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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell won a hard-fought sixth term Tuesday, putting him a step closer to his lifelong dream of becoming majority leader and getting the GOP off to a good start in its goal of taking control of the Senate. Helping his chances was Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's capture of the West Virginia seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller. Her victory, while not a surprise, gave Republicans the first of six new seats they will need to control the Senate for the first time in eight years...

A Franklin Circuit Court judge denied a request from Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes to stop the Republican Party of Kentucky and the campaign for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell from sending mailers that Grimes called a bullying tactic. On Monday morning Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd denied Grimes’ request to halt the mailing of the fliers which say “the information enclosed contains facts related to a possible fraud perpetrated on citizens across Kentucky.” Within the mailer it refers to statements in Grimes’ ads media fact checkers have criticized, such as a claim that U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell didn’t...

Democratic Senate hopeful Alison Lundergan Grimes’ campaign appears to have shelled out $17,000 to shuttle Hillary Clinton into Kentucky to attend a rally last month. A $17,192 check was cut to Executive Fliteways, the Ronkonkoma, New York-based company that covered Clinton’s air travel with her husband to Iowa for the Tom Harkin Steak Fry in September, according to Grimes’ Federal Election Commission filings. The check was cut on Oct. 14, and Clinton campaigned for Grimes the next day. She also appeared last weekend at two events for Grimes in Kentucky. A Clinton aide did not comment, and a Grimes aide...

McConnell 50%, Grimes 42% Full internals at the link.

LEXINGTON — Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton struck a populist tone in her final campaign pitch for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes Saturday, stumping twice for Grimes days after a new poll shows her trailing U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Regardless of survey results that have her 5 points behind the five-term incumbent, Clinton, Grimes and a cadre of Democratic politicians urged a crowd of about 1,400 enthusiastic supporters at Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium to volunteer and push Grimes toward an Election Day victory in the face of an all-out advertising blitz. Republicans and outside groups supporting...

LOUISVILLE — U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell started his Saturday before Election Day in Louisville rallying his troops in an effort to get out the vote ahead of Tuesday’s election. At the Best Western across the parking lot from McConnell’s campaign headquarters the five-term incumbent thanked campaign staffers and volunteers for giving up the next few days in an effort to turnout voters on Election Day. “At headquarters we’ve run out of things to do. We’ve raised all the money we can raise. We’ve bought all the TV time we can buy, and radio time. We’ve dropped all the mail pieces...

... The Grimes campaign reacted late Friday to a mailer circulating in Eastern Kentucky that looks like an official election notice, with bold text reading: “Election Violation Notice.” Once opened the mailer lists claims Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes made in a TV ad that have since been rated false by the Washington Post. The mailer was sent our by the Republican Party of Kentucky... The Grimes campaign filed an injunction on Friday afternoon requesting that “both state and federal authorities to investigate what, on its face, appears to be a clear violation of both Kentucky and federal...

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has opened up a five-point lead over Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes and appears well positioned to win a sixth term, according to the final Bluegrass Poll before Tuesday's election. McConnell leads Grimes 48 percent to 43 percent in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, with Libertarian candidate David Patterson pulling 3 percent. In a Bluegrass Poll released early last week, McConnell was clinging to a one-point lead, with 44 percent backing him and 43 percent choosing Grimes. The latest poll of 597 likely voters in Kentucky was conducted by SurveyUSA between Oct. 25 and Oct....

LOUISVILLE — On a stage late Thursday morning before several hundred people outside the Muhammad Ali Center, former President Bill Clinton tried to deliver a knockout punch against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on behalf of Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. Clinton, making his fourth visit to Kentucky for Grimes' bid to oust the Republican incumbent from his 30-year tenure, painted Grimes as a champion for working people. He said Kentucky, which he won both times he ran for president, has not had a champion for the working people in the U.S. Senate since Democrat Wendell Ford left in 1999. Grimes...

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes began her one-week sprint to Election Day flanked by one of the most popular members of her party. Before the week’s up, she’ll be joined again by a former president and his wife, whom many believe will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016 if she decides to run. Grimes was joined by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., before about 400 supporters at the Copper and Kings Distillery in Louisville Tuesday, and the two hemmed close to Grimes’ primary talking points on the campaign trail. In Warren, who made her second appearance...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Alison Grimes's campaign says Hillary Clinton will return to Kentucky on November first for a last minute push before Election Day. Grimes will also be welcoming Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as well. Warren will be at a Grimes rally at Copper and Kings distillery in Butchertown on Tuesday evening. Over the weekend, Grimes will join Clinton at campaign events in Northern Kentucky and Lexington, just a few weeks after Hillary Clinton appeared in Louisville to speak on behalf of Grimes. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren will be at an Alison Lundergan Grimes rally at Copper and Kings...

