I have been talking some about Greg Stumbo, potential Senate candidate for Mitch McConnell in Kentucky the last several weeks. Recently, Greg Stumbo hired a pollster to guage his support, and to determine whether his chances were good enough to beat McConnell for him to run. Well, over the weekend it seems some of the results started coming in, and the news looks good for Stumbo and his supporters!!

From Ryan Alessi at Pol Watchers:

Outgoing Attorney General Greg Stumbo said in an interview Friday that he's received polling numbers that shows he would "have a distict advantage" in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Stumbo, who formed an exploratory committee in August to raise money to consider whether to run, said his preliminary poll results show him running ahead of state Auditor Crit Luallen and Iraq War veteran and Louisville lawyer Andrew Horne. Stumbo also said the poll gave registered Democrats the option of a yet-unnamed Democrat.

"The primary numbers are extremely flattering," said Stumbo, who declined to provide the figures because they "are still preliminary" and he promised to let his top fund-raisers know the results first.

Stumbo says he won't decide whether or not run until he gets the rest of the figures back that show how he would match up against Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

It seems that Stumbo is now moving into the next phase of running, lining up big donors within the party:

Still, Stumbo said he's pressing ahead to line up big-dollar donors in case he does make the leap against McConnell.

"You'll never believe what I’ve been doing today," he said to start the conversation. "I’ve been calling some of the wealthiest people in the entire world. I’m asking them to invest in me."

He said by 5 p.m. Friday he had made 41 calls to set up meetings with wealthy Democratic donors in New York and Washington, D.C. -- party supporters whose phone numbers were provided by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

http://polwatchers.typepad.com/pol_watchers/2007/12/stumbo-says-hes.html

Even better, as reported by WHAS11, this poll is showing that Kentuckians know all about Stumbo's percieved baggage, and don't care. They also believe that his prosecution of Governor Fletcher was a good thing:

But according to Stumbo, the biggest news might be that poll respondents were unphased by the pollsters recounting of all of Stumbo's personal baggage, which would surely come up during a campaign: his refusal to pay child support for a son born out of an extra marital affair; a car crash in which Stumbo claimed he wasn't driving; the Kent Downey fiasco when Stumbo was Majority Floor Leader in the House. Stumbo says voters were told about all of the nasty things that might be thrown at him in a political race and it didn't hurt his numbers. The reason, according to Stumbo, is that the incidents are "old news" and most voters have already been exposed to them.

And he says democrats view his office's takedown of the Fletcher administration as a good thing that has sparked some momentum for their party. That's why he's leading Crit Luallen and Andrew Horne by a wide a margin in his poll, according to Stumbo. The Prestonsburg democrat says he's spent the past couple days talking to big donors from New York City, folks who have maxed out in their donations to the Democratic Campaign Committees. Stumbo says he wouldn't be doing that if he weren't seriously considering a run for Senate. What he hasn't figured out is whether he can raise the money necessary to take on the $20 million man (McConnell) and whether he really wants the change in lifestyle that serving in Washington would bring.

http://www.beloblog.com/WHAS_Blogs/PoliticalBlogger/2007/12/stumbo_says_...

This is very good news. I will post the whole results when I recieve them, but so far Stumbo not only leads all Democratic possibles, but is tied with Mitch McConnell in Louisville. I suspect he is within striking range statewide.

Please, help us in this race. Go to Greg Stumbo's sight and encourage him to run, and consider making an investment in the defeat of Mitch McConnell here:

http://www.stumbo2008.com/

And here:

http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18232

I expect to see an announcement real soon that Stumbo will indeed be running. Help us here in Kentucky to Ditch Mitch in 08!!