National Dems run ads in Ky. hitting Rand Paul on Medicare, Paul ad uses Obama impersonator

Rand Paul, national Democrats escalate ad war

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Fresh television advertising in the Kentucky Senate race began airing Tuesday as national Democrats swooped in to aid Jack Conway while Republican Rand Paul’s latest commercial uses the voice of a Barack Obama impersonator.

The ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee depicts Paul as an outsider who doesn’t understand Kentucky while it continues the assault on comments he once made mentioning a $2,000 Medicare deductible.

“What can $2,000 get you?” the announcer says. “Tickets to the Steelers — where Rand Paul was born. In Texas, where Rand Paul grew up, $2,000 gets you into a private Rand Paul fundraiser.”

Paul, a Bowling Green eye doctor, moved to Kentucky about 20 years ago. Conway is a Louisville native.

Paul is using the airwaves to fight back with a new ad based on one of his favorite attack lines — that Conway is a political clone of Obama. In the Paul ad, the Obama impersonator says of Conway: “Now there’s a guy I can work with in Washington.”

The back-and-forth sniping comes as national groups backing Paul, a tea party favorite and the son of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, have for weeks been running ads that pound Conway. He has been targeted by Washington-based American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for supporting the health-care overhaul law championed by Obama.

Neither the DSCC nor the Paul campaign would reveal how much is being spent on its respective ads.

The Medicare deductible issue has become a favorite of the Democrats, who began using it recently in an ad referencing videotaped comments that Paul made in June 2009 that can be found on YouTube. Speaking to a group in Lexington, Paul said: “You have to pay for things if you want prices to come down. So you really need higher deductibles. And the real answer to Medicare would be a $2,000 deductible, but try selling that one in an election.”

Paul last week denounced the ad as “politics at its lowest form.” He said he doesn’t favor a $2,000 Medicare deductible, though he referred to it during a political meeting about 15 months ago to make the point that recipients need to share in the costs of the health care program for seniors, which faces looming shortfalls.

Conway and Paul are competing to replace GOP Sen. Jim Bunning, who is retiring after two terms.