In a new ad from Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, a handful of women from the Bluegrass state stare straight into the camera and blast Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell for his shameful 30-year record on women. “Shame on you Mitch McConnell,” an African-American woman says, arms crossed. “You’ve turned your back on our mothers, our daughters, and me,” another woman continues. More women lambaste the Senate minority leader for voting against the Paycheck Fairness Act and declining to vote for an expanded Violence Against Women Act in 2012: “Instead of enforcing equal pay for equal work, you called it...

The Chatter: McConnell loans himself $1.8M, Grimes doubles down on false claim in ad and 'Pennsyltucky' woman Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell is combating a new wave of Democratic spending in his race against Alison Lundergan Grimes by loaning his campaign $1.8 million, Politico reported Friday. The Washington, D.C., outlet reported that McConnell’s personal contribution tops investments by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Senate Majority PAC totaling $1.5 million less than two weeks before the Nov. 4 election. A campaign official told Politico McConnell’s loan reinforces the Senate Republican leader’s view that the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s resources...

Excuse the fuzzy quality of this ad, but it has not been publicly released by the Grimes campaign. In The Fact Checker’s experience, the most fact-challenged ads are those that fly under the radar, as campaigns hope that reporters don’t notice the content — but voters do. This particular ad is especially noteworthy because the candidate herself repeats a claim that The Fact Checker has already deemed worthy of Four Pinocchios. Not only does she double down on this falsehood, but she makes another highly questionable assertion as well. .... Most striking, Grimes puts her own credibility on the line...

Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R) has a new ad in the Kentucky Senate race that zeroes in on the demographic of voters he thinks are mostly likely to be wooed by his opponent, Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes: Young women. In the ad, young women make the pitch that it is Grimes who looks down on them, by implying they need the government's help to get ahead. "Alison Lundergan Grimes wants me to think that I'm not good enough... That I couldn't get a job, unless Washington passed more laws...That I can't graduate college, without raising your taxes... She...

Wednesday Senator McConnell’s race against Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes looks a bit tighter than it did a few days ago, when we suggested that McConnell might begin measuring for drapes in the Majority Office. For one thing, the latest survey of the Kentucky contest finds McConnell and state Secretary of State Grimes virtually tied. The Bluegrass Poll puts McConnell at 44 percent, and Grimes at 43, with 5 percent for a third party candidate and 8 percent undecided. For another, the Democratic Party and the Grimes campaign are throwing money at ads in what looks like a last-month push...

Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidates launched new television ads Wednesday, with Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell highlighting his support among young women while Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes targets remarks the five-term incumbent made at a meeting of wealthy conservative donors in June. McConnell’s campaign struck first in his statewide ad titled “Represent Me,” which features four young women who back McConnell’s reelection as well as a link to the website womenformitch.com. “She (Grimes) thinks I’ll vote for the candidate who looks like me,” Ashley Burkhead says to the camera. “Rather than the one who represents me,” Caroline Anderegg says to the...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is going back on-air for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes in her battle against U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Buoyed by recent polling, the DSCC told Politico that they were investing $650,000 in air time after “reviewing recent internal and public polling,” according to Manu Raju. The latest Bluegrass Poll published Monday shows McConnell up one percentage point on Grimes, but the race remains within the margin of error. The decision to go back on air in the state comes after the group went dark in the state after not airtime in the state...

Western Kentucky University's 2014 Big Red Poll released on Monday shows that incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) leads Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes by 3 points, 45% to 42%, among likely voters in the Kentucky U.S. Senate race. The poll, coming two weeks before election day, indicates the race is still close, despite numerous recent gaffes by Grimes and news that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has stopped funding television advertising in support of her candidacy. 5% of likely voters supported Libertarian David Patterson, and 8% were undecided. The most surprising result of the poll is that, despite a bitter...

OWENSBORO — Former President Bill Clinton made his third lap around the track in Kentucky’s neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race, imploring a throng of supporters Tuesday to help push Democratic candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes first across the finish line in two weeks. Minutes after Grimes called herself a “Kentucky filly,” the 42nd U.S. president offered his own equine analogy. Every election cycle, Clinton said, “I feel like an old racehorse.” “They got me in a nice barn, and when it’s election season, they come in, they give me an extra bale of hay,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd of...