Lunsford praises Fischer, targets McConnell in victory speech

Democratic Senate nominee Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville): Politicker photo

LOUISVILLE -- After topping a seven-candidate field in a contentious Democratic primary race, Louisville businessman Bruce Lunsford reached out to his most outspoken Democratic opponent and looked forward to what should be a heated general election bid against incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) in his victory speech tonight.

"I'm going to run against someone in November who is going to spend millions of dollars trying to destroy my reputation," said Lunsford of McConnell. "He's going to say a lot of things about me and he is going to call me a lot of names. But, I don't care how many names he is going to call me, because in February he is going to call me ‘Senator.'"

Lunsford was effusive in his praise of the labor unions that supported him in his primary effort, and took a portion of his speech tonight to name each one individually to the cheers of members in the crowd.

The message from Lunsford this evening was one of proposed unity among those who seek to unseat McConnell, the four-term incumbent Senate Minority leader. McConnell is a particularly disliked figure with many Democrats due to his role as chief lieutenant of President George W. Bush and his role as a GOP leader who actively halts many Democratic policy initiatves via filibusters, real or threatened.

"This is not one persons fight, this is not one party's fight," said Lunsford. "This is everybody's fight, and its time we really brought people who are non partisan who can reach across the aisle and get things done because the American public has lost its patience and they want something down now - right now."

The Democratic primary was marked by a good deal of in-fighting between Lunsford and his principal opponent, Louisville businessman Greg Fischer. Fischer and Lunsford each lobbed attacks at each other, ranging from allegations of business impropriety to hypocrisy.

Tonight, Lunsford noted he had received a call from Fischer in which his former opponent offered his support of Lunsford's forthcoming campaign.

Lunsford also connected himself with Fischer in his speech. Lunsford said he had learned from "mistakes" in past elections - "mistakes" highlighted by Fischer in this campaign, such as Lunsford's 2003 endorsement of Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ernie Fletcher - yet he said Fischer could learn from his losing effort this year in possible future campaigns.

"He has a great future and I'm really glad the Democratic Party of Kentuckyy is beginning to attract people like Greg Fischer to run," said Lunsford.

"And believe me, in his next campaign he will be much better," Lunsford continued. "[L]ike me having been a rookie my first time, I know that he will learn from every mistake he made and, like me, he may make some new ones, but he won't make old ones, so we should all be encouraging Greg to keep him in this party."

The Lunsford campaign will now gear up for what Lunsford called a five-month "ground war" against McConnell. The fight will be a visible one, if nothing else, given Lunsford's own personal fortunes and McConnell's own $7 million-plus campaign warchest.