Sen. Bunning was a strong opponent of amnesty legislation last time around, and presented the closing arguments against it in the Senate for the GOP.


Despite brashness that made him a pariah in the GOP, Bunning known as a hero in Ky. home base

By ROGER ALFORD , Associated Press

Last update: March 13, 2010 - 12:33 PM

HEBRON, Ky. - Irascible Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning has been a pariah among his congressional colleagues. Back in the conservative swath of northern Kentucky he calls home, though, he's being heralded as a hero.

Democrats bemoaned Bunning as unsympathetic to down-on-their-luck Americans when he single-handedly held up a $10 billion spending bill that had money for jobless benefits. He's not popular among Republican senators, either — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — who worked to dry up the brash lawmaker's fundraising so he'd have no choice but to drop out of his re-election campaign.

Back home, the former major league pitcher and hall-of-famer is known as a budget hawk standing against out-of-control federal spending. Some 350 people had reserved seats to honor him at a dinner Saturday evening. McConnell never sent his RSVP, so Bunning will likely avoid any awkward handshakes.

Even before the dinner got started, supporters were lavishing Bunning with praise.

"Jim Bunning has been right more than he's been wrong," said Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, a Republican who thinks of Bunning as his mentor. "And history will show that he, more than anyone else, predicted some of the economic problems we're having now and worked to try to prevent them."

Bunning had been widely considered the most vulnerable Republican incumbent heading into this year's elections, and with the GOP trying to retake majority control of the Senate, they encouraged the 78-year-old not to seek a third term. Many feared he couldn't hold the seat against one of the two prominent Democratic candidates, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo and Attorney General Jack Conway.

But given the change in political mood, Alecia Webb-Edgington — who helped organize the dinner — believes Bunning might have been written off too quickly.

"He's incredibly popular," she said. "I truly believe he could have easily won another term."

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