Paid endorsements, cover-ups, lying to investigators... A lowly Iowa state senator’s campaign illegalities in 2012 shake up Kentucky politics.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, resigned on Friday amid a growing scandal stemming from his time working on Rep. Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. Benton’s resignation comes with implications for Sen. Rand Paul, Ron’s son, as he was widely expected to play a prominent role on the junior Kentucky Senator’s all-but-certain presidential campaign.
His resignation is tied to the Wednesday guilty plea by former Iowa state senator, Kent Sorenson, in federal court for taking payments from Ron Paul’s campaign in exchange for switching his endorsement from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul just days before the 2012 Iowa caucuses.
Emails have been leaked implying that Benton, who was Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign chairman, knew of the payments, but no direct evidence has yet to emerge. However, the timing of his resignation does raise questions about whether Sorenson implicated him. There were two sealed documents that were filed in federal court along with the guilty plea on Wednesday.
McConnell’s relationship to the younger Paul, and thus to Benton, is complex. In 2010, Benton managed Rand Paul’s Senate campaign, wherein his primary victory over Trey Grayson, a McConnell apprentice, came at a cost to the Kentucky GOP establishment, of which McConnell is a central figure. Benton is a longtime confidant of both Pauls, and is married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter.
“This decision breaks my heart, but I know it is the right thing for Mitch, for Kentucky and for the country.”
In a statement to the Kentucky Herald-Leader, Benton said he offered his resignation with a “heavy heart,” but that he was innocent, despite what he called “inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors” to the contrary. “This decision breaks my heart, but I know it is the right thing for Mitch, for Kentucky and for the country.”
Benton was seen as a necessary evil for McConnell to assuage the conservative base, for what was expected to be a difficult primary, against a Tea Party challenger. McConnell beat back the challenge.
Benton’s decision to work for McConnell was largely motivated by his desire to benefit the younger Paul and his presumed presidential bid. In August 2013, a recording was leaked, in which he could be heard saying he was “holdin’ my nose” on the McConnell race, “because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit to Rand in ‘16, so that’s my long vision.”
Benton had been playing a greatly reduced role on the McConnell campaign in recent months as Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff, had become de facto campaign manager.
Being forced to resign two years before the presidential campaign will likely hamper Benton’s chances of joining Paul’s potential 2016 campaign.
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