Yes, it sounds like it’s going to happen: a popular actress and social activist is almost certainly going to run for Senate against one of the most unpopular but politically canny and skillful politicians in the country. On your mark…get set….(almost there…Fox News and conservative talkers get ready to start defining her negatively…)..G (not QUITE there yet):
Ashley Judd, the 44-year-old actress and social activist, has told key advisers and Apolitical figures that she is planning to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate here this spring.
Judd told one close ally that she plans to announce her run for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 race “around Derby” — meaning in early May when the Kentucky Derby brings national attention to Louisville and the Bluegrass State.
Reached for comment by email Saturday, Judd offered a not-quite-ironclad denial to The Huffington Post. “I am not sure who is saying this stuff, but it is not I! I’d prefer as a fan of your journalism that you stay accurate and credible. We told everyone who called us yesterday these stories are fabrications.”
But she declined to specify which “stories,” did not say what wasn’t “accurate,” and did not respond when asked directly whether she had, in fact, decided to run or chosen a time to declare her intentions.
“I know she knows she has to declare soon,” said one source, a highly placed elected official who declined to be identified because he was discussing private plans.
“She could always change her mind,” he added. “I changed my mind twice before I finally declared. But as of now it is a done deal.” She has discussed her plans, sources say, with former Gov. Wendell H. Ford, the 88-year-old dean of Kentucky Democrats, among others.
The announcement, her allies told The Huffington Post, could “clear the field” of major contenders for the Democratic nomination, setting up a wild, made-for-YouTube contest between the free-wheeling, media-savvy Hollywood actress, and the methodically accusatory machine of the five-term Republican senator — and Senate minority leader — Mitch McConnell of Louisville.
Yes, this could be the battle of the imagery, not just policy. Which can trump (pardon the expression) the other? Both will get huge infusions of money.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.