KY-Sen update: Bunning drops out

WSJ:

Sen. Jim Bunning, the Senate Banking Committee member who has castigated Federal Reserve chairmen for years, won’t be around after next year.  The Kentucky Republican said today he won’t run for reelection in 2010 because he can’t raise enough money.  Our friends at WashWire have the details.

Mr. Bunning was the only committee member to vote against Ben Bernanke’s confirmation as Fed chairman almost four years ago. It wasn’t personal: He also was the lone vote against Alan Greenspan’s confirmation for his final term leading the central bank.  The former Major League Baseball pitcher, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996, could always be counted on to spend his seven minutes at a hearing attacking the Fed for its monetary policy, its bailouts and just about everything else it did.

He’ll still be around for a year and a half to attack the central bank. And among the GOP candidates for the Bunning seat: Rand Paul, the son of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, whose anti-Fed sentiment is gaining traction among lawmakers.  (Imagine what the father-and-son team could do from both sides of Capitol Hill.)

The Post:

On the Democratic side, state Attorney General Jack Conway's $1.3 million haul over the last three months established him as the frontrunner against Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo in next year's primary.

"Democrats will be will be targeting this seat whether we are running against Ernie Fletcher acolyte Trey Grayson, Ron Paul's son Rand, or George Bush fundraising Ranger Cathy Bailey," promised Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee communications director Eric Schultz

Cathy Bailey doesn't seem to have a website yet, though the cathybailey.org domain has been registered. Trey Grayson's blog is here, and Rand's is here.

Jack Conway isn't a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination:

A Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group (D) poll; conducted 5/12-13 for '04 nominee/LG Dan Mongiardo (D); surveyed 336 Dem RVs; margin of error +/- 5.3% (McArdle, Roll Call, 5/28).

Tested: Mongiardo and AG Jack Conway (D).
Primary Election Matchup
D. Mongiardo 43%
J. Conway 28
Undec 29

But that could just be initial name recognition; with a year to go before the primary, these numbers don't mean much.

Kentucky is a conservative state but has many more registered Democrats than Republicans (holdover from the Dixiecrat era) so it's difficult to guess how this race will play out.

Rand Paul is organizing a money bomb for August 20th. The goal is to raise $1,000,000 by getting 10,000 people to donate $100 apiece. I will be one.