Ky. GOP Senate nominee Rand Paul takes more moderate tone as Dems say he’s outside mainstream

Fresh from win, Rand Paul takes more moderate tone

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Fresh from a tea party-driven win in Kentucky’s GOP Senate primary, Rand Paul took a more moderate tone on Wednesday even as Democrats began attacking him as outside the mainstream.

Take Medicare, for example. A year ago, Paul was calling it “socialized medicine” and suggested a $2,000 deductible would control costs in the program.

Less than 24 hours after his primary win over Trey Grayson, the establishment-backed candidate and secretary of state, Paul was still saying the Medicare system is broken, but stressed he would not change the rules for retirees or Americans nearing retirement.

“If you were honest about the system being broken, I think ultimately you’ll have to look at eligibility” as a way to shore up the health care program, he said. Still, he said, “I’m not jumping up and down and saying let’s raise the age.”

Paul, 47, the son of maverick Texas congressman and unsuccessful 2008 GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul, was already drawing attacks Wednesday from his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway, the state’s attorney general and winner of his party’s primary. The closely watched race is likely to either shore up the tea party movement or show it as a blip in the nation’s political landscape.

Scott Lasley, a Western Kentucky University political scientist, said Paul might soften his tone but will have to remain fairly consistent.

“People are drawn to him because they see him as someone different from a regular politician,” Lasley said. The current mood of voters “certainly plays to the Republicans’ advantage, but I’m pretty confident that Democrats got the matchup that they wanted.”

Conway, 40, wasted no time trying to portray Paul as outside the mainstream, a candidate without broad appeal to the average voter — and someone who ultimately would cost Kentucky with its unemployment rate just above the national average millions of dollars in federal government subsidies.

“We can’t afford Rand Paul,” Conway declared.

Paul, who began his day before dawn with a series of television interviews, said the fledgling tea party movement’s views will resonate with a broad spectrum of voters, not just Republicans.

Paul, in an interview with The Associated Press, moderated some of his views but remained true to his criticism of government subsidies.

“I don’t like the idea of subsidizing business of any sort,” Paul said. “I think business should stand on its own two feet. A lot of the farm subsidies go to multimillion-dollar corporations, and I don’t think the average citizen should pay taxes to support multimillion-dollar corporations.”

Another attack line from Conway was that Paul wants to do away with the federal Department of Education.

Paul, in an interview Wednesday at his campaign headquarters in Bowling Green, advocated downsizing government but stopped short of calling for elimination of any specific cabinet-level agencies.

He said the federal education law known as “No Child Left Behind” is a “great intrusion by the federal government into local schools,” and said he would vote for its repeal. Education should be left mainly to local and state governments, he said, allowing for a sweeping review of federal education programs.

“Some we can eliminate, some we can privatize, some we can send back to the states,” he said. “The ideal is to have the states in charge and not the federal government in charge.”

Conway also said that Paul wants to do away with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Paul said he’s unaware of any repeal movement and hasn’t thought about it, then added: “But I would say that in general that … local solutions are better than federal solutions” — including when ensuring access to handicapped people.

Paul started out as a long shot against Grayson, the perceived front-runner in the race to replace Republican Sen. Jim Bunning, who opted not to seek a third term under pressure from Republican leaders who considered him politically vulnerable. Paul turned to the Internet fundraising model used by his father to help pay for his campaign.

Paul shared the limelight with his dad on election night, but the newly minted Senate nominee carefully distanced himself from some of his father’s views Wednesday.

While father and son share a kinship in their belief in limited government, the younger Paul downplayed abolishing the federal income tax or the Federal Reserve — positions advocated by his father.

“If you were to get rid of large taxes, get rid of things like the income tax, your deficit would get even worse,” Rand Paul said Wednesday. “… Most of us in the tea party movement don’t like taxes, and I won’t vote to raise taxes. But I think a lot of us would simply trade no new taxes for reducing federal spending.”