LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway ventured outside the country briefly for a weekend fundraiser in Canada with a group of trial lawyers.
Conway was among several Democratic Senate candidates to benefit from the Sunday evening fundraiser in Vancouver during a conference of mostly U.S. trial lawyers, Conway campaign spokeswoman Allison Haley said Monday night.
Haley said she didn’t know how much campaign cash Conway received while meeting with his fellow attorneys. Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, has made other fundraising trips to the West Coast during the campaign.
Conway is running against Republican Rand Paul, whose campaign sought to capitalize on the Democrat’s fundraising foray outside the United States.
“Kentuckians should be outraged that Jack Conway left the country to raise money from his trial lawyer allies,” said Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton. “Conway and his liberal buddies do not represent Kentucky values, and they certainly should not get to buy influence in Washington at Kentucky’s expense.”
Conway’s campaign said it welcomes support from across the country.
Haley said that instead of focusing on Conway’s travel schedule, Paul should rethink his proposals that she said would hurt agriculture, education and law enforcement efforts to combat illegal drugs.
Meanwhile, Paul took his tea party-backed campaign to New York City for a fundraiser Monday night hosted by former GOP presidential candidate and multimillionaire Steve Forbes. The $1,000-per-person event was Paul’s latest effort to boost his campaign coffers with a high-dollar, East Coast event.
Paul, who casts himself as a political outsider, was the recent guest of honor at a fundraiser hosted by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, his fellow Kentuckian, at the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington, D.C. Tickets for that event went for $1,000 per person, with sponsorships up to $5,000 per group.
Forbes was an early supporter of Paul, who bucked the state’s GOP establishment to win the Senate nomination in May. Forbes is a wealthy publisher who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. He campaigned on a platform that included a flat tax, medical savings accounts and parental choice of schools.
Paul’s campaign has said he closely aligns with Forbes on those issues.