http://osispeaks.blogspot.com

Osi,

The events of yesterday illustrate what we can expect for the remaining months of this election year. Washington Liberals will try to rally left-wing partisans around their hand-picked multi-millionaire candidate, Bruce Lunsford, to try to defeat me this fall.

In case you haven’t seen the news coverage already, my opponent trumpeted the results of a bogus poll that showed him leading me by 5 points in this race.

Immediately the poll in question was called “delusional” by one noted political commentator, Stu Rothenberg. “It’s not only silly, it’s stupid,” he went on to say. And he wasn’t alone. The poll was also panned by Jennifer Duffy of the respected Cook Political Report who said, “I pay almost no attention to Rasmussen polls. The methodology is really flawed, and they have a terrible track record.”

Regardless of the merits of these cooked-up poll numbers, I hope the determination demonstrated by my opposition will serve to motivate you and others to sign up now to help me win this race.

I expected they would try to generate some sort of “bounce” out of Lunsford’s primary win (even though more than 300,000 Kentucky Democrats cast their ballots against Lunsford), so I had my own survey done by my long-time and widely respected pollster, Jan van Lohuizen. Our survey was conducted in the two days following the primary and shows me with a healthy 11-point lead. You can read the full report Jan prepared for me here.

That being said, everyone understands that the political environment nationally is very challenging. That’s why our campaign has been on television for months reminding voters about all we’ve been able to accomplish for Kentucky. And that’s why I started the general election campaign the day after the primary talking about what we need to accomplish in the future and challenging Bruce Lunsford to take a position on issues like the Senate majority’s budget that is the largest ever considered in Congress. In typical fashion, we were reminded yet again that for Bruce, this campaign is not about substantive discussion of important issues, but instead for him it is about name-calling and personal attacks. Kentuckians deserve better.

One of the critical issues facing our country and punishing our pocketbooks is the high cost of energy. In the Senate, I offered a plan that would allow more domestic energy production to bring prices down, but so far that plan has been blocked by the liberal majority. As you know, it will take a multi-faceted effort to tackle this problem. Congress must act now to allow conservation, innovation and exploration measures to go into effect as soon as possible. The McConnell Plan does just that.

I’ve launched a petition where you can register your support for legislation that provides an action plan for reducing our dependence on foreign oil. My plan champions innovative clean coal technology that is important to Kentucky’s economy, encourages more energy exploration and production in the U.S., and promotes additional conservation measures to take a comprehensive approach to lowering prices.

I need your help to prepare for the battle ahead. Now is the time to get involved in this campaign. There are many ways to get involved, and there are ways you can help me that don’t require much of your time. Please click here now to learn more.

Thank you for your encouragement and support. With your help, we will win this fall and together there is much we can accomplish for Kentucky and the nation.

Sincerely,