took bailout money from taxpayers and are now using it to prop up and support a candidate in Kentucky. This is outrageous and the voters need to know it
Grayson has been well funded by PACs, lobbyists and special interests, despite his floundering campaign because they will do anything to stop Rand who is raising all of his money from regular folks. I pray to God that Rand's money bomb is a success so he can fight the second wave of attacks.
Posted by: seamus | March 18, 2010 at 07:26 AM
Very very interesting.
Never discount NY in their ability to tap money from all over the country to fill up the coffers of a politician with the blessing of the American Bankers Association.
You will see airwave domination like no other in April and early May.
Posted by: Jeff Winston | March 17, 2010 at 07:50 PM