Mitch McConnell Cuts His Own Campaign a $1.8 Million Check From His Personal Bank Account

By Manu Raju, Politico

25 October 14

enate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to counter the influx of Democratic spending aimed at defeating him by writing a big personal check.

The Republican leader is loaning his campaign $1.8 million out of his own bank account, exceeding a $1.5 million investment by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Senate Majority PAC to bolster the prospects of Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.

A McConnell campaign official told POLITICO Friday that his boss is making the donation because he has long said that the National Republican Senatorial Committee should spend money in other hotly contested races — not his own.

“Sen. McConnell has maintained a longstanding personal commitment to his members that he won’t draw any resources from the team,” said John Ashbrook, McConnell’s spokesman. “So he’s going to match Obama’s money men out of his own pocket.”

The move does not suggest that the McConnell campaign is short of money, officials said. In campaign finance reports filed last week, McConnell reported $5.2 million in cash in his account. But the move is also not out of character for the senator, whose minimum net worth was estimated by the Center for Responsive Politics to be $9.2 million in 2012. In 2008, McConnell secured a $1.8 million loan in the final days of his campaign before his 6-point victory against businessman Bruce Lunsford.

Democrats are more upbeat about their prospects in Kentucky after a Survey USA poll earlier this week showed the GOP leader up just 1 point. As a result of favorable polling, DSCC officials said this week they would spent $650,000 on the air in the final stretch of the campaign, after signaling earlier they would not increase their spending across the airwaves. Similarly, the Senate Majority PAC, a big-spending Democratic super PAC run by top Harry Reid advisers, plans to up its attacks on McConnell on TV to the tune of $850,000, according to media trackers.

(Full 2014 election results)

But the McConnell campaign argues that the Survey USA poll is inconsistent with other public polls that show the senator up by a larger margin, particularly among men. An internal GOP poll the McConnell campaign released this week asserted the Republican was leading by 8 points.