Kentucky Tea Party Activists Not Happy With Jesse Benton

Kentucky's Richmond Register reports:

Some Kentucky tea party activists aren’t happy with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, and his choice of a campaign manager who previously worked for Sen. Rand Paul and his father, Ron Paul, isn’t going to change their minds.[...]


Last fall McConnell hired Jesse Benton as his campaign manager. Benton managed Ron Paul’s unsuccessful run for president and Rand Paul’s successful 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. The hiring was viewed as a way to pacify tea party discontent and head off a potential 2014 primary challenge.

[Tea Party activist John] Kemper said that hasn’t persuaded some tea party activists or precluded a primary challenger.

“The fiscal cliff deal was kind of the last straw for our member groups,” Kemper said. “And the misrepresentation of Jesse Benton, as if he represents tea party folks, bothers some people.”[...]


Kemper said he might challenge McConnell himself.

“I’m probably on a short list of potential candidates,” Kemper said. He said a well-funded candidate could prove formidable and there are groups interested in funding a challenge.[...]


Kemper doesn’t dispute the Pauls apparently gave their blessing to Benton going to work for McConnell or that Rand Paul has openly been supportive of McConnell.

“Rand Paul remains enormously popular with the tea party,” Kemper said. “Some have problems with his close association with Senator McConnell over the past year.”