Candidates weigh in on major issues

By Cheyene Miller

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The 2014 Senate race between Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes has been one of the most observed races in the upcoming midterm elections.

Republicans are expected to take control of the Senate, which would result in McConnell replacing Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as Senate Majority Leader.  If Grimes is elected, she will be the first female to represent Kentucky in the U.S. Senate.

McConnell has served in the U.S. Senate since 1984 and is running for his sixth term representing Kentucky.  Grimes, the third daughter of former Kentucky Democratic chairman and state representative Jerry Lundergan, has served as Kentucky’s Secretary of State since 2012.

The candidates have put most of their focus on several key issues, with coal being one of the main points of discussion.  McConnell has focused primarily on President Barack Obama when talking about coal, criticizing his environmental policies such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s strategy to reduce carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030 that was introduced earlier this year.

McConnell has attempted to persuade Kentucky voters that Grimes would only support President Obama and Reid, who once famously said “coal makes us sick.”

McConnell is an outspoken climate change skeptic, and has said other countries like China and India are building coal plants while we enact stricter environmental policies.

“I’m not a scientist,” said McConnell in an interview with The Courier-Journal Editorial board.  “I am interested in protecting Kentucky’s economy. I’m interested in having low-cost electricity.”

Grimes has tried to distance herself from the president on this issue and others, a strategy that many Democrats are taking in the midterm elections due to his sinking approval ratings.

Grimes has said that she “recognizes the reality of climate change,” but also is also concerned about protecting coal jobs in Kentucky.  She has gained noticeable backing from coal miners, recently receiving support from the United Mine Workers of America.

Another issue in this race has been the minimum wage, which was highlighted during the candidates’ only televised debate on KET’s “Kentucky Tonight.”  Grimes supports a raise in the minimum wage, citing a Congressional Budget Office report that said a minimum wage increase would lift one million Americans out of poverty and increase income for 30 percent of Kentuckians.

McConnell supports keeping the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, citing the same CBO report which said that a minimum wage increase would possibly cost the country half a million jobs, and independent studies that say it would cost 17,000 jobs in Kentucky.

Another focal issue in the race has been health care.  The situation regarding the health care issue in Kentucky has been different from most states in that Kentucky is seen as an Affordable Care Act success story.  Gov. Steve Beshear announced in August that 521,000 Kentuckians had signed up for health coverage through Kynect, Kentucky’s online health insurance marketplace created under the ACA. This helped Kentucky lower its percentage of uninsured citizens more than any other state besides Arkansas, bringing the percentage down from 20.4 percent to 11.9 percent according to a Gallup-Healthways poll published in August.

McConnell has said that he wants to repeal the ACA “root and branch,” but has also said that Kynect is just a website, which Kentucky could keep.

“I think its fine to have a website,” said McConnell in the KET debate.  This of course is challenging, because private insurance under Kynect uses federal tax credits and provides free Medicaid coverage to citizens earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Commentary on health care from Grimes has been far more limited than McConnell, but when Grimes has spoken about health care she says that the ACA should be “streamlined and fixed” rather than repealed.

“I will not be a Senator that rips that insurance from their hand,” said Grimes in the KET debate.

An issue in this Senate race that could directly affect UK is student debt.  Grimes campaigned with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in Louisville on Tuesday and student debt was one of the main issues discussed.

According to a report by The Courier-Journal, Warren said that about 40 million Americans are dealing with student loan debt, and that this was hurting the economy because the debt keeps them from making expenses on things like houses or cars.

Last month, Republicans blocked a bill proposed by Warren that would allow student to refinance their student loans to the interest rate of four percent by placing an income tax rate of 30 percent on people who earn between $1 million and $2 million.

According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, the current student loan debt is over $1.2 trillion.

The latest Bluegrass Poll, released Thursday, had the McConnell in a five percentage point lead, ahead 48-43 percent among likely voters.

The midterm elections are this Tuesday.