Sometimes Rand Paul's anti-regulatory mouth gets him into trouble. Earlier this election season, he got into hot water with miners for suggesting the federal government shouldn't be involved in mine safety. He then later said he still "thinks miners, mine operators and mine regulators in Kentucky know what works best to keep Kentucky miners safe."
The problem is that state by state regulations, or lack thereof, create lax loopholes in the law big enough to drive a truck through. I don't doubt Rand "I'm not for the Civil Rights Act" believes that racist state legislators and officials knew what worked best when it came to voting laws, too.
So Blue America friend AmericansForAmericaPAC is going up on the Kentucky airwaves about it:
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This ad is running on WXCC "Coal Country Radio" in the eastern Kentucky and in Madisonville, not far from the tragic disaster in the spring that killed 2 miners – which inspired Paul to say "Accidents Happen". According to the AP, there are 18,000 miners in Kentucky- plus their families and friends. AmericansForAmericaPAC is raising on ActBlue for it here.
This plays in Kentucky. Yesterday, the Lexington Herald-Leader just endorsed Jack Conway for Senate. Note the third paragraph:
Since riding the Tea Party wave to victory in the Republican primary as a relatively unvetted candidate, Paul has spent the summer and early fall revealing himself to be quite the ideologue who's long on simplistic slogans but short on understanding the drastic consequences of adhering to those slogans.
What came across as refreshingly candid in the spring proved to be distressingly extremist when Paul was pressed on issues ranging from civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
As a senator, his mission would be a chain-saw massacre of federal government that lays waste to farm subsidies, education spending, mine-safety regulations, federal aid in fighting the scourge of drugs and numerous other programs of significant benefit to Kentuckians.
Not only is mine safety a critical issue, but Paul's chain-saw approach to all regulations is winning support for Conway. Radio ads being among of the cheapest forms of political communication, $10 or $20 goes a long way. Blue America's partners at AmericansforAmericaPAC are taking every dollar and putting it into production and the buy- believe it or not, the admaker, a longtime colleague of mine, is actually working on the buy down the hall from me as I'm typing this. You can chip in here to keep reaching Kentucky miners.
