OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) - Aluminum worker Steven Petri just wants the politicians to help him keep his job.
The 39-year-old from Knottsville, Kentucky, was laid off for about a year while his company idled most of its workforce - all while a nearby business was buying cheaper aluminum from China. And he says Kentucky’s candidates for U.S. Senate aren’t addressing the problem.
As an undecided voter, Petri has watched Republican Rand Paul focus his attention on Hillary Clinton while Democrat Jim Gray attacks Paul for his failed presidential bid.
“Our plants are going overseas. I’d like them to do something to keep them here in the United States,” Petri said.
Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race has plodded along in the shadows of the presidential election, far from the national spotlight. Democrats believed they had a good chance to challenge Paul because he spent most of 2015 running for president, opening himself up to criticism that he was out of touch with Kentucky voters. Gray, the mayor of Lexington, has a strong business background. But he is attempting to become Kentucky’s first openly gay U.S. Senator in a state famous for a county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Neither narrative seems to have excited voters, who say they want to know what the candidates will do to preserve jobs and grow the economy.
Sam Bruntz, a retired environmental engineer, said the most important thing is electing someone who will “fight the establishment,” which is why he says he supports Paul.
“Democrats and establishment Republicans are all one big happy family. They all vote the same way,” he said. “Gray being mayor of a liberal city, I would be leery (of voting for him) based on that right there - more so than him being gay.”
While Steve Newcom said he wasn’t a fan of Paul’s presidential campaign, he said he evaluates candidates based on “the working class and the working man.” He said he can’t vote for Paul, who sponsored a “right-to-work” bill that would ban companies from requiring employees to join a labor union, a bill unions say would hurt their negotiating power.
“If for no other reason, he’ll lose my vote for that right there. I can’t vote for anybody that wants to lower people’s wages, and that’s what right-to-work would do,” he said.
Paul has run a disciplined Senate campaign, often refusing to engage Gray or even to mention his name. He has broken that streak lately with some TV ads criticizing Gray for his support of Hillary Clinton. He has attempted to link the issues of the national debt and national security, pledging to cut foreign aid.
“We send foreign aid to countries that hate us, that burn our flag and yell death to America,” he told a crowd in Owensboro. “I say not one penny more to these people who hate America.”
Paul touts his ability to bridge party lines, noting his work with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker on criminal justice reform and Sen. Barbara Boxer on allowing companies to bring overseas profits back into the country.
Gray wasn’t the Democrats’ first choice to take on Paul, but he has taken advantage of a weakened candidate following an expensive presidential campaign that never got much traction. Gray has raised more money than Paul since January, and he has loaned his campaign another $2 million. Records show Paul has about $500,000 more than Gray in the bank heading into the final stretch.
Gray has portrayed Paul as more concerned with his political ambitions than Kentucky’s problems, labeling him an “obstructionist” who refuses to compromise. And lately, he has criticized what he says are Paul’s “wild-ass philosophies,” a comment he made during a televised debate that he has since turned into a TV ad. He has made much of Paul’s membership in a Congress that Gray says has done little to shore up the nation’s infrastructure, create new jobs and look out for the interests of working people.
His most recent example is Paul’s opposition to a bill that would rescue pension and health benefits for about 13,000 retired union coal miners in Kentucky. The legislation has languished in the Senate.
“You cannot filibuster yourself to success,” Gray said in Owensboro. “There is no philosophy or there is no theory that is going to build you a bridge or a highway or a road. You’ve got to work together with people.”
Paul said he supports the concept of the miners’ bill, but wants provisions included that would reverse some of President Barack Obama’s energy policies, which he said have damaged the coal industry.
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