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As he stumps across this heavily rural state, the 47th poorest in the country, Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul rarely talks about agriculture or about collecting aid from the federal government. Instead he talks about health care, capitalism and federal spending.
In Kentucky race, a strategic divide
Republican Rand Paul seizes on national issues as Democrat Jack Conway sticks closer to home With the deficit soaring and
BY PERRY BACON JR. IN PADUCAH, KY.
It was as if they were running
fordifferentoffices.WhenRepub- lican Senate candidate Rand Paul took the stage at a recent GOP event here, he extolled the virtues of capitalism, worried about de- flation and urged people to check out thenationaldebt clockonline. Six hours later and five miles
away, Democrat Jack Conway boasted that as Kentucky’s attor- ney generalhe seizedthe comput- ers of people who had posted images of child pornography on the Internet. He pledged to in- crease federal funding for nearby Murray StateUniversity and for a local nuclear power plant. As they compete for the seat of
retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R), Paul and Conway are taking dra- matically different approaches. Paul rails against the Obama ad- ministration in speeches that could be given by a Republican presidential hopeful. Conway lac- es his rhetoric with acronyms drawn from Kentucky issues and ticksoff thenamesof small towns, sounding like a candidate for state representative. A similar dynamic has taken
shape in close races across the country. Sensing momentum on national issues such as health care, Republican candidates are raging againstWashington, blast- ing not only their rivals but Presi- dent Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Democrats, mean- while, are touting their accom- plishments on local issues. In Nevada, Republican Senate
candidate Sharron Angle’s cam- paign ads cast Reid as the “best friend” of illegal immigrants, while one of Reid’s spots depicts his efforts to avert the closing of a dairyprocessingplant inhis state, saving 130 jobs. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
touts federal funding she won that helped keep a local hospital open.DinoRossi,herGOPrival in a tight race, attacks Murray for voting for the2008bill thatbailed outWall Street firms.
unemployment just under 10 per- cent, Democratic candidates “wouldsoundout of touch” if they campaignedonthesuccessofgov- ernment efforts to save jobs and stimulate the economy, saidMark Mellman, aDemocratic pollster. “What you can do,” he said, “is
say, ‘Because of the work I’ve done, there is a hospital built that wouldn’t be there otherwise.’” David Winston, a Republican
pollster, expressed doubts about such a strategy, saying Republi- cans tried it in 2006 and lost badly. That year, Democratic can- didates across the country railed against President Bush and the Iraqwar,whileRepublicans high- lighted local issues.
A stark split Howthese approaches play out
this fall could be critical in places such as Kentucky, where Demo- crats see one of their few chances to pick up a seat in the Senate and shore up their chances of holding onto control of the chamber. Two years ago, Sen. Mitch Mc-
Connell (R-Ky.) campaigned and won by touting how many ear- marks he had secured. This year, while Conway is promising to bringmore federal funding to the state, Paul — like nearly every other tea party candidate — has said hewon’t accept earmarks. Paul and Conway represent
perhaps the starkest divide in the country on these divergent ap- proaches.Special elections inoth- er states this year show that each approach can be effective. In January, in heavily Demo-
cratic Massachusetts, Scott Brown (R) rode to victory to re- place the late senator EdwardM. Kennedy by blastingWashington. But inMay, ina special election
to replace the late representative John P. Murtha, Mark Critz (D) won the seat representing south- western Pennsylvania by touting his knowledge of the district as a longtime congressional staffer, defeating a GOP opponent who constantly invoked Pelosi and Obama.
A federal focus When Paul won the primary in
May over a candidate backed by much of the state’s Republican establishment, his victory speech effectively glossed over Kentucky, as he praised the tea party and its influence on politics. As he stumps across this heavi-
ly rural state, the 47th poorest in the country, he rarely talks about agriculture or about collecting aid fromthe federal government. Instead, as the longtime eye
doctor chatted with voters at a Republican Party breakfast here recently, he mentioned an article he had read in the Wall Street Journal and complained about remarks the head of the Centers forMedicare andMedicaidmade praising the British health-care system.
Asimilar dynamic has taken shape in close races elsewhere.
“They say abillionseconds ago,
my parents were children, a bil- lionminutes ago, Jesuswas alive, a billion hours ago was the Stone Age, but a billion dollars ago, at the rate the federal government is spending, was six minutes ago,” Paul declared on stage, to hushed tones fromthe crowd. Last month, in an interview
with the Associated Press, he played down the importance of drug abuse in the state, saying it was “not a pressing issue” com- pared with national concerns such as federal spending.He later said drug abuse programs should be funded at the state level,not by the federal government, but em- phasized he believes it is a major issue.
