Political analysts said Monday that Jack Conway’s television ad about Rand Paul’s involvement with a secret society while in college — an ad that prompted angry exchanges during a debate Sunday — indicates Conway believes he is still behind and must use unconventional attacks to catch up.
The ad, which has suddenly become the central issue in Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race, prompted Paul to say Monday that he may not participate in the campaign’s final debate next Monday on Kentucky Educational Television.
Asked to respond to the analysts’ comments, Conway said, “I’ll let the experts talk about polls. Our message is resonating … this race is a dead heat, it has been a dead heat”
The 30-second spot questions why Paul, as a student at Baylor University, a Baptist school, joined a group that had been thrown off campus for being sacrilegious.
It also says he forced a woman to worship an idol called “Aqua Buddha” — a claim first made anonymously in GQ Magazine and The Washington Post — and opposes funding for faith-based programs as well as the income tax exemption for religious donations.
“You can tell he’s behind,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said of Conway. “You don’t run an ad like that unless you’re behind.”
Said Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report: “Is it desperate? I don’t want to say that. But it’s dramatic, and it attempts to be a game changer.”
He termed the ad “a thermo-nuclear bomb” because it could destroy either of the campaigns.
The real news is near the end of the article, however: Rand Paul's continuing petulance over this.
Paul, a Republican, said he may skip next Monday’s KET debate because he doesn’t want to be on the same stage with Conway, a Democrat.
“We haven’t fully decided, but I’m not sure I’ll appear in public with someone who is going to question my religion,” he said after a Lexington press conference with a group of veterans who endorsed him.
Conway spokesman John Collins said in a statement Monday afternoon that Paul “ought to have the guts to keep his commitments to KET and explain his actions to the people of Kentucky.”
Diedre Clark, a producer for KET, said Monday that Paul has not told the network he plans to withdraw. If he does, Clark said, Conway will be allowed to appear on the “Kentucky Tonight” program alone.
Rand Paul is basically spending the last two weeks of the campaign playing the victim here and refusing to do anything else, like talk about the issues that matter to Kentucky voters like myself. that's because when he talks about the issues, he loses. Funny how Republicans do this when they're in trouble.
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