McConnell Needs Kentucky to Deliver

Minority Leader Fights for Survival

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 27, 2008

PADUCAH, Ky. -- If Barack Obama wins the presidency on Nov. 4, Mitch McConnell, the Senate's minority leader, could be one of the few obstacles confronting Democrats as they seek to enact a sweeping agenda and roll back eight years of Bush administration initiatives.

But with his opponent tying him to a faltering economy and an unpopular president, it will take everything McConnell has simply to hold on to his seat.

The architect of the revival of the Republican Party in this state, McConnell is fighting for his political survival and to avoid the fate of former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who was ousted in 2004 by voters who rejected the argument that his position as his party's leader in the Senate gave him an unparalleled ability to deliver for his state.

With polls showing Democrat Bruce Lunsford trailing McConnell by only a few points, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pumped money into advertising attacking McConnell earlier this month. Former president Bill Clinton campaigned alongside Lunsford on Friday in this western Kentucky city along the state's border with Illinois.

(More here.)