Amy McGrath, the Democratic Party's candidate in its effort to oust Republican Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R - Ky) from his Senate seat, recently hired a new campaign manager, Dan Kanninen. Kanninen is an old hand at running campaigns and is the CEO of a consulting firm.
Of course, what the Dems really want on the national level is for MConnell to cease to be the Majority Leader. They're not necessarily dead set against his returning to DC next year as the Minority Leader. Although (a) the Kentuckians among them are, and (b) it would look like a nice extra kick from karma if he lost in his own district and didn't return at all.
So ... what do we know about McGrath? We know that she has an appealing biography and that she has raised a lot of money. But she's been trailing in recent polls, even as those polls differ widely in how they depict the size of the margin. Some have her within striking distance, others have McConnell very comfortable at 17 points ahead.
Kanninen replaces McGrath's previous campaign manager, Mark Nickolas. Nonetheless, Nickolas will remain with the campaign to oversee paid media.
Why did she keep him on in that capacity or any other if she thought he was losing the campaign for her? I'm especially curious because his new mandate, running paid media, may be exactly the wrong one. It was paid media that has generated one of the campaign's big problems.
A McGrath ad says that McConnell "made millions from China," suggesting that this is nefarious and explains trade policy positions. That suggestion has backfired on her. The "millions" have an innocent source: his wife, Elaine Chao, inherited them from her parents years ago. (McConnell's in-laws ran a successful shipping company.) Kentuckians don' have a bias against the age-old practice of marrying for money. Heck, Chao got status (including a cabinet post) for the money. That is bluntly transactional, but not corrupt.
In general, I'm sorry to report, McGrath is having trouble getting traction against McConnell, who was first elected to the US Senate on the same day that Ronald Reagan won his second term, and who seems a fact of nature in Kentucky.
The Big Prize, of course, is the Senate itself. I think it is possible that Trump will slip through into re-election due to a contingent of voters I think of as #MeToo Democrats. Given Biden's creepiness, and one charge of actual sexual assault, the #MT Dems will refrain from voting on the POTUS, but will vote Dem down the rest of the line. If so, we may end up with both Houses of Congress in the hands of one paty, the White House in the hands of the other. And any judicial nominees will be subjects to VERY close and lengthy scrutiny, in honor of Merrick Garland.
This is the first time that I've read of the possibility that some women will not vote for Biden because of his sexist past. Even Anita Hill, who was personally aggrieved by him, has said that she will vote for him. Even women who vote on the single issue of a male candidate's sexism or misogyny must surely recognize that Trump, who has sexually assaulted or raped two dozen women, is far worse than Biden. Some people, to retain their self-perceived purity, will not vote for the lesser evil (though, given the quality of our politicians, that must mean never voting), but when one of the candidates is so much more evil than the other, even such people may choose to "compromise" themselves and vote for the lesser evil in this case.
ReplyDelete