Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, just turning 82, has $8 million in his reelection campaign, though political insiders doubt he will seek another term in 2026. (Getty Images)

Andy Beshear PAC begins fundraising

Gov. Andy Beshear’s new political action committee reported last week that it raised $30,681 in its first month of existence.

The PAC is called In This Together and was created two months after Democrat Beshear won reelection over Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

It was established as a way for Beshear and his supporters to support like-minded candidates across the country at a time when Beshear — who can not seek a third consecutive term as governor — may be looking to broaden his influence beyond the borders of Kentucky.

Follow the money:

An occasional series of campaign finance notebooks

by Tom Loftus

“We are looking for good candidates that are running for the right reasons that push back against and reject anger politics,” Beshear told the Associated Press in early January of the purpose of the PAC.

According to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission last week, the two largest donors to In This Together in January were Illinois Democratic Gov. Jay Pritzker and Tennessee entrepreneur Adam Levin. Each is listed as giving $5,000.

Other large donors were: Samuel Flynn, of Lexington, a lawyer who works for state government, who gave $2,000; Jon Harned, of Danville, who is retired, who gave $1,000; and University of Louisville law professor Sam Marcosson, who gave $1,000.

Through the end of January, In This Together had yet to spend any money to help candidates. The only spending listed in its report was $1,213 paid to Act Blue Technical Services for “credit card processing fees.”

Mitch McConnell reelection committee slowing down?

Although most political insiders do not expect Mitch McConnell (who turns 82 on Tuesday) to seek reelection in 2026, the senator’s reelection committee recently reported to the FEC it held a balance of $8 million as of Dec. 31.

That’s a strong foundation for a reelection bid, especially when compared to the $2.5 million the committee reported it held as of Dec. 31, 2017 — the same point in McConnell’s prior term.

But perhaps a different number in the McConnell committee’s report is more of an indicator of McConnell’s personal political plans. The other number is $129,560 — the total amount of contributions the committee reported taking in during the final three months of 2023. That’s lower than the $176,466 his committee raised in the final quarter of 2017, according to reports it filed with the FEC.

And it is very low compared to the fundraising totals the committee racked up in 2022. The FEC reports show that for the entire year of 2023, McConnell’s re-election committee raised $542,811 in total contributions — far less than half the $1,360,942 it reported in total contributions during 2022.

Coach Cal shows he is a bipartisan donor

In October Kentucky Lantern reported that University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari gave $50,000 to a national Democratic Party PAC called Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund. That contribution was unusual because Calipari has never been a major political donor to either political party. Also, the contribution came at a time when Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s most reliable donors were giving huge amounts to that Democratic PAC.

Recent reports filed with the FEC show that just before the end of 2023, Calipari and his wife Ellen each gave $10,000 to the Andy Barr Victory Committee, a joint fundraising committee of Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr of Lexington that raises money for Barr’s reelection committee and the Republican Party of Kentucky.

Yass contributions to Rand Paul committees up to $30 million

Kentucky Lantern recently reported that Jeff Yass, the billionaire mega-donor from the Philadelphia area, gave $3 million more in late 2023 to Protect Freedom Political Action Committee — a super PAC affiliated with Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.

That boosted the amount Yass has given to Rand Paul political causes to $30 million since June of 2015 when Yass gave $1 million to a super PAC that was supporting Paul’s campaign for the Republican nomination for president.

Yass is among the country’s very largest donors to conservative super PACs.?He is an options trader, a multi-billionaire, a major investor in the parent company of Tik-Tok, and a passionate advocate for charters schools and school vouchers.

Protect Freedom is operated by political consultants who are veterans of past Paul campaigns, and the PAC’s website features a photo of just one elected official: Rand Paul. In a press release om 2020 it described itself as an organization set up “to support current and future allies of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.”

Protect Freedom uses Yass’ money to run independent campaigns supporting conservative candidates across the country as well as in Kentucky. Last year Protect Freedom spent more than $2.4 million on its unsuccessful independent campaign to try to elect Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron as governor of Kentucky.

In 2022 Protect Freedom ran campaigns for nine conservative candidates for U.S. House and Senate, winning only three of them.

Yass has almost single-handedly funded Protect Freedom in the last couple years. His $6 million in contributions to the PAC in 2023 amounted to 98.4 percent of all the contributions Protect Freedom took in during the year.