Understanding the state Enter Conway. In the eastern
part of this state, abuse of pre- scription drugs, marijuana and methamphetamines is a rampant problem. The region’s congress- man, Rep.Harold Rogers (R), has long sought and won federal funding for drug rehabilitation
DIGEST NEWJERSEY
Seton Hall student fatally shot at party A man who was denied access
to a private party at an apartment near Seton Hall University left and returned with a handgun, fatally shooting a university stu- dent and wounding four people. Jessica Moore, 19, died from
her injuries Saturday afternoon, hours after the overnight shoot- ing in East Orange. The other victims — two 19-
year-old female students at Seton Hall, a 25-year-old male student at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a 20-year-old New York man who is not a student—were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Police said the victims did not
know the shooter, who fled from the apartment on foot and re- mains at large.
—Associated Press OILSPILL
BP fund czar pledges to speed up claims Victims of the Gulf of Mexico
oil spill should start getting big- ger payments faster, the adminis- trator of the fund set up to help them said Saturday. Kenneth Feinberg said he was responding to criticism from resi- dents and businesses. “Over the past few weeks, I
have heard from the people of the gulf, elected officials and others that payments remain too slow and not generous enough,” Fein- berg said. “I am implementing new procedures that will make this programmoreefficient,more accelerated and more generous.” Claims from now on also will
be sorted by industry to allow those reviewing the claims to apply a more specific, uniform set of standards, he said. —Associated Press
SAME-SEXMARRIAGE
10 states join brief opposing gay unions Wyoming and nine other states
have urged a federal appeals court in California to overturn a ruling that a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage is uncon- stitutional. A federal judge ruled last
month that there was no legiti- mate state interest in preventing same-sex marriages and that “moral disapproval” alone wasn’t sufficient reason to justify ban- ning it. The case is being appealed. The amicus brief sent Friday
said states, not federal courts, should have final say on the mat- ter. The states that joined the brief against gay marriage are Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana,Michigan, South Caro- lina,Utah and Virginia. —Associated Press
EDUCATION
Facebook gift won’t be used for vouchers Facebook founder Mark Zuck-
erberg’s $100 million donation to the struggling school district of Newark, N.J., won’t be used to fund private-school vouchers, MayorCoryBooker saidSaturday. Booker, 41, joined by Zucker-
berg, 26, and Gov. Chris Christie (R), said he wants his city to become the “first example of a public school turnaround.” —Bloomberg News
Lehman art auctioned off in
New York: An auction of contem- porary artworks held by the failed investment firm Lehman Broth- ers and its former subsidiary, Neuberger Berman, brought in nearly $12.3 million Saturday, ac- cording to Sotheby’s. Profits will help pay the bank’s many credi- tors.
—Associated Press
andlawenforcementprograms to combat the abuse. To highlight Paul’s view, Con-
way’s campaign has organized roundtables and speeches in which the Democrat specifically talks about the state’s drug prob- lemand howit can be fought. “He doesn’t understand Kentucky,” Conway saysofPaulonthe stump. Conwaymakes few nods to the
issues that have dominated the political landscape during the past twoyears.Afteraspeechhere where he launched a new cam- paign office, awoman came up to Conway and asked him“Youwere for health care, right?” The candi- date had notmentioned the issue in his speech and rarely does, but quickly assured her he had. In an interview, Conway dis-
missed the notion that he avoids the national issues. He empha- sized that he shares Paul’s opposi- tion to some of the proposals of congressionalDemocrats. “I’m happy to talk about the
issueshe’s talking about,”Conway said. “Ifhewants totalkabout cap and trade, I’magainst it, I’ve been against it.” Conway almost never invokes
Paul’s most widely publicized statement: an assertion this spring that he was not sure he would have supported the Civil RightsAct of 1964—a position he quickly changed amid fierce criti- cism. Conway’s advisers say vot- ers are more interested in local and economic issues than in Paul’s latest controversial state- ment. Operatives in both parties say
Paul’s comments on drugs and civil rights have aided Conway, who is trailingby just a fewpoints in polls in a statewhereObama is highly unpopular. Paul argues that a Senate elec-
tion is a national election — and thatConway can’t runonnational issues because the Democratic Party’spositions are sounpopular inKentucky. “If you askmost people inKen-
tucky and in this country what concerns them,” he said, “I think you will hear jobs, the economy, the debt. Those are the top three issues.”
baconp@washpost.com
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