Dr. Rand Paul spoke in Lexington Thursday night about a possible run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. He repeated that he would become a candidate only if Sen. Jim Bunning does not run.
Based on his comments, Paul considers state Senate President David Williams to be his main opposition. Last month's tax increases and pension raid in Frankfort, therefore, would play a large role in that race.
"David Williams has just recently done something that I think is very wrong for Republicans to do," Paul said. "He's gone along with the Democrats in raising taxes. He basically accepts their argument that there is a shortfall."
Rand thoughtfully addressed a split in the Republican party between small government advocates and party leaders.
"A lot of us are new," Paul said. "Some of us are Libertarians, independent, Democratic, or just cynical and haven't voted in a long time. We're new to the party. If they don't want us, they will shrink. They are losing ground. They need us. So we need to convince them of that. But some of it is us, too. We have to convince them in a nice and friendly way. They were afraid we were going to take over. We weren't; we didn't have the numbers to do that. We still need to go, we need to be nice to these people, and shake their hands. But we do need to transcend what we were. We need to be bigger."
