(AP) - The political outsider who largely financed his U.S. Senate primary race with Internet donations received a more lukewarm response Monday in his first Web-based fundraiser of the general election season.
Republican Rand Paul had banked about $138,000 by Monday evening in a one-day online fundraiser set to finish at midnight.
That's a pittance compared with the more than $1.2 million he banked in a series of Web-based fundraisers during the GOP primary. The largest of the three, held last August, netted more than $400,000 in a 24-hour period.
Paul faced a political backlash last month when he expressed misgivings about the Civil Rights Act, suggesting that the federal government should not have the power to force restaurants to serve minorities if owners don't want to. University of Louisville political scientist Laura Rhodebeck said that, along with a series of other divisive comments, may have cost him some support.
"But I'm still convinced that there's a sizable part of his constituency that likes what he's saying," Rhodebeck said. "They like that kind of in-your-face attitude."
Paul faces Democrat Jack Conway, Kentucky's attorney general and a proven fundraiser, in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning.