Matt Gunterman August 27th, 2007

Ryan Alessi over at the Herald-Leader’s PolWatcher’s blog, has this fantastic installment on the rather juicy connection between former Republican gubernatorial candidate and potential primary opponent to Senator Mitch McConnell (R) and Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D).

In short, they’re law school buddies, but don’t think this association would necessarily hurt Forgy in a Kentucky GOP race. The key is to understand how hated Mitch McConnell is in substantial factions of the Kentucky GOP (he’s very hated). In a primary election where turnout among McConnell Republicans might be suppressed because their man is the embodiment of everything about their party that turns their stomach these days and Forgy loyalists who hate McConnell with a passion and will turnout if for no other reason to cause McConnell trouble, it will be an interesting election.

An odd couple?

The prospect of a Republican primary next year between U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell — the Republican leader in the Senate — and former gubernatorial candidate Larry Forgy continues to capture the imagination of Kentucky political observers and has sparked any number of conspiracy theories.

Perhaps the most far-reaching game of connect-the-dots leads to the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, who is an old law school buddy of Forgy.

Forgy has been rumbling all summer about potentially challenging McConnell, and last week he lobbed criticism at McConnell in a Washington Times article.

Forgy says his interest has nothing to do with his longtime friendship with Reid.

Forgy and Reid’s relationship dates to their time at George Washington University law school together in the 1960s. Reid graduated in 1964, while Forgy, who took a semester off to campaign for Kentucky U.S. Sen. Thurston Morton, got his degree in ‘65.

“Harry and I both worked our way through law school,” Forgy said. Both served in the U.S. Capitol security detail, working 4 p.m. to midnight.

“We were very close,” Forgy said.

Later, Forgy’s son, John, worked in Reid’s U.S. Senate office in Washington while attending the University of Georgetown.

And Forgy wrote a $1,000 check to Reid’s re-election campaign in 1998 — the same year McConnell served as chairman of the National Senatorial Campaign Committee that was trying to beat Reid and other Democrats. Reid ended up beating Republican U.S. Rep. John Ensign by about 500 votes that year.

The only other federal candidate in the last decade to whom Forgy has contributed was his sister, state Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr of Lexington, who ran for Congress in 2004. Ironically, it was McConnell’s key staff members — chief of staff Billy Piper and press secretary Julie Adams — who took time away from Washington to run that campaign.

Reid’s office declined to comment.

Forgy maintains that his frustration with McConnell stems from the senator’s reluctance to endorse Fletcher during the GOP primary and unwillingness last week to echo Fletcher’s opposition to casino gambling, which is the main message of the governor’s re-election campaign.

“The reason I have strong feelings about Sen. McConnell is the way he’s treated Gov. Fletcher. It’s that simple. If he helps Gov. Fletcher in this campaign and doesn’t sit down on him over there in Louisville, then he doesn’t have a problem with me,” Forgy said.

“Harry Reid has nothing to do with this,” he added.

McConnell has remained mum on Forgy.

But he is in the middle of a weeklong fund-raising circuit on Fletcher’s behalf that includes a Louisville fund-raiser last Thursday and events in Owensboro tonight and Lexington on Tuesday.

- Ryan Alessi

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Minimum Wage
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