Grimes highlights helping troops in first TV ad
(CNN) - Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is out with the first television commercial of her Democratic challenge against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
The positive 30-second spot highlights one of Grimes top achievements as secretary of state: a law she pushed for last year that makes it easier for U.S. troops overseas to vote.
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"After she met with our military in the Middle East, Alison Lundergan Grimes came home and brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass a law to ensure that every military vote would be counted," says the narrator in the ad.
That narrator is a mother named Lyne Dickey, who adds that "I almost lost my son in Iraq. But what upset him most was his ballot being lost in battle. Because of Alison, that will never happen again. Washington should work this way."
The campaign says they're spending more than $100,000 to run the commercial statewide in Kentucky on broadcast and cable television.
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Grimes' first paid TV ad hits the airwaves more than a year after McConnell went up with his first spot. The five-term senator put up his first commercial in March of last year. Going up with TV ads more than a year and a half before an election is rare in congressional contests, especially for incumbents. When McConnell's counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, went up with commercials around a year before his November 2010 re-election, the move made political headlines.
While Grimes faces no serious opposition in Kentucky's May 20 primary, McConnell is fending off a primary challenge from the right from businessman Matt Bevin, who enjoys strong support from many tea party groups and influential conservative organizations. While the race has seen big spending - both by the campaigns and from outside groups - McConnell is expected to cruise to renomination.
While McConnell should easily win the primary, the general election, as of now, appears to be a different story. The most recent polling in the race indicates McConnell and Grimes in a dead heat.
That may be why the most recent TV spot by the McConnell campaign, released earlier this week, didn't even mention Bevin. The ad highlights how the senator's saved thousands of jobs in Kentucky.
Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate, but are defending 21 of the 36 seats up in November. Half of those Democratic seats are in red or purple states. Kentucky and Georgia are the only two states right now where the Democrats think they have a good shot at capturing a GOP held Senate seat.
If you love USA, vote straight Democratic ticket. Enough GOP cult in the nation to loot, wars, foreign contracts.
Strong ad Team Grimes. Makes me question what exactly has Mitch McConnell done for our troops lately besides lead his colleagues to shutting down the federal government. How's Kynect(Obamacare) working in Kentucky Mitch?
Grimes 2014
"Why don't YOU go have a drink with Mitch McConnell!!!"
Democrats don't give a hoot about our vets. They couldn't care less.
Bye bye Mitch.
neither party cares about vets they just like to bring it up around elections then they all disappear when the election is over
Didn't Obama, a Democrat, close of War Memorials in DC but allowed illegal immigrants to protest US Law in the National Mall during the 2013 Obama Government Shutdown?
If you hate the United States, US Veterans, but love illegal immigrants... Vote Democrat'
Cutting the defense budget and forcing active duty members to discharge before they wish does not support the troops. Any politician or voter who supports those two acts does not support the troops.
I think McConnell is about to be voted out of the Senate. I think he'll overreach in attack ads, which will be his downfall.
@Harold Read
You should get your facts straight. It was the forced GOP shutdown of the Federal Government that caused the memorials to close. And as I remember, (since I work two blocks from that memorial) you had a bunch of loud-mouthed Republican congressman, who never served in the military, grandstanding in front of TV cameras at the memorials to score political points.
Harold Read
Didn't Obama, a Democrat, close of War Memorials in DC but allowed illegal immigrants to protest US Law in the National Mall during the 2013 Obama Government Shutdown?
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Nope. What veto, law, or executive order did Pres. Obama sign to close any historic location in DC? He didn't.
@Rudy NYC
I think McConnell is about to be voted out of the Senate. I think he'll overreach in attack ads, which will be his downfall.
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GOP attack ads get nasty. There is no better Dem ad than a GOP with their mouth open and no filter. The more people see behind the phony GOP smile, the more they vote Dem.
The linkage between the "strong military support" and Republicans has always mystified me. Look at the last decade:
National Guardsmen were called up for almost countless tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. They lost jobs, spouses, and families. They endured the longest war in American History. They got low pay, and suffered poverty at home, and now few decent jobs.
The Republicans? They show how much they value our veterans by cutting the VA, cutting military retirement benefits, cutting the GI Bill, cutting welfare and food support many veterans need. Worse, they threw them into the grinders of Afghanistan and Iraq- and for what? Lies about WMD, and oil for Halliburton.
If this is Republicans "valuing" a population, I'd hate to see what they do to folks they don't like.
Harold Read
Didn't Obama, a Democrat, close of War Memorials in DC but allowed illegal immigrants to protest US Law in the National Mall during the 2013 Obama Government Shutdown?
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Ummm, no, no he didn't. The Veterans' Memorial is run by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service- part of the government deemed "non-essential" and shut down by the anti-American, anti-government GOP. Sen. Cruz, Congressman Bachmann and others tried to make hay on that point, but in the end, the shut down was completely the fault of the GOP, and certainly not the President of the United States.
It's lame for repubs to say dems don't care about veterans. It's equally lame for dems to say that repubs don't care about veterans. Unless we're talking about the repub/dem politicians and then in that case neither really cares about them other than to use them as props.
For either side to say that the other doesn't care is just typical partisan hacking that is another example of how our wonderful politicians have further divided us. Shameless.
"The ad highlights how the senator's saved thousands of jobs in Kentucky."
The ad highlights how McConnell CLAIMS he saved thousands of jobs in Kentucky.
FIFY