The merit of Mitch McConnell’s bid for a sixth, six-year term in the U.S. Senate comes down to one thing, McConnell told local Republicans on Wednesday in Bowling Green – money.

Specifically, how much federal funding he can get for Kentucky projects. As the highest-ranking Republican in Congress, his position, seniority and prestige have allowed him to funnel $500 million into the state during his 24-year tenure, McConnell told about 80 people crowded into Republican Party headquarters.

That works out to an average of nearly $21 million a year, with small amounts at first turning into big appropriations as he gained seniority. In contrast, a study found that the most a freshman senator took home in projects last term was $16 million, McConnell said.

“So you see, it makes a tangible, measurable difference who goes to Washington,” he said.

McConnell is locked in the tightest race of his career with Democratic businessman Bruce Lunsford. In a low-key speech, McConnell blamed the tough race on his prominence as a target.

If Lunsford is elected, McConnell said, the Democrat’s only job would be to “walk down the aisle, salute Harry Reid and ask how to vote.” Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada is the Democratic majority leader.

McConnell reeled off figures: $57 million over 10 years for Western Kentucky University, $5.5 million for the riverfront, where a park now bears his name, and authorship of the federal tobacco buyout bill which he said brought $32 million to Warren County farmers.

Backed by an American flag surrounded by Republican campaign signs, he stood with other major Republican figures and current candidates, including his wife, Elaine Chao, secretary of labor and the only Bush administration cabinet member to last through all eight years.

“Mitch is so respected in Washington, and I see that,” Chao said.

At home, he cooks and does his own laundry, she said, introducing “my soul mate, my roommate, your senior senator, Mitch McConnell.”

McConnell and State Senate President David Williams of Burkesville alleged that Lunsford’s campaign is being funded by foreigners and people in “San Francisco, New York and Chicago.” But based on required campaign finance reports, that accusation would be truer of McConnell himself.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Oct. 20 that McConnell himself had taken $4.4 million from donors outside Kentucky for this election, mostly from Washington, New York, Texas, Florida and California, while raising $2.7 million from Kentuckians. McConnell, long famous as the Republican party’s chief campaign fundraiser, amassed nearly $18 million to pour into his campaign altogether.

At the same time, Lunsford had received just $160,050 from outside the state, less than half the $354,704 he raised inside Kentucky. Lunsford has put nearly $6 million of his own money into the race.

A short parade of Republican leaders and candidates accompanied McConnell. State Sen. Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green, seeking the open 2nd District Congressional seat against state Sen. David Boswell of Owensboro, stood with state Rep. Jim DeCesare of Bowling Green, who’s challenged by Charlene Rabold, and Shawn McPherson of Scottsville, who is competing with Wilson Stone for the open 22nd District State House seat. Watching from the crowd were Bowling Green City Commissioner Bruce Wilkerson and commission candidate Catherine Hamilton.

“People would have to be smoking dope not to send you back to Frankfort,” Williams said of DeCesare, referring to a commercial run by Rabold. It claims DeCesare favors legalizing marijuana, based on a resolution he supported eulogizing conservative economist Milton Friedman, who had suggested legalizing and taxing marijuana. DeCesare has staunchly denied favoring drug legalization.

Williams said McPherson will be a “good conservative voice” in the House, and called Boswell’s campaign against Guthrie a “disgrace.”

McConnell, Williams and Guthrie all urged Republicans to work hard on getting out the vote; even if they win locally, they need to “run up the score” to counter Democratic strength elsewhere, they said.

Williams, state chairman for John McCain’s presidential campaign, repeated the Republican litany that Obama is somehow unknown. He claimed Obama looks down on anyone not from New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago, saying Obama and other big-city types think “rural people cling to their guns, to their Bibles, and they’re angry and bitter.”

That referred to a statement Obama made in April about western Pennsylvania residents’ reaction to years of lost jobs: “It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Maj. Gen. Donald Storm, retired adjutant general of Kentucky, gave an emphatic speech lauding McConnell’s commitment to the military. More than 10,000 members of the Kentucky Guard have been sent to Iraq and Afghanistan in the past seven years, bringing “hope and opportunity,” and McConnell made sure they had plenty of the latest equipment, Storm said.

“This is not something I need to read about,” he said. “This is something I lived through.”

McConnell also pushed for funding veterans and military families, Storm said. He finished with dismissal of Obama’s ability to serve as commander-in-chief of the military, pointing to McCain’s military record.

McConnell was on the ninth day of a 4,000-mile, 62-stop bus tour. A campaign press release said he was “greeted by large crowds” in Warren, Allen, Barren, Hart, Nelson and Shelby counties; in Bowling Green, McConnell faced a fraction of the number Lunsford drew to a much larger airplane hangar at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport on Oct. 24, but that event was heavily publicized in advance and featured former President Bill Clinton.