Senator Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager on Thursday confirmed the authenticity of a recording from earlier this year in which he said, quite vividly, that he was reluctantly working for Mr. McConnell to help the presidential prospects of Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky.
“Between you and me, I’m sort of holding my nose for two years because what we’re doing here is going to be a big benefit to Rand in ’16, so that’s my long vision,†said Jesse Benton, who is leading the minority leader’s re-election bid, to Dennis Fusaro, a fellow Republican operative. Mr. Benton and Mr. Fusaro worked together on the presidential campaign of Mr. Paul’s father, Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas.
Mr. Fusaro apparently taped the January call, the contents of which were first reported on EconomicPolicyJournal.com.
Mr. Benton’s criticism of Mr. McConnell to a fellow member of the Paul wing of the party underscores the uneasy relationship between establishment and insurgent Republicans. Mr. Benton is a Paul family loyalist: he is married to one of Ron Paul’s granddaughters and was a top aide in the younger Mr. Paul’s Senate race. His hiring by Mr. McConnell last year was seen as a signal that the Senate minority leader wanted to reach out to Tea Party Republicans.
Mr. McConnell enjoys the support of the younger Mr. Paul, Kentucky’s junior senator, but that was not enough to prevent a primary challenge from his right. Matt Bevin, a wealthy Louisville businessman, announced last month that he would run against Mr. McConnell in next year’s Republican primary.
Mr. McConnell is also facing a threat from the left: Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s Democratic secretary of state, announced her candidacy in July.
In a statement, Mr. Benton said, “It is truly sick that someone would record a private phone conversation I had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me.â€
He continued, “I believe in Senator McConnell and am 100 percent committed to his re-election. Being selected to lead his campaign is one of the great honors of my life, and I look forward to victory in November of 2014.â€
Another top McConnell aide, Josh Holmes, said Mr. Benton would “absolutely†keep his job. He declined to say if Mr. Benton had apologized to Mr. McConnell.
That Mr. McConnell is retaining an aide who disparaged his candidacy underscores how badly he needs the help of both Mr. Paul and the right more broadly. Those close to Mr. McConnell suggest that Mr. Benton was simply trying to sympathize with a fellow Paul loyalist. But political aides caught criticizing their boss typically face termination, or at least a reprimand.
Given Mr. Benton’s close ties to the Paul family, however, this is a unique case. Mr. Benton has far more leverage than a mere campaign staffer. Facing dismal poll numbers at home and something close to an insurrection from both purists and pragmatists in the Senate, Mr. McConnell has seemingly made the calculation that he can’t risk angering his base by dismissing Mr. Benton.
The phone call itself is connected to an episode from the elder Mr. Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. An Iowa state senator, Kent Sorenson, has been accused of taking money to switch his allegiance to Mr. Paul from Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota.
