Democrat Alison Grimes faulted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for missing many Agriculture Committee hearings and for not being one of the negotiators who wrote the 2014 farm law, says the Associated Press. Grimes raised the issue during a forum at the Kentucky Farm Bureau headquarters, saying McConnell missed every hearing for nearly three years. McConnell said he kept his hand in farm issues but as Senate leader, “you have more consequential things to do than go to committee meetings.” He pointed a farm law provision that allows Kentucky and other states to experiment with hemp.
Grimes said she supports the comprehensive immigration reform that passed the Senate in 2013 and said McConnell “said ‘no’ to making sure we could have an earned pathway to citizenship – which is what I believe in,” said Politico. McConnell said reform should be handled in a series of bills, the approach backed by House Republican leaders. Grimes said, “I’ll be on the Agriculture Committee in more than just name only.”
“While the senator is considered Republicans’ most vulnerable incumbent this cycle, he’s still favored to retain his seat, and a handful of recent polls have shown him reestablishing a small but solid lead over Grimes,” said The Hill newspaper. Pollster says its poll-tracking model gives McConnell a 2-point lead.
Two farm state races – Iowa and Arkansas – are among the six consistently close contests that will determine control of the Senate in the November elections, says FiveThirtyEight. Republicans need to win three of the six to become the Senate majority.
There is a bit of turn-about in Grimes’ criticism of McConnell for not going to committee hearings. McConnell unleashed one of the most famous TV ads, featuring a pack of bloodhounds, against incumbent Dee Huddleston in 1984. The ad accused Huddleston of loafing on the job. One of the results of the ad was that many Senate committees no longer take attendance when they convene. A search of the Internet indicates Kentuckians haven’t forgotten the “Hound Dog” ad. To see it, click here.