WASHINGTON — Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's big election isn't the one on Nov. 5, when, according to polls and pundits, he will comfortably win his fourth Senate term.

The big one is Nov. 18. That's when Mr. McConnell tries to become the No. 2 Republican in the Senate: assistant leader, also known as whip.

McConnell

And to get that job, Mr. McConnell — known nationally for his fight against a campaign finance reform bill passed in March — is using what another senator once called a politician's best friend: ready money.

In the past decade, Mr. McConnell has doled out more than $900,000 to fellow Republican senators, candidates, and the party itself, according to an Enquirer analysis.

“I'm overwhelmed. That's a lot of money. Wow,” said Larry Higdon, chairman of the Cincinnati branch of Common Cause, which fights to reduce the influence of money in politics.

Most of Mr. McConnell's donating has been through a special fund he created in 1989 called the Bluegrass Committee, an increasingly common type of fund known in Washington as a leadership political action committee.

Those funds are used to raise money not for the politician himself but for other candidates. The goal: to get or keep the politician's party in the majority — and move up in the leadership.

“That gives him some chits he can cash in, obviously, in a leadership contest,” said Dennis O'Keefe, an associate professor of political science at Northern Kentucky University.

Mr. McConnell declined to discuss the race for whip, which some senators say he already has won, or what it might mean for Kentucky.

“Senator McConnell is focused on one race, and that's the one on November 5. Any speculation on what may occur after November 5, we'll address after that date,” said his spokesman, Robert Steurer.

Next month, Mr. McConnell faces Democrat Lois Combs Weinberg, daughter of former Gov. Bert Combs.

A variety of recent polls show him leading her by 20 to 30 percentage points. Virtually every political expert in Washington classifies the race as a shoo-in.

Mr. McConnell launched his campaign for whip in the summer of 2001, according to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Unlike political races, the intraparty races for leadership positions are fought quietly with discreet one-on-one conversations.

GOP members of the Senate will elect their whip and leaders after the election. The whip's job is to count votes and make sure Republicans vote the party line. If Mr. McConnell wins, he will be one step behind the Republican leader, Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, who is not facing any challenge.

Mr. McConnell, who ran the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 1997 to 2001, not only is a defender of “soft money,” the largely unregulated donations to political parties, he's a practitioner.

His Bluegrass Committee has given at least $320,000 since 1997 in soft money to the senatorial committee, which helps elect GOP senators. The state party got another $28,000. On top of that, his Bluegrass Committee has handed out $441,000 to candidates. And his own re-election committee, the McConnell Senate Committee, has added another $120,000.

So far this election cycle, the conservative Mr. McConnell has helped out virtually every Republican senator or candidate, including moderates such as Maine's Sen. Susan Collins and candidate Norm Coleman in Minnesota.

And that money makes a difference in an internal party race, according to senators, some of whom already have announced their support for Mr. McConnell in the whip race and others who wouldn't say.

“It shows you're willing to help,” said Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican who will back Mr. McConnell. “It's not that you're buying a vote. It's showing that you'll use your leadership and position to help the team.”

Mr. McConnell's willingness to do the hard work of fund raising — making calls, hosting events, buying mailing lists — and then sharing the proceeds has endeared him to fellow Republicans.

“It does help when you have a leader who can go out and campaign and raise money,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican who said she would support Mr. McConnell. “He's been very successful and proven.”

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who is facing one of the toughest re-election campaigns in the country, said the $10,000 in Bluegrass Committee donations was helpful, but so were donations from just about every other Republican.

Leadership PACs are an increasingly important source of money for politicians, whose races get more expensive every cycle. A campaign for a Senate seat cost, on average, $7.4 million in 2000. A successful House campaign cost around $850,000, according to the Campaign Finance Institute.

Both of Ohio's senators as well as Reps. John Boehner and Rob Portman run leadership PACs. In fact, Mr. Boehner's Freedom Project fund is one of 21 that raised more than $1 million each during the 2002 election cycle.

The money is not the only factor in a politician's rise. Neither Ms. Hutchison nor Mr. Ensign cited the contribution as the reason for their vote, citing instead the Kentucky senator's knowledge of the Senate and its rules, his intelligence, and what Mr. Ensign called his “little bit of pit bull.”

Mr. McConnell's opponent is Idaho Sen. Larry Craig. His leadership PAC has given out only about a third of what Mr. McConnell has in this election cycle.

Mr. Craig has not conceded, said his spokesman, Will Hart.

Most senators interviewed said they expect Mr. McConnell to win. Whether that will mean anything for Northern Kentucky residents is debatable. Mr. McConnell already has considerable clout as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and as the top Republican on the Senate Rules Committee.

Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore said Mr. McConnell's ascension should make it easier for the county to get help for transportation or environmental projects.

“We send a lot of taxpayer dollars to Washington,” said Mr. Moore, a Republican. “To have someone of that stature in Washington would be a tremendous asset so that we can focus on returning those tax dollars that are paid back to the region.”

As Billy Joe Miles, an Owensboro farm supply executive and Bluegrass Committee donor, put it: “I look at Congress and (spending) like a big pie party. He's gonna be able to get Kentucky a bigger piece of pie.”

Critics like Bill Allison, a spokesman for the watchdog Center for Public Integrity, worry that leadership PACs

provide a way for special interests to funnel more money to politicians.

The Bluegrass Committee's finance director, Scott Douglas, wouldn't talk about where the committee's money comes from, beyond reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Company political funds can donate $10,000 per election cycle to a leadership PAC, but only $2,000 to a regular re-election fund.

As Mr. Allison explained: “It buys these individuals more access to a person who is, after all, a very powerful member of Congress — first among equals. Or second among equals.”

E-mail cweiser@gns.gannett.com

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