A message from Rand Paul

PLEASE CROSSPOST THIS MESSAGE!

I spoke to Rand Paul this afternoon and am passing on a request from him. If you have not heard, he is considering a Senate run in 2010.

His request is that we “Set the Internet abuzz” by posting about his considering to run and specifically link to the the AP article and one that will be out tonight on WBKO's web site tonight. Again, make this message go viral. So please post about him everywhere! Blogs, Message Forums and Your Meetups, Craigs list and whenever possible sites local to Kentucky. If you have personal mailing lists – let um rip!

http://www.14wfie.com/global/story.asp?s=9914862
http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/40458097.html

He will be watching those 2 articles and weighing his chances based on how much interest is generated. He also thinks it's pre-mature to do fund raising, get volunteers or set up a web site.

His reservations are 3 fold:

It is almost impossible to defeat an incumbent Senator.
He lacks name recognition in the state (Kentucky), which he estimates to currently be 0.5%.
He believes that he will have problems fund raising as PAC's won't be sending him $5,000 checks because, like his father, he will not accept money with strings attached. (owed political favors).

While he has stated that he will not run against Jim Bunning if he decides to run again, I hope we can change his mind. Bunning is very vulnerable, as I will describe below. He personally thinks the other Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell – a moderate Republican, would be the better one to defeat, however he is not up for re-election again until 2014.

Penny Langford had also mentioned that he would probably hold off running for office till his kids were a little older, so that has got to be a consideration for him.

On the difficulty of defeating an incumbent Senator, he has 3 things going for him. He's well respected in his community, he's Ron Paul's son and he has us.

As to name recognition, well that's our job. Aside from making these stories go viral, there are several things we can do. Btw: the AP story is in 214 papers and another story is in 38 when last I checked.

First: letters to the editor to Kentucky newspapers. I would suggest that people choose a paper(s) who's name starts with a letter that is the same as or close to your last name so we get a good spread. Here's a list of them:

http://www.usnpl.com/kynews.php

Second, call talk radio stations in Kentucky, as well as C-SPAN and call often! A list of Kentucky radio stations and syndicated talk shows that broadcast in KY is at the bottom of this message.

Rand does not have enough search volume to show up in Google trends, there is also a “Paul Rand” from AU/NZ that drives him mostly off the front page, so please search for him daily and cross link to pages that mention him.

Lastly, he does not have a Wikipedia page yet – could someone write one?

As to his fund raising concerns – could someone please put up a pledgebank and lets get those moneybombs primed!

There is also a Facebook group to draft him here – please join it:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7017643253

and RandPaulForums.com links to RonPaulForums.com where a sub-form is expected to be set up.

Now, as to the opposition...

Mitch McConnell is the Senate minority leader. He's not up for re-election till 2014, is a moderate Republican and introduced / sponsored the Military Commissions Act and the Protect America Act of 2007 that allows the NSA to monitor telephone and Internet communications without a warrant. He is one of the strongest supporters of the Iraq war and the War on Terrorism. He also voted for NAFTA, CAFTA, FISA, the Patriot Act and to establish DHS. He regularly gets a “A” from NRA and a “C” from GOA.

Jim Bunning is up for re-election in 2010 and is considered one of the Senates most conservative members. In his last House race (1996), he won by a landslide: 68% to 32%, but had very tight races for his 2 senate runs, 49.7 to 49.2 in 1998 and 51% to 49% in 2004. He is also WAY behind in fund raising and had $175,000 at the end of September 2008. Every other Republican Senator facing a competitive race had at least $850,000 by this time. Bunning has a history of missing votes, both in the House and the Senate and missed more than a week in January 2009, and refused to say where he was during that time. to . A statewide opinion poll from December 2008 gave him a 43% approval rating and a 44% disapproval rating. R - 59/28, D – 33/54, I – 40/44. He also apparently was asked by a reporter when the last time he read a newspaper was and responded “6 weeks ago” - something that didn't go over well with his constituents.

Time Magazine in 2006 called him (from Wikipedia) one of "America's Five Worst Senators". The magazine dubbed him The Underperformer for his "lackluster performance", saying he "shows little interest in policy unless it involves baseball", and criticized his hostility towards staff and fellow Senators and his "bizarre behavior" during his 2004 campaign.

