A new home-state poll shows Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in trouble come re-election time in 2014, even though he doesn’t have a primary challenger yet.
The Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll shows McConnell opponents outnumbering his supporters 2-1:
In the poll of 609 registered voters, 34 percent said they plan to vote against McConnell — while just 17 percent say they will vote to give him six more years. Forty-four percent said they will wait to see who is running against him before deciding, and 6 percent said they are not sure.
Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, dismissed the poll as “nothing more than an irresponsible way to stir up cheap headlines.”
“Anyone with a kindergarten level of education in polling knows that asking voters to support an incumbent ‘no matter who runs against him’ is guaranteed to produce the most skewed number possible,” Benton said.
Tea Partiers have been chomping at the bit to target McConnell, but they lack a candidate to do so. Tea Party Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has said he won’t challenge McConnell.
Meanwhile, McConnell has hired the campaign strategist of Tea Party Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — Benton, quoted above. And Democrats might even take the seat from Republicans if they run Ashley Judd.
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