Moments before Lousiville businesman Matt Bevin announced he was running for Senate in Kentucky, challenging incumbent Mitch McConnell, McConnell’s press team spotlights a Louisville Tea Party board member resigning from his post in a show of support for McConnell: “Scott Reed was a founding board member of the Louisville Tea Party in 2008 yet resigned from his post as Vice-President to run for state representative in 2012.  Reed said he resigned from his current board post about one month ago when Louisville Tea Party President Sarah Durand decided to back Bevin’s Republican Primary campaign and become Bevin’s spokeswoman.”

Katrina Trinko previewed the Bevin-McConnell fight; expect McConnell to go after Bevin’s business record and contend he took a bailout from the state of Connecticut; Bevin will argue McConnell has forgotten his conservative roots and become the face of Republican compromise in Washington.

Apparently they really meant this:

The single most important thing: Defeating Mitch McConnell. Join the campaign here-> ow.ly/jEoMR

— Progress Kentucky (@ProgressKy) April 11, 2013

Much more important than, say, obeying Kentucky law. You see, Kentucky requires at least one party in a conversation to consent to the recording of the conversation.

“Unless otherwise provided by law, the authorized maximum terms of imprisonment for a Class D felony is not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years.”

A local Democrat has told the press that the organization bragged about that Class D felony.

A secret recording of a campaign strategy session between U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and his advisors was taped by leaders of the Progress Kentucky super PAC, says a longtime local Democratic operative.

Mother Jones Magazine released the tape this week. The meeting itself took place on Feb. 2.

Jacob Conway, who is on the executive committee of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, says that day, Shawn Reilly and Curtis Morrison, who founded and volunteered for Progress Kentucky, respectively, bragged to him about how they recorded the meeting.

I suppose the group could always try to distract us by saying something racist about McConnell’s wife again.

UPDATE: The tapers might be in the clear; it may come down to whether the recording device was in the room or outside of it.

In-person conversations: It is a felony to overhear or record, through use of an electronic or mechanical device, an oral communication without the consent of at least one party to that communication. Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 526.020. According to the commentary included with the statute when it was adopted in 1974, a conversation which is loud enough to be heard through the wall or through the heating system without the use of any device is not meant to be protected by the statute, since a person who desires privacy can take the steps necessary to ensure that his conversation cannot be overheard by the ordinary ear. See 1974 Kentucky Crime Commission/Legislative Research Commission Commentary to 1974 c 406, § 227.

From the report above:

Morrison and Reilly did not attend the open house, but they told Conway they arrived later and were able to hear the meeting from the hallway.

Other sources have corroborated this series of events to WFPL. The meeting room door is next to the elevators on that floor. McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton has told multiple media outlets the door was shut and locked on Feb. 2. But the door has a vent at the bottom and a large gap underneath.

American Crossroads engages in a bit of “battlespace preparation” by running a faux ad saluting actress Ashley Judd, who’s rumored to be considering a bid for Senate in Kentucky . . . even though she currently lives in Tennessee.

American Crossroads says the ad is “backed by $10,000 in paid digital advertising, starting today and running two weeks in Kentucky.”

Earlier this month, I scoffed a bit at web ads being run against Senator Mitch McConnell, declaring,

The high-profile grumbling about Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell — seen in a new ad campaign from ForAmerica, a non-profit 501(c)4 run by Brent Bozell — is a lot like the much-discussed, little-impact uprising against John Boehner as speaker of the House. In both cases, the odds of replacing the current Republican leadership would be exponentially more likely if there were a named alternative.

The issue of a lack of named alternative arises again, as the Louisville Courier-Journal writes a breathless story about a poll they commissioned, finding that only 17 percent of registered voters will vote for McConnell no matter who runs against him, 34 percent will vote against McConnell, and for 44 percent, “it depends who is running.”

Well, gee, it kind of matters who the other candidate is, doesn’t it?

