Grayson on Track to Raise About $500,000 in Kentucky

Roll Call ^ | June 27, 2009 | John McArdle

[Clintonfatigued]

Sources close to Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R), who has formed a Senate exploratory committee, say he is on track to report raising close to $500,000 in the second quarter of the year. Grayson had only two months to fundraise this quarter after filing his exploratory committee in early May.

Grayson, who has said he does not plan to challenge Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) and has said he will only run if the incumbent decides to step aside, has fundraisers scheduled for Monday in London, Ky., and Tuesday in Lexington.

Grayson’s second-quarter haul is significant because it will be widely compared to that of Bunning, who is regarded as the most vulnerable Senator heading into 2010 in part because of his poor fundraising performance. Bunning reported raising just $263,000 in the first quarter after he admitted to local media that his fundraising was going “lousy.”

Neither Bunning nor his campaign have offered an assessment of his second-quarter performance, but his fundraising total won’t be helped by the postponement of a $500 per couple event that was scheduled to take place in Lexington on Monday.

[Clintonfatigued]

This is very good under the circumstances. Jim Bunning needs to call it quits.

[buckalfa]

Grayson would be a good replacement candidate, but who ever runs on the GOP side faces an uphill battle as the stink of former GOP Governor Ernie Fletcher still permeates the Commonwealth.

[PhiKapMom]

I thought Bunning said he wasn’t running. It is very good at this point in time. Mary Fallin’s opponent is hoping to raise $100,000 — don’t know why he is running as he was on the wrong side of the votes at the Convention.

The thought of having Mary as our next Governor puts a smile on my face.

[Oldpuppymax]

Bunning is one of the only true conservatives in the senate! We cannot afford to lose his sort.

[Clintonfatigued]

“We cannot afford to lose his sort.”

We’re going to lose him regardless. The only questions are how we’ll lose Bunning (retirement or defeat) and who’ll replace him.

[Impy]

I don’t think many people will be thinking about Ernie Fletcher in the 2010 Senate race.

I’d put it in the lean Republican column to start. That is IF Bunning quits, if he doesn’t the seat is in the toast column.

[Impy]

You might not have heard, Bunning is growing senile and is almost certain to lose to the democrat if he runs again. Likely the same then nobody democrat he almost lost to in 2004 after running a terrible race and intimating that the rat was a homosexual.

[Impy]

Oh I forgot to mention, the stink of Fletcher? All he did was fire a bunch of scum sucking democrat civil servants right? The 4th branch of government. That smells pretty good to me.

[buckalfa]

I do not disagree the garbage needed taken out — Fletcher just did not have the experience to do it in a manner to stay above the fray. The Ky media turned it into a corruption issue and made the stink stick, thus damaging the GOP. I believe that Fletcher is a good and decent man, heart in the right place and all. He just got outsmarted.