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IPFS News Link • Politics

Pressure grows on Paul to ditch presidential bid

• http://www.politico.com

Rand Paul is crowing about making the main stage at Thursday's Republican presidential primary debate, promising it'll be his best showing yet. But as Paul focuses on his national campaign, now he's got to deal with a major bummer on the home front: Deep-pocketed Democratic Lexington Mayor Jim Gray officially joined the race for Paul's Senate seat on Tuesday.

While there appears little risk that Paul could lose in Kentucky, an expensive home state contest could leach resources the GOP would like to spend elsewhere. The question is how much longer can he run a seemingly quixotic campaign for president when he's got a race at home?

Paul answered with a theatrical shrug and a "we'll see" in a brief interview Wednesday night but sounded positively sure that Gray is no threat. He touted returning $2 million to taxpayers from his Senate office, his focus on the budget and a voting attendance record far superior to those of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as reasons he'll easily triumph in Kentucky.

"President Obama is so unpopular … people are really suffering from what President Obama has done for the state," Paul said as he left a nomination vote. "I think voters of Kentucky will still support" me.

Republican strategists have been trying to pull Paul's attention back to Kentucky since the fall, when his chances of winning the GOP nomination began sagging amid heightened concerns over national security after terrorist attacks and his libertarian leanings fell out of step with the GOP electorate. Nationally and in Iowa, his poll numbers haven't cracked double digits since June, according to the RealClearPolitics poll tracker, and his campaign has become less about his big ideas and more about what debate stage he'd appear on.


 


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