Grimes faces new campaign bus questions

Kentucky Democratic Senate nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes is facing fresh questions over her campaign bus as a new report reveals the company that owns it lacks the necessary permits required to operate it.

{mosads}According to The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Signature Special Events Services is certified with the Department of Transportation only to transport equipment, not people.

Signature Special Events Services is a catering company in Kentucky owned by Grimes’s father, Jerry Lundergan, a prominent Democratic Party leader and donor there. Neither Jerry Lundergan nor his daughter Abby, who is vice president of the company that owns Signature Special Events Services, responded to requests for comment from The Courier-Journal.

Grimes’s bus has been in the spotlight since a report two weeks ago revealed her campaign may be paying a lower-than-market rate to rent the vehicle, which campaign legal experts have said could amount to an undocumented in-kind contribution that would violate campaign finance law.

Republicans believe the issue gets at a central line of attack they’ve employed against Grimes: that she’s unprepared and unqualified for the rigors of the Senate.

Still, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbent because of his deep unpopularity in the state.

On Thursday, Democrats continued to highlight comments he made to a private gathering of conservative donors and strategists promising if Republicans control the Senate next year, “we’re not going to be debating any of these gosh darn proposals” Democrats have been pushing, such as a minimum wage hike and student loan reform.

Those comments got front-page coverage in local Kentucky newspapers, and the Grimes campaign emailed a clip from a local news report showing McConnell hastily exiting a press conference Wednesday afternoon without taking questions from reporters.

“As expected, McConnell was far from eager to face the press at a public event later in the day. Mitch darted from Kentucky reporters in an attempt to run away from just how out-of-touch he is with the Commonwealth,” the Grimes campaign said of the clip.