KY Sen: Turnout Among Dems About a Third Higher Than GOP, Yet ‘Liberal’ Media Hands Night to Tea Bagger Rand Paul

Paul, left, and Conway
Paul, left, and Conway
Rand Paul’s win in the Republican primary yesterday has dominated the headlines coming out of Kentucky, in part because he is the first avowed tea bagger candidate to win a race (Sen. Scott Brown disavowed tea partiers’ support after he won in Massachusetts last year) and because he is the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a folk hero among libertarians.

Paul’s libertarian opposition to farm subsidies and overseas entanglements, including the Iraq war, may put him at odds with the war-mongering, big-government loving GOP base.

Paul handily defeated Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who had the strong support of Kentucky’s own Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 58.8 percent to 35.4 percent. On the Democratic side, Attorney General Jack Conway bested Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo in a squeaker, 44.1 percent to 43.0 percent. (Numbers are based on results at 5:10 a.m. Pacific, on May 19, 2010, with 99.5 percent of precincts counted.)

Just about anything tea baggers do makes headlines, so it is not surprising that the Beltway punditocracy and “liberal” media have all but anointed Rand Paul as the frontrunner in the general election. Maybe so, but voter turnout tallies suggest weak support for libertarian Paul among his party’s traditional Republican base.

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