The fickle finger of polls

According to the National Review Blog Ashley Judd has fallen out of favor with Kentucky democrats to oppose Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.    In December, she was the darling of the pollsters.  USA Today announced with some fanfare that she was the number one pick.   Judd has an MPA from Harvard.  (For many that might be a disqualifying credential to work in the Senate.)   The Democratic Senatorial Committee is said to be applying the brakes to the Judd campaign thinking they might have a chance to unseat the Minority Leader with a more conventional candidate.   She was a member of the Tennessee delegation to the Democratic Convention in 2012 and that might pose some problems for her as a candidate in Kentucky but she has legitimate Kentucky roots.  The Rove PAC has already run an add to that effect.   Judd can be seen at UK basketball games and she does have some ties to the state.

A few days ago Huffpost said Judd denied the story of a candidacy which would be announced around the time of the Kentucky Derby “I am not sure who is saying this stuff, but it is not I! I’d prefer as a fan of your journalism that you stay accurate and credible. We told everyone who called us yesterday these stories are fabrications.”

Perhaps it is her stridency at one point she said she was not going to have children because "It's unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries."   As Salon pointed out of the 24 Senate incumbents that have been defeated since 2000 none of the races offer much hope to such a outspoken liberal activist.   Kentucky is a red state, and while McConnell is not exactly beloved he does have a track record without the baggage that many of the defeated senators had going into their elections.   Having lived through a celebrity governorship in California and watched Al Franken stumble his way through the Senate, I am also not sure she would add anything that the Senate needs except another middle aged publicity seeker.