Rand Paul Takes Center Stage At GOP Fundraiser

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Libertarian-leaning Republican senatorial candidate Rand Paul, who calls himself a political outsider, took center stage at a high-dollar fundraiser Thursday evening that highlighted his trip to Washington, D.C., to hobnob with insiders.

Rand Paul was the guest of honor at the event at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Tickets went for $1,000 per person, with sponsorships up to $5,000 per group.

By appearing at the fundraiser, Rand Paul seemed to back off a campaign promise to avoid GOP lawmakers who voted for the massive 2008 financial bailout. Nine of 12 GOP senators listed on the invitation voted for the $700 billion bank bailout.

During his visit to Washington, Rand Paul had a series of private meetings with a number of Republican senators. He also appeared at a small-dollar fundraiser at an Irish pub in Washington on Wednesday evening.

Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton estimated the crowd Thursday at a couple hundred, but did not have an estimate on the amount of campaign cash raised.

"I am told the room is full," Benton said in a statement.

In his remarks, Paul stuck to his main themes of balanced budgets, term limits and "adherence to the Constitution," Benton said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky hosted the fundraiser, though he backed Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the GOP primary.

McConnell predicted Paul would join him in the Senate after the November election, saying Paul's message of fiscal conservatism and limited government will catch on with voters.

"Rand's message of reining in outrageous Washington spending is resonating throughout Kentucky," McConnell said in a statement.

Paul, a Bowling Green eye doctor, is running against Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, a Democrat, for the seat of Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican who is retiring after two terms.

The event is part of a big fundraising push by Paul, who has three such events next week.

Paul is hoping to rake in another bonanza of cash on Monday through an online fundraising blitz organized by supporters. He also has fundraisers planned in Lexington and Louisville.

Both Paul and Conway are scrambling for cash before the current fundraising quarter wraps up at the end of June. Campaign-finance reports for the quarter will be scrutinized to see if either campaign has a fundraising edge that could give a burst of momentum.

Comments

[UmberLamp]

12:00 PM on 06/28/2010

The Tea Party 'movement' is an amazing phenomenon. The republican brand has become so toxic, even republicans want to get in on running against it!

[Low Prices are Good]

04:08 AM on 06/28/2010

god I hope this man runs for President some day.

[manoflamatzah]

04:34 PM on 06/27/2010

OK, this thread is dying. Let's have a little fun. Please provide the question asked to Dr. Rand to which he is responding. The winner will be rewarded complete and utter obscurity. I will start, "Dr. Paul, how many votes would you consider a good showing in your upcoming election?"

[grf67]

01:33 PM on 06/27/2010

Are the repubs really that desperate? The entire party has been captured by the teabaggers and boehner and mcconnell have been sent to the corner.

[ramsha]

09:53 PM on 06/26/2010

Libertarians, Tea partiers and Republicans are now joining together to raise funds. I am confused. Are they one and the same or is it a case of "Politicians like Con men can have strange bed fellows"

[ZeraLee]

08:38 AM on 06/27/2010

Libertarians are fiscal anarchists.
Republicans are power-hungry theocratic Libertarians.
Tea Partiers are political vigilantes who know what they are against, but not what they are for.

IMO

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

[ramsha]

07:10 PM on 06/27/2010

Thanks ZeraLee. You made it easy to understand. So none of them have the good of our nation in their mind.

[rgilley]

06:12 PM on 06/26/2010

Let's hope this racist county club republican isn't getting politically "savy."

[xxxooo]

06:10 PM on 06/26/2010

anti-establishment candidate joins the establishment for a fundraising dinner?

what a joke.

[Ojodelgato]

08:09 PM on 06/26/2010

Think about it, what other job can you get where having no qualifications is exactly the right qualification. "Send me to DC, I know NOTHING about politics or the way the world works". Next time these guys ae looking for a Doctor, they should find one that never went to Med School.

[MarsAmbassador]

03:28 PM on 06/26/2010

The REAL culprit in regards to our financial problems:
http://static.globalissues.org/i/military/09/country-distribution-2008.png

[MarsAmbassador]

03:27 PM on 06/26/2010

""Rand's message of reining in outrageous Washington spending is resonating throughout Kentucky," McConnell said in a statement."

Any talk about government spending that doesn't SPECIFICALLY start with cutting the military budget is a non-starter for me. It is the cost of the largest military empire in the history of the WORLD that is crippling this country, not the paltry pennies we toss at health and education. Social Security pays for itself and if the federal government hadn't STOLEN $2.3 trillion dollars from the SS Fund, it would be good to go for eternity. But they manufacture the story-line about how it's bankrupting America so we support efforts to privatize it. Here's the question you need to ask yourself, if it's such a money-losing failure then why does private industry and Wall Street want their hands on it? Because it's NOT a money-losing failure, that's why!

[1smartcanerican]

05:21 PM on 06/26/2010

I like your thinking - let's dismantle the military-industrial complex and move the money to social security and health care for all Americans, single-payer style.

Time to bring our troops home and to build up our domestic infrastructure to move forward in this new century.

[D-V-H]

03:15 PM on 06/26/2010

The co-opting of the Tea Party by the GOP is nearly complete.
At least before, the GOP pretended it wasn't a part of their party and vice versa.

Should it be the GOTP?

[FORLOMC]

01:27 PM on 06/26/2010

THE GOP on Americans; They don't care, they're paid not too.

[DJCranky]

10:35 AM on 06/26/2010

I'm confused. He's not a republican, is he? I thought he was a libertarian. Democrats always want to marginalize green party candidates but the repugs are embracing these libertarians. So is the libertarian party now a legitimate 3rd party?

[LeFlaneur]

10:43 AM on 06/26/2010

He won the Republican nomination. The GOP wants to win right now the right wing crazies have steam.

[DK in MS]

12:16 PM on 06/26/2010

He is not a libertarian, though many of his views are founded in libertarianism. The libertarian party even considered running a candidate against him because many of his ideas are contrary to the libertarian party line.

He self-identifies as a Tea Partier, which is a very different animal than a libertarian.

[firesource]

03:49 AM on 06/26/2010

Can we stop calling it the Grand Old Party? The only thing that is accurate in that name is Old. I propose we change it from the GOP to the OP or Old Party. This is the party of the aged and bigoted. Perhaps the OBP(Old Biggoted Party), or the RWPP(Rich White People Party). This is a group of people that appears to want nothing that is good for the country and everything that is wrong for our country. The fact that this party is even still viable is a testament to the American people's resistence to change. We should be splitting the DNC in half, and creating a Liberal Dems and Conservative Dem party instead of the Republican Party.

[bebecca]

11:13 AM on 06/26/2010

I prefer republicants

[Greg Petty]

12:14 PM on 06/26/2010

What have they done for you,ever?????????????????????, those silly reptilians

[IMOPINIONH8D]

05:04 PM on 06/26/2010

It's Greed Over People!!! Always and forever!!!

[lodger16x]

02:35 AM on 06/26/2010

Lower taxes for Saudi billionaires, that's the tea party ticket, man!

[lodger16x]

02:29 AM on 06/26/2010

I was born in KY, I live near the KY border now. I think it would a very intense experience if KY, led by Rand Ayn Paul, decided they didn't want anymore corn subsidies, didn't want to take federal money for Ft Knox and Ft Campbell, won't accept any federal education money for UK and other schools, will block their citizens from receiving Social Security and Medicare, and generally act like ignorant, wanna be badasses! Just sayin, man!