He has problems with National Republican Senatorial Committee – having threatened to sue them if they recruited another candidate and he attacked the NRSC's chairman (verbally). His non-profit foundation has given less than 25% of funds raised to charitable organizations, while drawing a $180,000 salary and working an average of 1 hour a week. He has also made public comments about Justice Ruth Ginsburg and had to issue a public apology.

Kentucky State Senate president David Williams is reportedly considering running against him in the 2010 primaries. Williams has previously lost a Senate bid, and has better name recognition than Rand. . Most of his (Williams) donors are PAC's from industry special interest groups.

As to Bunning's voting record, on the positive side he's very outspoken on illegal immigration, has a good 2nd amendment rights record and voted against Ben Bernanke as chairman for the Federal Reserve. On the negative side he voted Yes for No Child Left behind, FISA, the Patriot Act and for establishing DHS.

As far as the feasibility of beating an incumbent Senator, it just doesn't get much better than this without a full blown scandal.

So please spread the message and lets get this man elected to the Senate!

Kentucky talk radio stations:

WFTG 1400 AM London, KY http://www.sam1039.com/
WGTK 970 AM Louisville, KY http://970wgtk.townhall.com/ This is a Conservative / political radio station. Shows: Bennett Mornings: 6-9AM: 866-680-6464 , Michael Medved Show: time? 1-800-955-1776 michael@michaelmedved.com, Hugh Hewitt Show: time? 1-800-520-1234, Dennis Prager Show: time? 1-877-243-7776 dennis@pragerradio.com, Mike Gallagher Show: time? (v)1-800-655-MIKE (f) 1-800-821-MIKE
WHAS 840 AM Louisville, KY http://www.whas.com/main.html Has a bunch of shows including Rush Limbaugh
WHIR 1230 AM Danville, KY http://www.hometownlive.net/
WKTC 930 AM Bowling Green, KY http://www.93wkct.com/ Looks syndicated – Limbaugh, Hannity, Ramsey, etc.
WKYH 600 AM Paintsville, KY http://www.wkyh.com/ Syndicated: Ingram, Beck, Hannity, Savage, etc.
WKYX 590 AM and 94.3 FM Paducah and Mayfield, KY http://www.wkyx.com/ Syndicated: Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Ramsey
WLAP 630 AM Lexington, KY http://www.wlap.com/main.html Rush and local personalities
WSFC 1240 AM Somerset, KY http://www.wsfcam.com/main.html Syndicated and local personalities
WVLK 590 AM and 101.5 FM Lexington and Richmond, KY http://www.wvlkam.com/home.php Syndicated and local personalities.

Many of these stations have polls, blogs, etc. VISIT THEM! All of them have streaming audio.

Syndicated Shows:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/ Lots of call in numbers, including international. Listed here: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/info/callin.html E-mail addresses here: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/info/contactus.html
http://townhall.com/
http://www.daveramsey.com/radio/home/ e-mail: http://www.daveramsey.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=dspMailDaveOnAir
http://www.dennismillerradio.com/ e-mail: http://www.dennismillerradio.com/help#form6
http://www.lauraingraham.com/ has a way to e-mail her under “contact us” tab that is session dependent so can't be linked. Call in: 1-800-876-4123
http://www.mikeonline.com/ (Mike Gallagher Show) (v) 1-800-655-MIKE, (f) 1-800-821-MIKE, e-mail under “contact us”.
http://www.hannity.com/ 800-941-7326 (3-6PM EST)
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/radio/

There are also some college radio stations. Most college stations have call in programs, and if any supporters attend one of these colleges, please consider signing up to be a DJ.

WWJD 91.7 FM Alice Lloyd College, Pippa Passes, KY http://www.alc.edu/radio/radioindex.htm
WCCR 94.5 FM University of Cumberlands, Williamsburg, KY http://www.ucumberlands.edu/academics/communications/wccr/
WRFL 88.1 FM University of Kentucky, Lexington KY http://wrfl.fm/
WWHR 91.7 FM Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY http://www.wku.edu/revolution917/ (sounds like our kinda station :) )

-t