The Herald-Leader reports on a conference call this morning with Senator Mitch McConnell and Kentucky reporters. The call followed yesterday’s primary elections in Kentucky. Multi-millionaire and perennial candidate Bruce Lunsford won the Democrat nomination.

"Kentuckians will decide this fall if they support the Lunsford-Obama-Beshear plan for America or not," McConnell said, lumping Lunsford with potential Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama -- who received 30 percent of Kentucky Democrats' votes -- and Gov. Steve Beshear, whose popularity rating is under 40 percent.

McConnell, the Senate's Republican leader, said he expects Lunsford to "run the most negative campaign Kentuckians have ever seen." McConnell said Greg Fischer, the second place finisher in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, "and my friend Ben Chandler are all too familiar with" Lunsford's attack ads. Chandler ran against Lunsford in the 2003 governor's race.

So McConnell offered three questions to Lunsford:

·         "How would he vote on the budget that we will be voting on either today or tomorrow here in the Senate?"

·         "How would he have voted on the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which he blames for the colossal failure and bankruptcy of his nursing home business? My assumption is that he would have voted with (former  Democratic U.S. Senator) Wendell Ford in opposing that."

·         "The third question I think he ought to respond to is how would he have voted on my amendment in the last two weeks to increase domestic energy production, which, by the way, failed in the Senate and received just one Democratic vote in support?"

You can read more from the call here.