Fueled by polling that shows a tightening race between GOP incumbent Sen. Jim Bunning and Democratic state Sen. and physician Dan Mongiardo, Kentucky has quickly become the most talked about Senate contest in the country among political insiders.
Could it be that a race that wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen three weeks ago is suddenly on par with Alaska or South Dakota? Or, is this simply an effort to expand the field of competitive races? Or, are the media and Senate race watchers just bored with the same eight races that have dominated the landscape for months? In truth, it’s probably equal doses of all three.
Bunning won the seat in 1998, defeating Scotty Baesler, his then-Democratic colleague in the House, 50 percent to 49 percent, in what was one of the closest races of that cycle. While this earned Bunning a spot on Democrats’ target list this cycle, Kentucky Democrats were in a funk after former Gov. Paul Patton’s end-of-term scandal and the subsequent loss of the 2003 gubernatorial contest. As a result, Democrats weren’t exactly forming a line
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.