Ky. Senate candidate Paul pulling TV attack ads

[May 15, 2010]  FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Republican Rand Paul is phasing out TV ads attacking his chief opponent in the GOP U.S. Senate primary, opting instead to run affable spots featuring some of his more prominent supporters.

It will be a radical change in tone in what has been a bitter fight for the GOP nomination to run for retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning's seat.

Polls show Paul, a tea party favorite, with a double-digit lead over Secretary of State Trey Grayson, his top rival in a five-way primary Tuesday.

The ads he's taking off the air paint Grayson as a desperate career politician who is part of the Washington political machine.

"We are pleased that Rand Paul has finally decided to pull his false, negative attack ads," said Grayson campaign manager Nate Hodson. He said Grayson will run ads through Tuesday touting his conservative record and highlighting key endorsements.

Paul campaign manager David Adams said pulling the negative ads is intended to highlight Paul's strengths leading up to the election.

"We're campaigning very hard the rest of the way," Adams said Friday. "It just looks like there's not a reason at this point to provide any differentiation between the candidates on television."

The Grayson campaign has run its share of attack ads, including one that claims Paul wants to release suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay back to their home countries, a much disputed issue in the race. Grayson made that claim based on a clip from a speech Paul made two years ago. Paul says Grayson took the comment out of context.

Grayson was the GOP establishment's early choice for the seat being vacated by Bunning, a 78-year-old former major league pitcher enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He has racked up endorsements from Republican leaders including former Vice President Dick Cheney and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

But Paul, an eye surgeon who campaigned as a political outsider, has backing from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Bunning and evangelical leader James Dobson. Dobson is the founder of the Colorado-based Christian organization Focus on the Family, which runs daily radio broadcasts heard in nearly every community in Kentucky.

One of the ads he'll be running shows Palin praising him for wanting limited government.

"I respect that," Palin says in the ad, "and I'm proud to support him."

Both candidates have spent heavily on TV advertising. Grayson has collected more than $2.7 million in contributions, most from traditional Republican donors, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Most of that went to advertising. Paul raised and spent a similar amount by capitalizing on the nationwide donor network of his father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a former Republican presidential candidate.

The eventual Republican nominee will likely face a well-funded Democrat in the general election. Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo and Attorney General Jack Conway are the front-runners in a close race for the Democratic nomination.

Conway spent Friday campaigning in central Kentucky with former longtime U.S. Sen. Wendell Ford, one of Kentucky's most renowned Democrats.

Mongiardo spent Friday making a campaign swing through parts of western Kentucky -- a potentially pivotal region in the Democratic primary.

[Associated Press; By ROGER ALFORD]

Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.

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