Mitch McConnell

Senate Election

In 1984, McConnell ran against incumbent Sen. Walter Huddleston (D-Ky.), trying to become the first Republican to win statewide office in Kentucky since 1968. He ran a famous series of ads showing bloodhounds sniffing around the state looking for the senator, mocking Huddleston for missing votes. McConnell won by four-tenths of a percentage point.http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...106/809280384/

He was the only Republican challenger to beat a Democratic incumbent that year. McConnell was then reelected three times by a wider margin in every contest. But his fourth reelection campaign in 2008 proved more difficult. In a hard year for Republicans, McConnell was seriously challenged by wealthy businessman Bruce Lunsford (D),http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us...gewanted=print and won with just 51 percent of the vote.

Leadership Role

After initially serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, McConnell switched to the Senate Appropriations Committee and served as chairman or ranking member on its Foreign Operations subcommittee.

McConnell ran for chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s fundraising arm, in 1990 and 1992, but lost to then-Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) both times, but by just one vote in 1992. McConnell finally won the post in 1996, and oversaw two relatively unsuccessful elections for Senate Republicans. After failing to capture any Senate seats in 1998, Republicans lost four seats in 2000 and ceded the majority after Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) left the party in May 2001.

Since coming to Washington, McConnell has helped swing Kentucky in favor of the Republican Party, successfully backing two Republican challengers to House incumbents and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) in his 1998 and 2004 campaigns. Kentucky has also voted for the Republican presidential candidate since 2000.

McConnell chaired the Senate Rules Committee from 1999 until 2002, when he campaigned for the position of majority whip against then-Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho). When then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) retired in 2006, McConnell had already built a large amount of support for the race. He thought he was running for Senate majority leader, but when Republicans lost the majority in 2006, he set his sights on the chamber’s number-two job as minority leader. Again, he ran unopposed and won.Biographical and career data taken from Almanac of American Politics, 2008 edition, and McConnell’s official web site

Iraq

The minority leader is a strong supporter of the war in Iraq. He supported giving George W. Bush the authority to wage the war in 2002, backed the 2007 troop surge and has consistently blocked measures to rescind the president’s authority to use force. "If the Senate doesn't support the mission in Iraq, it has only one option, and that's to decide whether or not to fund that mission," McConnell said.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...022301772.html

He has also continued to push measures that would fund the war without setting a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops, calling a timeline a “surrender deadline.”“McConnell sure of Bush war-deadline veto,” Lexington Herald-Leader, March 27, 2007

Campaign Finance

McConnell considers himself a “First Amendment hawk.” In 2006, he opposed his party and voted against a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, saying it was a violation of freedom of speech. The amendment failed by one vote.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062701056.html He also fought against the rewriting of campaign finance laws because of free speech objections. For 15 years, McConnell fought campaign finance reform, filibustering proposed reforms more than 20 times. After the McCain-Feingold bill was enacted in 2002, he assembled a team to fight the law in the Supreme Court and lost.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...&notFound=true

McConnell’s has been criticized for vigorously fighting reform because he is one of the most prolific fundraisers in Washington and Kentucky. In March 2007, he held a $2.1 million fundraising dinner with President Bush, the largest political fundraiser in the state’s history.Jospeh Gerth, “The President’s Visit; Bush defends Iraq policy,” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), March 3, 2007 But McConnell defends his views as principled. "I think freedom of political speech is the most important speech guaranteed by the First Amendment," McConnell argues.Nancy Zuckerbrod, “McConnell reflects on campaign finance battle, will press ahead,” The Associate Press, April 6, 2001

The Economy

When the $700 billion bank bailout bill failed to pass the House the first time in October 2008, McConnell teamed with his counterpart on the Democratic side, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), to craft a deal. They attached the bailout to an unrelated $100 billion package of tax-credit extensions and shepherded the bill through the Senate. House Republicans and Democrats both signed onto the new version of the bill and it passed comfortably. “This is one of the finer moments in the Senate," McConnell said.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...litics/fedpage

Health-Care Reform

After President Obama made overhauling the nation's health system a top priority, McConnell became a leader in promoting a more conservative health-care reform plan.

Like many Republicans, McConnell acknowledged the need for reform, but opposed the government-run health insurance option favored by Democrats. "Americans suspect that what's being sold as a government 'option' would soon become the only option," he said from the Senate floor in June 2009.Press Release: "Healthcare: Reform, Not Denial and Delay," Sen. Mitch McConnell's Office, June 1, 2009

McConnell also proposed putting limits on comparative effectiveness research, which he feared could be used to ration treatments.  McConnell joined Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) to introduce the Preserving Access to Targeted, Individualized and Effective New Treatments and Services (PATIENTS) Act of 2009, to forbid the government from dictating the types of treatments doctors could offer patients.Allen, Mike, "CBO estimates due out today as Obama tries to charm skeptical AMA -- Senate Rs plan 'anti-rationing' bill -- TNR comes out swinging for public plan," Politico Pulse, June 15, 2009