The new Bluegrass Poll has been released in Kentucky, and it contains more bad news for stumbling Sen. Mitch McConnell. Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes has erased a four point deficit and leads McConnell 46%-44%.
The Courier-Journal has the details,
After two polls in his favor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell again has slipped behind Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, according to the latest Bluegrass Poll.
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Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state, now leads the veteran five-term senator 46 percent to 44 percent among likely voters, the survey found. While that advantage is within the poll’s margin of error, it represents a 6-point swing to the Democrat since the last survey in late August.
The mainstream media have largely ignored them, but there have been signs that McConnell is fading in Kentucky for weeks. Last week, an internal poll from the Grimes campaign found that the Democrat was leading Sen. McConnell 42%-40%. The poll was significant because it was based on the largest sample size used in Kentucky this year. A huge red flag for McConnell is that his unfavorable rating remains at 58%. Sen. McConnell’s net job approval rating was (-21), while Alison Lundergan Grimes had a net approval rating of (+1).
The media continue to try to hand this election to Mitch McConnell, while ignoring polling data that shows the strength of the Grimes position. The NBC News/Marist poll that had McConnell leading by seven points looks like an outlier. There is a reason Mitch McConnell is hiding and refusing to debate Grimes. McConnell knows that anything more than the one scheduled debate with Alison Grimes can only hurt him.
McConnell’s strategy is to let the millions of Koch and right-wing billionaire dollars do his dirty work for him with a tidal wave of negative ads. The reality is that no amount of advertising can change one key fact of this elections. Voters do not like Mitch McConnell. The voters don’t like his obstruction. They don’t like his policies, and they don’t like the fact that he has put his ambition to be Majority Leader ahead of the people that he is supposed to be representing.
With less than a month to go before Election Day, Alison Lundergan Grimes has the momentum. Grimes has erased McConnell’s lead and is surging ahead. Next week’s one and only debate between the two candidates will be critical. Alison Grimes is moving towards becoming the next senator from Kentucky. McConnell’s senate career could be slipping away and with it the Republican dream of taking the majority in 2014.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
