Republican Sen. Jim Bunning eked out narrow victories in both of his Senate races in years in which Kentucky Republicans had the wind at their back. While he insists that he is running for a third term in 2010 when he will be 79, it appears that his luck may have run out. Bunning is the most vulnerable incumbent of either party up for re-election next year and Democrats have him at the top of their target list. Then again, so do Republicans.
Bunning, one of the most successful pitchers in Major League Baseball history and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, retired in 1971 to become an investment banker. He got his start in politics in 1977 when he won a seat on the Ft. Thomas City Council. He served a term in the state Senate and then won a seat in the U.S. House in 1986. When then-Democratic Sen. Wendell Ford announced in 1998 that he would retire, Bunning got in the race and managed to clear the field of serious competition for his party’s nomination.
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