The liberal super PAC Progress Kentucky has recently been exposed for mounting a racially tinged campaign in a series of tweets against Senator Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, the former secretary of labor under President George W. Bush:
In a Feb. 14 Twitter message, Progress says: “This woman has the ear of (Sen. McConnell)—she’s his wife. May explain why your job moved to China!”
Other messages from Progress’s social networking account about Chao have run for the past several days, saying her “Chinese (money)” is buying state elections. According to campaign finance records, members of Chao’s family donated $80,000 to the Kentucky GOP last year.
The super PAC has also posted vocal support of their criticism, one of which said “not many know McConnell’s wife is Chinese.”
Chris Morrison, a spokesman for Progress Kentucky, acknowledged that some of their tweets may “have crossed the line” and offended some Kentuckians, but he insisted that “it’s fair to question whether or not there’s a conflict of interest.”