This Kentuckian knows that Rand Paul was elected through the efforts of his father Ron Paul’s political machine — namely, the Campaign for Liberty (CFL) and its army of supporters at Liberty Forest, the radio listeners of Paul supporters Alex Jones and AntiWar Radio’s Scott Horton (also part of the Ron Paul machine), big media exposure through Fox News, Time Magazine and The Washington Post that was in no way merited, the white supremacist group StormFront (also part of the Ron Paul machine), big endorsements from long-established pro-Ron Paul organizations Concerned Women for America, Gun Owners of America and Canada-based LifeSiteNews, as well as endorsements from Sarah Palin, Jim Demint and James Dobson, none of whom are from Kentucky. Kentucky’s Tea Party had virtually nothing to do with Rand Paul’s primary election, as I will show.
Kentucky is a conservative Democrat state, generally preferring to vote for Democrats who run as conservatives. An example of this in practice and in micro is the election this year of conservative Democrat Dennis Parrett over — one of my personal favorites — staunchly conservative Republican State Senator Elizabeth Tori in Hardin County. Hardin County is called “Kentucky’s Heartland” as it is said to lie geographically in the “heart” of Kentucky. It is also the home county of long-time Republican Congressman Ron Lewis. Parrett defeated Tori despite support for Tori from among members of Central Ky Tea Party Patriots (CKTPP), a group whose founding members have decreased in number by approximately twenty Reagan conservatives unhappy with the Paul candidacy according to former CKTPP coordinator Debra Tennison. Parrett won mainly by running ads. Generally speaking, intelligent use of mass media is what wins elections in Kentucky. So it was with Parrett, in a county-wide election, and so it was with Rand Paul in his statewide election.
Several important facts are big indicators of the impotence of Kentucky’s Tea Party movement. First and foremost, Kentucky’s Congressional incumbents were all re-elected in the past election. More significantly, two of Kentucky’s six Congressional seats were held by Democrats John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler and two were held by big-spending Republicans Ed Whitfield and Hal Rogers. The Tea Party movement was unable even to field candidates to oppose Whitfield and Rogers, and both of these incumbents won their races handily. John Yarmuth, a veritable Pelosi surrogate in the 3rd District, had little trouble defeating Tea Party candidate Todd Lally while Ben Chandler defeated Tea Party darling Andy Barr despite an “all out” mobilization effort by Tea Party forces in that district. How can anyone look at the Tea Party’s failures in Kentucky’s Congressional elections and call Rand Paul “the Tea Party candidate” with a straight face? The answer is that big media and the Campaign for Liberty have made it so. Those who claim that Paul is the Tea Party candidate do so either because they lack competence, are misinformed, are Paul supporters who want the Tea Party to be known as a Paul phenomenon, or are leftists interested in convincing the average Joe that the Tea Party is as extreme as Rand Paul.
Next: Early Boatloads of Money from the Machine
