Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes is in attack mode with a scathing new TV ad.
Grimes grabbed the spotlight almost a year ago when she launched her campaign against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, urging people to join “Team Switch.”
The 30-second spot released Tuesday — dubbed “Question from David” — features unemployed coal miner David Stanley of Putney, Ky., sitting outside a gas station next to the Senate candidate herself.
A sign on the store attached to the station reads “COAL Feeds My Family.”
After Grimes introduces David, he asks a question: “Mr. McConnell, in the last two years, we’ve lost almost half of our coal jobs in eastern Kentucky. Why did you say it’s not your job to bring jobs to Kentucky?” The sound of birds chirping and a truck driving by make up for the silence. Grimes then turns to David and says, “I couldn’t believe he said that either.”
McConnell was quoted by the Beattyville Enterprise, a local newspaper, earlier this year saying it was “not my job” to bring jobs to Kentucky. After Grimes’s campaign jumped on the quote, McConnell’s office said in a statement that the senator’s comments were taken out of context.
“It seems my message got lost in translation, and I was surprised to see a headline about my visit that sent the exact opposite message to the one I was trying to convey,” he said in the statement.
After seeing the ad, McConnell’s team tweeted a rebuttal.
Even @AlisonForKY's new misleading ad can't hide her past support for Obama's anti-coal agenda. Learn more: http://t.co/v7ME05PAlF #kysen
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) July 22, 2014Grimes broke the state’s fundraising record earlier this month, with more than $4 million raised in the second quarter of the year. McConnell held the previous record with $2.9 million during a three-month stretch during his 2008 re-election race, according to the Lexington-Herald Leader.
Grimes’s campaign has raised almost $11.3 million in all, with an average contribution of $25 from almost 84,000 supporters, according to the campaign.
According to RealClearPolitics’ latest polling figures, McConnell and Grimes are neck and neck in the race, with the incumbent holding a very slight lead.
Anna Brand