[img_assist|nid=1170|title=The DSCC's new website targeting U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville), among others|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=420|height=178]

Thursday it was television ads, mailers, websites, and press releases. A healthy majority of the types of media used in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race were in play on the gas price issue, as questions on energy continue to dominate the narrative of the campaigns of incumbent U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) and businessman Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville).

The most visible manifestation on the day is the McConnell campaign's newest television spot, a thirty second attack on Lunsford that pulls out a variety of charges and lauds McConnell's plans for increased domestic oil production.

"Here's a shock: Kentucky's pro-tax papers support Bruce Lunsford's automatic gas tax increases," the ad's narrator announces to open the spot, as two newspaper editorials critical of an earlier McConnell ad are citied on screen.

One of those editorials rejected McConnell's first ad of the general election as "dishonest" after it attempted to attribute responsibility to Lunsford for changes in the state's gas tax structure that were implemented when Lunsford was a legislative aide to then-Governor John Y. Brown in 1980. The structure was changed at that time to tie the state gas tax to the wholesale price of gasoline rather than keep it at a flat rate.

Proponents at the time argued that it would maintain gas tax revenue - which is used to fund road construction in the state - even in times of high prices and low demand. While Kentucky still has one of the lowest gas taxes in the country - where the national average for state gas taxes is 28.6 cents per gallon - the tax per gallon has risen almost five cents during the last four years to 21.1 cents per galln.

Those editorials in question were touted in a Lunsford ad rebutting McConnell's attacks, to which the new ad by McConnell seems to be addressing.

McConnell's new spot also claims Lunsford "makes big profits from investing in oil" while the term "hedge funds" is displayed on the screen, in reference to investments Lunsford showed on his personal financial disclosure report.

Since McConnell first leveled that charge at Lunsford earlier in the campaign, Lunsford has said he is trying to get rid of his investments in mutual funds with oil holdings, but that didn't stop the swing by McConnell.

Further, McConnell's ad features new video of Lunsford walking to a July 29 fundraiser in Washington, D.C. hosted by Tony Podesta, of the Podesta Group lobbying firm. Podesta's firm lists several oil companies as clients and McConnell's campaign seized the opportunity to highlight this in the new ad.

"Oil lobbyists held a Washington fundraiser for him," says the ads narrator.

McConnell's ad was bolstered by a mailer dispatched by the Republican Party of Kentucky. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports the new mailer echoes McConnell's assertion that Lunsford pushed for "automatic tax increases" with reference to changes in the gas tax structure.

The Democratic response

Lunsford and his fellow Democrats were not silent on the issue today, however.

Lunsford's campaign had earlier responded this week to questions about the Podesta fundraiser by dismissing the notion that Lunsford was tied to the oil lobby.

"Bruce isn't the one voting big oil's way for 24 years," said a Lunsford campaign statement, according to the Herald-Leader. "In contrast to Senator McConnell, Bruce is not for sale."

The Democrat's campaign also reacted to the new ad today with a press release calling McConnell's spot a "cover up"

"How quickly McConnell forgets that he invests in ExxonMobil," reads the release, pointing to McConnell's own holdings - valued between $100,000 and $250,000 - in a mutual fund containing oil company stock.

Lunsford's campaign also reiterated a point from their earlier response ad, referencing the $3 million they say McConnell has "raised from the oil and gas industry." That figure accounts for money contributed to both McConnell's campaign committee and money he raised while chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee - an organization that raises funds for Republican Senatorial candidates across the country.

"What is he doing for big oil that compels it to give him so much?" asks the Lunsford campaign.

While not as visible as a television ad, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee took their own swing at McConnell today, unveiling a website that charges he and other Republican incumbents and Senate candidates are "bought by big oil."

"Even with oil companies' record profits taking a bite out of consumers at the pump, Mitch McConnell continues to back Big Oil's agenda while opposing common sense solutions to lower gas prices," DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement announcing the new internet effort.

The site - www.boughtbybigoil.com - targets 13 Senate candidates, providing a profile for each. McConnell's provides graphs that claim to show sharp rises in oil company profits and gas prices since the commencement of the incumbent's fourth term in 2002.