BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL - Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell certainly didn't waste any time after this month's elections hitting up donors for campaign contributions.
In a letter dated Nov. 4 - a day after the busiest election in state history - Mr. McConnell invited potential contributors to a Nov. 30 breakfast featuring U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft, a Missouri Republican with presidential aspirations.
"A fixture of every pundit's short list for the 2000 presidential race, Sen. Ashcroft is an emerging force on the national political scene," Mr. McConnell wrote in the letter, which the Enquirer obtained from a Northern Kentuckian invited to the breakfast. For $125, donors get to have breakfast with two U.S. senators. And Mr. McConnell gets to put some money into his campaign war chest, even though he isn't up for re-election until 2002.
Donors, political party leaders and local campaign strategists don't begrudge Mr. McConnell for sending out a fund-raising letter just one day after this year's elections. Nor are they surprised. They say it underscores a political reality that candidates have to almost continually raise money, or at least be putting fund-raising strategies together, to remain competitive and viable for the next election.
"The fund-raising is constant," said Barb Haas of Fort Thomas, a Republican Party strategist who worked on state Rep. Katie Stine's, R-Fort Thomas, election to the state Senate earlier this month. "Within weeks of the election we just had people will have to start raising money for the next campaign. They have to, or they'll never be able to afford even some of the local races."
Mrs. Haas and her husband, Joe, find themselves on both sides of campaign fund-raising. Not only does she help candidates raise money, candidates continually ask her and her husband for contributions.
"I don't expect to get something from the people I give money to," Mrs. Haas said. "I give to the people who are most in line with my views. And I think that's what motivates most people to give to a candidate."
Mr. McConnell will likely have to spend $5 million to $6 million, if not more, when he runs for re-election. As head of the Republican Senate campaign committee, Mr. McConnell spent much of past two years raising almost $60 million to elect GOP candidates to the Senate. So he hasn't been doing much fund-raising for himself. U.S. Rep. Jim Bunning, a Southgate Republican, raised and spent about $3 million for his Nov. 3 victory over Democrat Scotty Baesler in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race.
Democrat Ken Lucas spent about $1 million beating Republican Gex "Jay" Williams in Northern Kentucky's 4th District U.S. House seat.
And the final campaign finance reports that are due the first week of December will likely show that some of the local county judge-executive candidates spent $50,000 or more on their races.
"When you're talking about that kind of money, you have to spend a lot of time raising money, whether you like it or not, and most politicians don't like it," said Terry Rasche, a Woodlawn Republican who lost a race this month for Campbell County Fiscal Court.
According to Kenton County Republican Party Chairman Greg Shumate, state Sen. Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, always told him he would basically raise money from one Election Day to the next.
"I think what's driving that is Kentucky is becoming a much more competitive state politically, and in Northern Kentucky we've really seen the emergence of a two-party system," said Mr. Shumate, noting Republicans now routinely run for, and often win, seats Democrats once dominated.
"Look at a race like the 4th District seat," Mr. Shumate said. "You can't possibly meet all the voters, so you need a lot of money to get your message out through advertising, mailers, signs, whatever." Money, however, is just one part of a winning strategy, Mr. Shumate and the others said.
"You need hard work. That's as important as raising money," Mr. Shumate said.
He pointed to Republican Adam Koenig, a little-known candidate for Kenton County commissioner who had difficulty raising money in his race against Democratic incumbent Steve Arlinghaus.
"But Adam worked hard," Mr. Shumate said. "He didn't have much money, but he was out there every night, knocking on doors and meeting people. The money is always important, but with our candidates this year the ones that worked the hardest won."
