Rand Paul leads Grayson in Recent Survey USA poll; And will Senate Conservatives Endorse Rand Paul?

A WHAS11/Survey USA now has Paul LEADING Grayson 35% to 32% for the Republican Primary.



In fact, the WHAS11/Survey USA poll has Paul ahead of Grayson by three percentage points, with a 4.1 percent margin of error. While Grayson is down five from our last poll 11 weeks ago, Paul has gained nine points since then.
Full Survey Results available here.

Basically the polling has Paul in a dead heat with Grayson. Paul still needs to make sure he runs like an underdog though to win. The establishment is pulling out all the stops, and this is going to be a long battle. In fact, there are rumors that another establishment entrant might be joining the race because Grayson's doing so bad. Is McConnell going to pull a Bunning on Grayson? I guess time will tell.

In other news, I listened to the Senate Conservatives (of which U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is Chair) conference call tonight, and 79% of conservatives voted to have the Senate Conservative PAC endorse and support Rand Paul over Trey Grayson. No official endorsement was made as a result of this poll. However, there were thousands of people on this conference call, so I think it's quite telling. These are genuine people who are upset about the Republican Party takeover by big government liberals.

Here are the results of the PAC poll.

Greyson: 5%
Rand Paul: 79%
Undecided: 16%

Now whether this means Senator DeMint and Co will actually endorse Rand, I don't know. I think it's likely though. DeMint was the 1st Republican to co-Sponsor (1st Co-Sponsor period actually) of Senator Bernie Sanders Bill to Audit the Fed, the Senate version of Ron Paul's House bill to Audit the Fed.

To top that off, Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com just posted I am all in for Rand Paul. on his Twitter account.

This is getting serious folks. Rand is a HIGHLY viable candidate. It's now up to us to make sure he gets funded and stays funded. My opinion, we need to raise him $2 Million this quarter. Remember to donate.

Pledge for this November 5th.
And spread the word about his Tea Party.(tentative link)

Updates:

More on Senator Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund

Senate Conservatives and Senator Jim DeMint still mull Kentucky Race

Americans Deserve a Transparent Fed

Rand Paul endorses Jim DeMint's Term Limits Amendment

More on "Grayson's Accusation"

More commentary from around the blog-o-sphere about Trey Grayson's accusation of Rand Paul not being a "real Kentuckian." Personally, to me it sounds to me like he thinks he's trying to get into the House of Lords, instead of the US Senate. Apparently he thinks his lineage entitles him to the position. But here are some other takes on the issue.

Politico:

With Rand Paul dominating in fundraising and polling competitively in the Kentucky Senate race, his primary opponent Trey Grayson is now attacking him for not growing up in the state.

...

It's not a bad thing, however, to be seen as an outsider in an environment where voters are increasingly suspicious of the political establishment. Paul, with his talk against government bailouts and wasteful spending, has obviously hit a nerve with voters -- and has a real shot at winning the nomination.

BlueGrassBulletin:

Grayson is reported to have called Rand Paul "an outsider" and then followed that up with words some are suggesting amounted to an accusation that Dr. Paul is a non resident.

Rand Paul is an eye surgeon who practices medicine in Bowling Green Kentucky where he has been raising his family for 18 years.

Grayson's bizarre accusations are set to air on Monday.

Swing State Project:

KY-Sen: Feeling the heat from Rand Paul in the GOP Senate primary in Kentucky, establishment choice Trey Grayson played the "you ain't from around these parts, are you?" card, calling himself a "5th generation Kentuckian" and Texas-born Paul an "outsider." (Of course, by implication, doesn't that make Grayson the... "insider?" Not exactly the banner you want to run under in 2010.)

Interesting reactions thus far. I will add more as they are published; be sure to post an article in the comments if I've missed any.

Rand Paul
Trey Grayson

Trey Grayson Accuses Rand Paul Of Being "Not A Kentuckian?"

WYMT is reporting that Trey Grayson, in an interview with the station, alleged that his opponent Dr. Rand Paul "is not a Kentuckian."

The folks over at Bluegrass Bulletin has this to say:

Grayson is reported to have called Rand Paul "an outsider" and then followed that up with words some are suggesting amounted to an accusation that Dr. Paul is a non resident.

Rand Paul is an eye surgeon who practices medicine in Bowling Green Kentucky where he has been raising his family for 18 years.