The new result suggests there are conservatives out there who might prefer an alternative if they had some other conservative alternative in the primary (13 percent of self-identified conservatives say they are “definitely” voting against McConnell). Of course, there are some liberals out there who will prefer the Democratic alternative (although only 56 percent of self-identified liberals say they’re definitely voting against McConnell!).

The problem is that the more conservative folks and the Democrats who are currently McConnell foes have diametrically opposed notions of what a “better alternative” is. If McConnell wins his primary, most of those conservatives will prefer him to the more liberal alternative and “come home”; if he doesn’t win his primary, the anti-McConnell animus in the electorate is moot.

The poll is by SurveyUSA . . . which found McConnell’s approval rating at 50 percent at the end of October.

Considering that the paper was willing to commission the poll, one wishes they had bothered polling some of the potential rivals to McConnell, in both a GOP primary and a statewide race.

In fact, the early polling of a hypothetical McConnell–Ashley Judd race would have made for a dramatic story. I wonder why the Courier-Journal chose not to poll on that matchup . . . or whether they did and chose not to publicize the results.

The midweek edition of the Morning Jolt features the latest sudden lapse from the “new tone” of political civility in South Carolina, the latest from Wisconsin, and then last night’s… somewhat surprising primary results:

Happy Arkansas and Kentucky Primary Night, Mr. President!

After Hillary Clinton thrashed Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary, I wrote that Obama would be the first president who would need to appoint an ambassador to that state.

Arkansas and Kentucky aren’t looking like very friendly territory, either.

Four in ten Democratic voters chose someone other than President Obama on Tuesday in primaries in Arkansas and Kentucky.

In Arkansas, John Wolfe — a perennial, long-shot candidate — took 41 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, with 71 percent of precincts reporting. Obama came in just under 60 percent. The Associated Press did not call the race for Obama until close to midnight.

And in Kentucky, 42 percent of Democrats chose “uncommitted” rather than cast a vote for the incumbent president. Obama took 58 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

“Considering that a felon in prison did about that well in West Virginia’s primary against Obama a few weeks back, perhaps the Democrats might consider the possibility that they are going to lose the general election,” writes Clayton Cramer.

Both of these states are considered deep red for 2012, but the demographics of Jacksonian white working-class voters in these states aren’t culturally all that different from voters in large swaths of swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and even northern Florida. (Yeah, Democrats aren’t going to contest the Tarheel State that much this year. Public Policy Polling will insist otherwise, but…)

Would an energy policy so opposed to coal production that the Vice President bellows, “no coal plants in America” be a factor in this region, by any chance?

Because not every American can become a “web designer” like “Julia.”

At the moment, the outlook for Republicans in the Kentucky governor’s face looks pretty grim:

Gov. Steve Beshear holds a commanding 24-point lead over his challenger, Senate President David Williams, in Kentucky’s governor’s race, according to the latest Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll.

The poll found that Beshear leads Williams 52 percent to 28 percent and that the incumbent governor is ahead in all but three demographic areas. Independent Gatewood Galbraith is a distant third with 9 percent of the vote.

Conducted by SurveyUSA, the poll is based on computerized and live telephone interviews carried out from July 22– to 27. It includes the responses of 512 likely voters in the Nov. 8 governor’s race and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

That was the news Sunday; today brings a development that may well shake up the race:

A veteran state employee has alleged in a letter delivered to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s office Monday that some government workers were threatened with termination if they did not contribute to Democratic Governor Steve Beshear’s re-election campaign.

Rodney Young is a psychologist with the Department of Juvenile Justice and made the accusation in a letter dated July 27. Hoping to bring attention to “abuses of authority,” Young lists a dozen employees in the department who he alleges were threatened, adding an aide of the governor told his co-workers last year that they could lose their jobs if they didn’t give a $500 donation to Beshear’s re-election bid.

