After quitting the White House race in February, the first-term Republican senator returned to Kentucky, where he’s raised $3.1 million in a separate re-election campaign to beat Democratic challenger Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington.
Campaign spokeswoman Kelsey Cooper told the Lexington newspaper that everyone will be paid in full, but declined to give a timetable. “Closing down campaigns takes time, as evidenced by other presidential campaigns that are at similar stages of doing so,” Cooper said.
In its story, the newspaper noted that Paul, 53, called debt “the greatest threat to our national security” during one of the Republican White House debates. And on his Senate campaign website, Paul says: “When I talk with people across Kentucky and the United States, the most common top concern for our country is our ballooning federal debt.”
The spirits giant Brown-Forman depends on the U.K. for 10% of its annual sales, and the rest of Europe for another 21% — making Britain’s surprise vote to quit the E.U. especially meaningful last month. Brexit also recalled Brown-Forman’s familial ties to the Kingdom through the techie U.S. ambassador Matthew Barzun.
“Well, it’s been a big day,” he Tweeted the day after the June 23 referendum, “and as @POTUS says, our unmatched & unbreakable #SpecialRelationship will endure.”
Barzun, 45, a part-year Louisville resident, is a former technology entrepreneur from the Internet’s early days, becoming only the fourth employee of CNET Networks in 1993. He worked there until 2004 in roles including chief strategy officer and executive vice president, according to his State Department biography.
Barzun has been married to Brown-Forman heiress Brooke Brown Barzun since 1999. Her father was the late Brown-Forman CEO Owsley Brown II, and her mother is Owsley’s widow, the philanthropist Christy Brown.
A fifth-generation Brown
The company is one of Louisville’s most storied businesses. It was founded by Brooke’s great-great grandfather George Garvin Brown in 1870. The distiller employs 1,300 workers in the city and another 3,300 worldwide, where the company distributes Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia vodka and other marquee brands in about 160 countries. Tomorrow, shareholders will hold their annual meeting at the Dixie Highway headquarters; three board members up for re-election also are fifth-generation members of the family controlling the nearly 150-year-old distiller.
The Barzuns’ rarefied social and political connections were on full display in November 2013, when the couple rode in a gilded, horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace to present his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II; photo, top, and in this video:
Republican Donald Trump’s $75,387 from individual Kentucky donors in June slipped past Democrat Hillary Clinton’s $73,153 in the White House race. That was a big switch for the billionaire businessman, whose skimpy Kentucky fundraising had trailed all other major Republican candidates, according to WFPL.
That trend could shift because candidates typically get a bump after a convention, University of Kentucky political science professor Donald Gross told the station. In Trump’s case, it also could mean Republicans are feeling more confident about their nominee: “If you think he has a chance to win, you start freeing up your money.”
The GOP convention ended Friday. The Democrats’ meeting started today and ends Thursday with (presumably) Clinton’s acceptance speech.
Despite June’s reversal, Clinton remains way ahead in total receipts. In the current election cycle, she’s raised $783,000 vs. $130,049, according to the Federal Election Commission. (How to look up data.)
Louisville leads
For both candidates, the most lucrative areas have been Louisville, based on Zip Codes of donors. For privacy reasons, the FEC breaks down receipts only by three-digit Zip Codes. Here are the dollar amounts for 402:
Clinton: $279,900
Trump: $24,852
Clinton’s second most-fertile ground was Zip 410, the Covington area, where she picked up $150,349. Trump’s was 405, Lexington, where he got $23,948.
Find every donor to Clinton and Trump
In sheer numbers, Clinton’s received money from more than 17 times as many Kentuckians as has Trump, through June 30. Boulevard has just compiled spreadsheets showing the names of every donor to both candidates: Clinton’s 6,521 vs. Trump’s 377.
David Jones Sr.‘s contribution is on top of the $200,000 he gave to Kentuckians for Strong Leadership last September, and $125,000 he gave in February 2014 — a total $575,000, according to new Federal Election Commission records.
The super PAC was created three years ago by allies of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell to help Kentucky’s senior senator win re-election in 2014, according to The Courier-Journal.
Trump
With McConnell’s win in November 2014, the PAC’s priority is now helping Republicans capture a majority in the Kentucky House of Representatives this fall. If they succeed, Kentucky would be the last state government in the south to fall completely under GOP control.
Jones’ most recent donation came May 13, according to the PAC’s second-quarter report, and formed the bulk of the $290,000 receipts for the period. Since it was launched, the PAC has raised at least $8.3 million from 164 donors, according to FEC records. It had $5.5 million on hand at the end of the quarter.
McNair
High-profile PAC donors include Donald Trump, the newly nominated GOP candidate for the White House; he gave $60,000 in October 2014 and May 2013. But Jones has been most generous, with his total $575,000 more than any other single donor, according to a Boulevard analysis of FEC records. Another top donor was Robert McNair of Houston, who gave $500,000 in September 2014; he’s founder and CEO of the NFL’s Houston Texans. And here are four more:
Lawrence F. DeGeorge of Jupiter, Fla., $500,000 in two donations, in July 2014 and November 2013. He lists his employer as venture capital firm LPL Investment Group
Christine Chao of New York, $400,000 in September 2014; she lists her occupation as self-employed. (McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, has a sister named Christine, but it’s unclear whether they two women are one in the same. Through the wealthy Chao family, McConnell is one of the richest U.S. senators, with as much as $43 million)
Murray Energy Corp. of St. Clarksville, Ohio, $300,000, also in September 2014. The coal producer announced earlier this month that it may lay off up to 4,400 coal miners by September in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Utah and Pennsylvania
Overall, the Kentucky Republican Party raised $209,000 in June, and spent $105,000, giving it $1.6 million in the bank, according to its FEC report for the month.
The Kentucky Democratic Party didn’t do nearly as well. The state Democratic Central Executive Committee took in only $68,000 during the month and spent $102,000, leaving just $72,651 on hand.
The shift comes amid the ongoing fight over so-called right-to-work policies, according to a new WFPL story. “Until last week,” correspondent Ryland Barton says, “unions (usually anti-right-to-work) were allowed to make donations to candidates and political action committees, while corporations that support right-to-work were barred from doing so.”
Corporations and unions will now be allowed to donate to political action committees, but not directly to candidates. The change came after the Florida non-profit Protect My Check filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court arguing that state law unfairly favored unions. Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove largely sided with the non-profit March 31.
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