http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090227/NEWS01/90227025WASHINGTON — Already in conflict with his party’s leaders, Sen. Jim Bunning has reportedly said privately that if he is hindered in raising money for his re-election campaign he is ready with a response that would be politically devastating for Senate Republicans: his resignation.
The Kentucky Republican suggested that possible scenario at a campaign fundraiser for him on Capitol Hill earlier this week, according to three sources who asked not to be identified because of the politically sensitive nature of Bunning’s remarks.
The implication, they said, was that Bunning would allow Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, to appoint his replacement — a move that could give Democrats the 60 votes they need to block Republican filibusters in the Senate.
“I would get the last laugh. Don’t forget Kentucky has a Democrat governor,” one of the sources quoted Bunning as saying.
“The only logical extension of that comment is, ‘(anger) me … enough and I’ll resign, and then you’ve got 60 Democrats,’ ” said another source who was present at the event.
That was the clear message Bunning was sending, said a third source who heard the senator’s remarks at the fundraiser, which attracted about 15 people.
Bunning was touring storm-damaged areas in Western Kentucky today. In a statement made through spokesman Mike Reynard, he said:
It's not true. I intend to fulfill my obligation to the people of Kentucky. If you are going to write something like this, you better make your sources known, because they are lying.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Bunning’s fellow Kentuckian, declined comment, as did Beshear.
Another Democrat in the Senate would bring McConnell to the brink of powerlessness. McConnell’s GOP caucus currently has 41 members, including Bunning — enough to hold up Senate business or block any legislation that needs 60 votes for approval. Without Bunning, the Republicans would be left with 40 senators.
Senate Democrats currently count on 58 votes, including two independents who caucus with them. A Kentucky Democrat would give them 59. And a likely Democratic pickup in Minnesota, once a court challenge to last November’s election results is ended, would give the majority full control with 60 votes.
Bunning has been in a bitter battle with McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, over the 2010 Kentucky Senate race.
Bunning wants to run for a third term, but McConnell and Cornyn have sent clear messages that they want Kentucky’s junior senator to stand aside over concerns that he won’t be re-elected.
McConnell said last month that Bunning’s intentions were not known, drawing a blunt protest from Bunning that McConnell had a “lapse of memory” because he had told his Senate leader he was seeking re-election.
Bunning said Tuesday that he did not believe anything Cornyn said and might sue the committee if an opponent were recruited against him in the Republican primary.
Those blasts followed a Bunning gaffe last weekend in which he told a Kentucky audience that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would die of pancreatic cancer within nine months. He later issued an apology.
Bunning is trying to raise $2 million by the end of March for a race he expects will cost him about $10 million. His most recent campaign filing showed he had about $150,000 in cash on hand at the end of 2008.
At Tuesday’s event, held at National Mining Association headquarters, Bunning told the group that statements by Republican leaders were making it hard for him to raise the money he needs to win a new term, according to sources.
“His statement was that, you know, that his leadership, the Republican leadership … had been saying things that he obviously took great offense at,” one source said.
Bunning’s mention of Kentucky’s Democratic governor was “within that context” of the problems he was having raising money because of Republican leaders.
“Those statements, those actions, obviously were making it much more difficult for him to raise money,” the source said.
“He had made it very, very clear that he was running for re-election while leadership was saying other things, so it was creating confusion that was impacting him,” one source said.
Bunning told the gathering that he had lost only one race where an opponent out-raised him by a 5-1 margin, a reference to the 1983 Kentucky gubernatorial campaign when he lost to Democrat Martha Layne Collins. The sources said the senator added that he had vowed to himself that he would not run another race he couldn’t afford.
Now, if the Senate GOP leadership continued to make it difficult for him to raise money, he would have the “last laugh,” and then added that Kentucky’s governor was a Democrat, a source recalled Bunning saying.
The implication that he would resign was talked about by “several people” after the event, the source said.
The remarks stunned his listeners, the source said.
“Why would he say that?” attendees asked each other, according to the source.
One source said he contacted a Bunning campaign official and warned, “This is going to get out — there were 15 to 20 people who heard this and it’s newsworthy.”
“It’s not because he’s old and senile — he’s always been like that. He’ll tell you what he thinks,” the source said.
But Bunning’s resistance to retirement is “sad to see,” the source said.
“The problem I see with all this media attention is, it just makes him more stubborn rather than make him ready to make a rational decision,” the source said.
Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, declined comment on the matter.