Now this is a pretty bizarre way to attack an opponent. Most voters I think care about the integrity of the candidate and the ideals they believe in. Not, some arbitrary length of time a candidate has lived in a particular geographical area.

Another thing to point out is that Grayson used to be a Democrat. While Grayson was campaigning for Bill Clinton, Rand was a solid Republican fighting for lower taxes with his Kentucky Taxpayer Group. I could be wrong, but I think Republicans probably care more about a person's Republican bona fides then they do about how many decades a person has lived in Kentucky. I don't have exact facts, I think it's possible Rand Paul's been a Republican longer then Grayson has.

Rand Paul
Trey Grayson

RAND PAUL THROWS DOWN PRO-LIFE GAUNTLET

Apparently I'm not the only one who's noticed Rand Paul as the Pro-Life Candidate in the US Senate Kentucky Race. Referencing Rand's Pro-Life Stand yesterday Kentucky Colonol writes:

Such an unequivocal pro-life stance has not been seen historically from Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Kentucky Right to Life groups have been divided about Grayson, the Northern Kentucky Right to Life declining to endorse him, while a hometown Right to Life, did.

Doubts about Grayson's pro-life bona fides may arise from his political work as a Democrat in the 1990's and his support of Bill Clinton for President. Also, Grayson has not been particularly vocal about his commitment to Life. Read the rest.

Update:
Concerned Women of America PAC officially endorses Rand Paul!

Rand Paul
Trey Grayson

Rand on Pro-Life Solidarity

Rand Paul recently made a statement today about his support for the Pro-Life cause.

Tuesday October 20, 2009 is Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity in which students at nearly 4000 schools and numerous homeschoolers refrain from speaking for a day to draw attention to those children permanently silenced by the atrocity of abortion.

Participating students observe the day by not speaking and responding to questioners by distributing educational materials and praying for the victims of abortion.

Rand Paul supports the efforts of these students and pledges to do everything in his power as a United States Senator to end abortion.
Read the rest

Now some people are questioning his commitment to the prolife cause because he wants to repeal Roe v Wade thereby turning Abortion -- like every other murder already is -- into a state issue again. Of course he also supports the Sanctity Of Life bill,which his father has introduced in the house on numerous occasions, which Defines human life as beginning at conception, and then removes the abortion from the jurisdiction of the courts. (Which, Constitutionally Congress is allowed to do. It's one of the legislative checks on the judicial branch.)

Personally, as a South Dakota native who's been through 2 initiative battles to ban abortion in my own state I can say with certainty that abortion would pretty much have been made illegal 6 years ago, if it weren't for the cost of all the lawsuits challenging the Constitutionality of banning abortion both of these initiatives would have passed. Many fare-weather pro-lifers couldn't bring themselves to care when the supreme court would just knock it down anyway. Some of them as fiscal conservatives were conflicted because the lawsuits would cost the State government a lot of money. Many people who don't care as much about the issue also sort of see the supreme court as a final arbiter so we shouldn't disagree with them. If the Federal government via the Supreme Court wasn't forcing states to keep abortion legal, abortion would be banned in my own state right now.

Very likely it would be banned in Kentucky too.

Think about how many babies we could save IMMEDIATELY by simply removing the issue of Abortion from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This doesn't mean we can't fight for a Constitutional Amendment or other ways to end unborn baby murder, but in the mean time lets allow states like Kentucky and South Dakota and other pro-life states to make up their own minds, so we can at least end this barbaric practice immediately.

Rand Paul
Trey Grayson

Update:
Concerned Women of America PAC officially endorses Rand Paul!

RAND PAUL CAMPAIGN PASSES FIRST MAJOR TEST.

The question of whether Rand Paul, son of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, is a viable candidate for the US Senate from Kentucky has been firmly laid to rest with the third quarter fundraising results.

Paul, an eye surgeon from Bowling Green, led all candidates of either party with a $1,011,000 haul. Further, Paul's total was comprised of more than 13,000 contributions, over (2500 from Kentucky) with an average contribution under $100. In contrast, his opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, raised a little under $650,000.

The third quarter fundraising tallies put the Republican candidates on virtually even footing, with Grayson having a little more than $1 million cash on hand, Rand Paul, a little less, with about $912,000.

Read the rest

Rand Paul
Trey Grayson