“In my 27 years in state government, I have never seen such an audacious and systematic approach to using state government as an arm to raise money for a political campaign,” Young wrote. “It is my hope that you will use the information in this letter to bring attention to this activity and to permanently separate public service from political solicitations.”

A Conway spokesperson says the attorney general’s office has received the complaint and will handle it according to their investigative protocol.

Note the complaint predates the poll.

You remember Jack Conway; he’s the Democratic Senate candidate who accused of Rand Paul of Aqua Buddha in a late ad last year – an ad called “ugly” and “demagogic” by notable right-wingers like, er, Ezra Klein. Yes, this is precisely the fellow who I want investigating allegations of election shenanigans on the part of Democratic candidates.

UPDATE: Hmmm. A pattern?

Dr. Patrick Sheridan confirmed to Pure Politics that this winter he received a phone call to his unlisted home number from Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Deputy Secretary Charles Geveden, who asked him to write a $1,000 check to Beshear’s campaign.

Sheridan said he wrote a $500 check to the Beshear campaign with a note attached. The note said the check was being written in response to a personal call from Geveden.

Some time later, his check was returned in the mail, Sheridan said.

Sheridan is a long-time non-merit employee in the cabinet. His name was one of 13 listed in a letter from another Justice Cabinet employee alleging strong-arm tactics by Geveden. Dr. Rodney Young sent that letter to the Republican Party of Kentucky, which has asked for an investigation.

It is against state law for an administration to target appointed state workers for political fundraising unless those solicitations are made “as part of an overall plan to contact voters not identified as state employees,” the law says.

In Kentucky, David Williams won the GOP gubernatorial primary, as expected. He’ll take on incumbent Democrat Gov. Steve Beshear, who held a healthy lead in polls of the hypothetical match-up back in April. As we’ve seen in many other Southern, conservative-leaning states, the GOP effort will try to tie the Democrat to President Obama, although there’s an interesting wrinkle in this race: Williams argues that Beshear has distanced himself from the president so much, he’s done it at inappropriate times:

Though Williams said it is no surprise he will not support Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election next year, he said Beshear was wrong earlier this month when he did not go to Fort Campbell to honor soldiers with the president.

Williams said he would have “stood side by side” with Obama “to honor the troops.”

There are four governor’s races this fall, but West Virginia looks like a steep climb for Republicans, Mississippi looks like safe ground for the GOP, and in Louisiana, Democrats are still looking for a candidate to take on incumbent Bobby Jindal. So Kentucky may be the premiere fight this November:

Though Democrats outnumber Republicans 1.63 million to 1.08 million in Kentucky, Democratic political consultant Danny Briscoe thinks the race will be “close, competitive and the most expensive ever.”

He said both candidates will have sufficient campaign funds to get out their messages.

The race will be close because Kentucky is “Republican in attitude,” Briscoe said, noting that Republicans hold both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats and four of six U.S. House seats.

Expect to see the entire federal Republican delegation campaign for Williams, Briscoe said.

The race may see $15 million to $20 million spent, Briscoe said, noting that various groups will be interested in it since it is one of only four governor races in the nation this fall.

UPDATE: A Washington Republican watching this race closely tells me, “Kentucky’s employment rate is the sixth-worst in the nation and worse than all its neighbors, including hard-hit Ohio. Last month it was tied with Michigan. Worst of all, Kentucky doesn’t seem to be recovering at the pace of its neighboring states. Beshear has some strong ties to Obama – strong proponent of the stimulus, supported Obamacare and has even sided with Obama on some regulation of coal and energy production, all of which can be tied back to jobs and pocketbook issues.”

Is this race is comparable to the 2009 off-year gubernatorial races? The New Jersey race also featured a Democrat incumbent, but incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine entered his reelection campaign widely disliked on a scale that just doesn’t apply to Beshear. However, Bob McDonnell did manage to ride an anti-Washington, anti-tax, anti-spending mood to his big win over Creigh Deeds, so there may be some parallels there…