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Opinion: Jack Conway hopes to profit from Kentucky Stomp in new anti-Rand Paul TV ad

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Rand Paul probably thought the whole Aqua Buddha controversy was the biggest hurdle his campaign would have to contend with in his quest to become the next senator from Kentucky. The GOP nominee was repeatedly grilled by his rival, Democrat Jack Conway, in a debate this month about a GQ article that claimed that Paul, while in college, kidnapped a fellow student and forced her to pray to ‘The Aqua Buddha’. Conway’s persistence flustered the Republican such that Paul refused to shake his opponent’s hand at the conclusion of the meeting, and Talking Points Memo dubbed it ‘The Nastiest Debate of 2010.’

Before the follow-up debate on Monday, Paul’s Bourbon County coordinator Tim Profitt overreacted to a 23-year-old MoveOn.org employee who was attempting to take a photo with the candidate. After the woman, Lauren Valle, was pushed to the ground by some Paul supporters, Profitt appeared to keep her down by stomping on her shoulders and head.

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The violent video went viral. Profitt, who has since been dismissed from his volunteer position, was slapped with an assault charge; Valle received a headache; and Paul’s campaign was seriously bruised. And now the Kentucky Democratic Party has a low-cost commercial ominously tying together Paul’s campaign promises with his former coordinator’s infamous stomp.

The Kentucky Democrats plan to start airing ‘The Rand Paul Stomp’ on Friday night, less than four days before the election.

‘It’s a scary ad, but it’s reflective of what actually happened,’ Matt Erwin, communications director for the state Democratic Party, told Politico on Thursday. ‘It’s a story that needs to be spread.’
The last negative ad aimed at Paul, focusing on the Aqua Buddha controversy, apparently backfired. Before that ad aired, the nominees were in a dead heat. Afterward, Conway fell by 13 points, according to a poll released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling.

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

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