By Jim Carroll
The Courier-Journal
The re-election campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is turning out ads almost as fast as the bonbons in Lucille Ball's famous chocolate factory skit.
The Kentucky Republican last week hit the television airwaves with six ads, each specially crafted for the market in which it was running.
The ads went on the air in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Owensboro and Paducah.
In the four latter cities, he reminds viewers that he is building on the legacy of Alben Barkley.
In Bowling Green, the ad mentions McConnell's work in getting $50 million in federal spending for the Western Kentucky region.
In Hopkinsville, near Fort Campbell, it's McConnell's aid in helping equip the nation's soldiers and providing for their care.
In Owensboro, it's $50 million he brought in for riverfront and economic development.
In Paducah, the focus is McConnell's securing of $1 billion in cleanup money and worker protection at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and $20 million for the city's economic development.
In Louisville, the Senate GOP leader's ad centers on his efforts in getting $38 million for 21st Century Parks. The ad features David Jones, founder of Humana Inc. and 21st Century Parks, praising McConnell. The ad quotes from a Courier-Journal editorial dubbing McConnell a "godfather of green."
And in Lexington, the senator's fight to destroy the chemical and biological weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot wins kudos from Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, based in Berea, Ky.
"Without Sen. McConnell's leadership," Williams says in the ad, "I don't know where we would be on this issue."
The Louisville ad has drawn fire from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which gleefully agreed that McConnell was the "godfather of green," but only in the sense of his taking campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry.
Reporter James R. Carroll can be reached at (202) 906-8141.