Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway are tied in their Kentucky Senate race, 43-43, according to a new PPP poll. Kentucky is currently held by retiring Republican Jim Bunning, making this Senate race, along with Missouri, New Hampshire and North Carolina, one of the Democrats’ best hopes for going on the offensive in 2010. [...]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is the big man in Republican Kentucky politics. McConnell had decided early in this election cycle he did not want Jim Bunning (R-KY) to run for re-election, and so put strong pressure on Bunning to drop his re-election campaign. Eventually Bunning relented and McConnell thought he had cleared the way [...]