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FORD
08-29-2014, 08:02 PM
Mitch McConnell's campaign manager, Jesse Benton, resigns (http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/mitch-mcconnell-campaign-manager-jesse-benton-resigns-110465.html)
By: Elizabeth Titus
August 29, 2014 06:53 PM EDT

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, announced his resignation late Friday, citing potential distractions over a recent guilty plea stemming from a controversy in the Iowa 2012 caucuses.

A longtime associate of Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Benton was the surprise choice to run the McConnell campaign in Sept. 2012 — even before the current election cycle began. Benton’s departure comes days after a former Iowa GOP state lawmaker pleaded guilty to charges of accepting money to change his endorsement in 2012 from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul. Benton was the chairman of Paul’s 2012 campaign. He has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case.

“The press accounts and rumors are particularly hurtful because they are false,” Benton said. “However, what is most troubling to me is that they risk unfairly undermining and becoming a distraction to this reelection campaign.”

Benton’s appointment in 2012 was seen as a marriage of convenience between McConnell — seeking to shore up his right flank — and the younger Paul, who was looking to build up his establishment cred ahead of a possible presidential bid. The tension was most clearly on display when Benton was recorded telling a group that he was “holding my nose” working for the Senate minority leader.

In the Iowa case, then-state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who was a paid operative on Bachmann’s campaign, accepted tens of thousands of dollars from people connected to the elder Paul’s campaign — payments that were not disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.

Sorenson now faces up to 25 years in prison after his guilty plea to one count of causing a federal campaign committee to falsely report its expenditures to the FEC and one count of obstruction of justice.

In a statement published in POLITICO Campaign Pro’s Morning Score Friday morning, before news of the resignation, a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement that “Sen. McConnell obviously has nothing to do with the Iowa presidential caucus or this investigation so it would be inappropriate for his campaign to comment on this situation.”

(Flashback to 2013: Blog: McConnell campaign chief 'holding my nose')

McConnell is locked in a tight reelection battle against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes at the same time he vies to become majority leader if Republicans can take back the Senate. The Grimes campaign demanded

“Senator McConnell owes the people of Kentucky a full account of what he knew and when he knew it,” said Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton.

The McConnell campaign said it didn’t have any additional comment beyond the Benton statement — including who might take over as campaign manager. Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff, moved over to the National Republican Senatorial Committee last year with the Kentucky race a key part of his portfolio.

Holmes is the most obvious successor to Benton given his extensive work this cycle on the campaign and his familiarity with McConnell. His potential stewardship of the campaign would offer McConnell some continuity and allow the campaign to install a new manager with little media fanfare.

— Burgess Everett contributed to this story.