Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is already playing hardball with Ashley Judd.
The actress and prospective 2014 challenger to McConnell has scarcely dipped her toes in the senatorial waters, but she’s about to get a bitter taste of what a bid against the wily GOP leader would be like.
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McConnell’s campaign has singled out a series of the actress’s statements and positions it’s prepared to use against her should she decide to run against the Republican. Judd wouldn’t make it through the starting gate, the GOP leader’s political team believes, once her views on coal, abortion and Obamacare are known to voters in solidly red Kentucky.
In fact, McConnell’s campaign has polled some of Judd’s comments and found that the nearly 28-year Senate veteran’s prospective lead in a head-to-head match-up increases from just 4 percentage points to 20 points once voters understand her political profile, according to a memo provided to POLITICO. The poll found voters like Judd much less when they learn that she lives in Tennessee and Scotland, her grandmother referred to her as a “Hollywood liberal” and she has suggested it is wrong to breed given widespread poverty in regions around the world.
“Considering the fact that Judd begins with such strong name ID, the informed voter swing is devastating for her, and the 16-point swing is one of the biggest I have seen in my career,” said Jan R. van Lohuizen, McConnell’s longtime pollster. “Given the ability to move the ballot so substantially by pointing out only a few of her positions, her candidacy does not appear viable.”
