During the 1940s and 50s, comedian Joe Besser — who was to gain TV fame as “Stinky” the (middle aged) kid on the Abbot & Costello Show and as the most unloved Curley replacement “third Stooge” in the Three Stooges — was famous for a saying: “Not so faaaaaaaaaaast!”
You might say that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee of the Kentucky will soon say “No so faaaaaaaaaaast!” to actress/activist Ashley Judd’s reported plans to run against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for the Kentucky Senate seat. The poll numbers don’t look good, The Hill reports:
A survey conducted for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee of the Kentucky Senate race by one of their leading pollsters may be cause for the DSCC to ‘re-evaluate’ the committee’s initial interest in Ashley Judd’s potential campaign for Kentucky Senate, according to a recent report.
According to the Louisville Eccentric Observer, after receiving the results of the poll, which The Hill has learned was conducted for the committee by Fred Yang, who formerly worked for Gov. Steve Beshear (D), the DSCC is “re-evaluating” their initial “all-in” support for Judd, as it showed Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes (D) might be a stronger contender against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Judd’s potential challenge to McConnell has picked up steam in recent weeks, as she’s met with donors in Kentucky, the DSCC and, reports indicate, Democratic leaders in Washington.
But Democrats in Kentucky remain skeptical of her candidacy, concerned that she could cost them a winnable race due to her liberal political leanings and connections to Obama, which could be toxic in a state that voted for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney by more than 60 percent in 2012.
Judd also currently lives in Tennessee, though she grew up in Kentucky, and Republicans have already sought to make her residency an issue.
One Kentucky Democratic operative, Jim Cauley, who ran then-Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for president in Kentucky in 2008, has been an outspoken critic of her potential run, calling it a potential “catastrophe” for down-ballot races in one report.
But he said in recent weeks he had been told to tone down his criticism by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office.
Not a good sign when Reid is playing spin control for Judd and she hasn’t even been nominated yet. On MSNBC today, one of its talking heads was talking about Judd being strong due to “star power.” That alone won’t do it — particularly against McConnell, one of the most canny politicians in the United States. His toughness in a campaign is only matched by his poll numbers showing him one of the most unbeloved politicians in the country.
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.