Allison Grimes gets major newspaper endorsements

The two large newspapers in Kentucky, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader have endorsed Democratic senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes over the incumbent Mitch McConnell.

This is very significant, because Kentuckians have been sending McConnell to Washington for 30 years, and he is arguably the most powerful Republican in Congress.   That may in fact be the problem.    Here are some excerpts from the Courier-Journal editorial endorsement for Grimes.

We urge voters to choose the future and elect Alison Lundergan Grimes.  Ms. Grimes, 35, a lawyer and Kentucky's secretary of state, has tackled an enormous challenge in taking on Mr. McConnell, a legendarily formidable political foe and, as Senate minority leader, one of the nation's most powerful Republicans. . . .  

Praising Grimes for her candid hour-long interview with the paper's editorial board, they then wrote: 

Mr. McConnell, in turn, never accepted a similar invitation dating back to early September to appear before the C-J editorial board, thus shielding himself from scrutiny as well as any potential for attack ads based on his responses. Kentuckians should take measure of that: Thirty years in the Senate, and no comment.

More discouraging — and most important to voters — is that he appears lacking a vision for Kentucky or the country as a whole. Rather, his decades-long drive to increase his power and political standing has resulted in this campaign based on his boast that if he is re-elected and Republicans win a Senate majority, he would become Senate majority leader.  . . .  but we believe that alone is not a reason for giving him another term. . . .

In his long career in politics, starting as Jefferson County judge-executive, Mr. McConnell has in the past effectively served his community and his state. In more recent years, some credited him with roles in pulling the nation from the brink of the fiscal cliff and breaking several deadlocks in Congress, including helping end the 16-day government shutdown last year. 

But as the stakes grew higher and campaigns more costly, he lost his way to the point where he now is identified largely as the master of obstruction and gridlock in Washington.   Kentucky needs a U.S. senator who sees a higher calling than personal ambition and a greater goal than self-aggrandizement. For those reasons and for her evident potential, we endorse Ms. Grimes for election on Nov. 4.

The Herald-Ledger said McConnell has

"repeatedly hurt the country to advance his political strategy. . . .  The Senate may never recover from the bitter paralysis McConnell has inflicted through record filibusters that allow his minority to rule by obstruction. . . .  He poses as a champion of the right to criticize the government, but it's really his rich buddies' right to buy the government that he champions." 

She and Georgia's Michelle Nunn will make great additions to the senate -- from states that weren't expected to send a Democrat to that body.   Let's make it happen.   Get out the vote.

Ralph