Wash. Post reported McConnell's claim about out-of-state contributions to challenger without noting he receives far more
Published
The Washington Post uncritically reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asserted: “As a result of being chosen by my colleagues to be the Republican leader, I've got people all over America who would love to see me lose, so there's money coming in from San Francisco and Chicago and New York trying to tear down your senator.” The Post did not report that it is McConnell who is leading in out-of-state contributions, having received $5,721,759 from out-of-state individuals, 57 percent of his total from individual donors, while his opponent, Bruce Lunsford, has received $160,050 from out-of-state individuals, 31 percent of his total from individual donors.
In an October 27 Washington Post article about the Kentucky Senate race, staff writer Perry Bacon Jr. uncritically reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asserted: “As a result of being chosen by my colleagues to be the Republican leader, I've got people all over America who would love to see me lose, so there's money coming in from San Francisco and Chicago and New York trying to tear down your senator.” But Bacon did not note that McConnell has received significantly more money from individual out-of-state donors during the 2008 election cycle than his opponent, Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford. Indeed, according to data through October 19 from the Center for Responsive Politics, McConnell has received $5,721,759 from out-of-state individuals, 57 percent of his total from individual donors. By contrast, Lunsford has received $160,050 from out-of-state individuals, 31 percent of his total from individual donors.
From the Center for Responsive Politics:
Further, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, McConnell has received $736,443 from individuals in the “Washington DC-MD-VA-WV” metropolitan area and $477,310 from individuals in the New York metropolitan area, representing his second- and fifth-largest totals. Chicago is the only out-of-state city of the five metropolitan areas that have donated the most to Lunsford; he has received $18,100 from donors in the Chicago area. From the Center for Responsive Politics:
From the Post article:
McConnell, looking to fire up Republicans in the state, is employing the flip side of the same argument. In a fundraising e-mail to supporters last week, he called his reelection bid “the key battle being waged by the liberals who want to have total domination in the House and Senate.”
“I run into people and they say, 'Why are you having a hard race?' ” McConnell told a crowd of Republicans at an event last week in Marion, another western Kentucky town. “Well, I'm a bigger target than I used to be ... As a result of being chosen by my colleagues to be the Republican leader, I've got people all over America who would love to see me lose, so there's money coming in from San Francisco and Chicago and New York trying to tear down your senator.”
While expressing confidence, McConnell, first elected in 1984, is doing his most intense campaigning in years. Known in Washington as a behind-the-scenes dealmaker who draws little attention to himself, the Republican leader is crisscrossing Kentucky on a bus, making several stops each day to greet voters as part of a two-week tour that will take him to more than half of the state's 120 counties.