Kentucky Senate Race Is Still Dead Even

Mitch McConnell, the GOP's minority leader in the Senate, has a primary opponent from the fringe right-wing this year. But that's not his biggest problem. He's expected to easily win the GOP primary in Kentucky, and polls show him far ahead of his teabagger opponent. But it's a different story when it comes to the general election.

Several polls have shown he is running pretty even with his Democratic opponent, Alison Grimes. And McConnell has already spent millions on negative advertising in an attempt to separate himself from Grimes. It hasn't done any good at all. A new Rasmussen Poll shows the race is still deadlocked at 42% for McConnell and 42% for Grimes. About 10% haven't made up their mind who to vote for, and another 6% would prefer another candidate.

What this means is that McConnell's actions in the Senate in the next few months could be the factor that decides the race. If he can't keep the fringe right of his own party from causing the government to default over the approaching debt ceiling fight, it could drive his numbers done further -- and that's just one of the issues he'll face this Spring and Summer.

This has turned out to be a much more interesting race than predicted by the pundits, and it will be an interesting one to watch as the year progresses.

The chart above was made from a new Rasmussen Poll. It was conducted on January 29th and 30th of 500 likely Kentucky voters, and has a margin of error of 4.5 points.