Scott Wartman

swartman@nky.com

The nation's most-watched political race, the battle for Kentucky's U.S. Senate seat, could have a new player.

Libertarian Party of Kentucky officials said they've gathered 9,000 signatures to put their Senate candidate, David Patterson, on the ballot in the race between Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.

They will submit the petition to the Kentucky Secretary of State on Monday, a day before the Tuesday deadline to get on the November ballot. They need 5,000 signatures of verified Kentucky voters to get their candidate on the ballot.

A third party candidate raises the question: Could he take enough votes to sway the outcome between Grimes and McConnell?

Even the Libertarian chairman, Ken Moellman, didn't want to make a prediction on that one.

Moellman, of Pendleton County, said the growing Libertarian Party in Kentucky is getting former Democrats and Republicans.

"What we're running into is that a lot of them are people who weren't planning to vote at all, saying 'I don't like either one of them,' " Moellman said.

Bob Klette of Union might be one of those voters. Right now he's planning on leaving the Senate race blank on the ballot because he doesn't like McConnell or Grimes and doesn't know enough about Patterson. Klette, a tea party activist, supported McConnell's Republican primary opponent, Matt Bevin.

"One thing I'm not doing is voting for McConnell, and I can't vote for a Democrat," Klette said. "When it comes right down to it, I'll probably leave the block open."

Patterson is a police officer from Harrodsburg. He didn't respond to an interview request.

A Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll last week indicated Patterson might draw from both parties. Patterson got 7 percent of the vote in the poll. McConnell led Grimes by 2 percentage points, regardless of whether Patterson was in the race or not.

People shouldn't jump to conclusions that a Libertarian will draw from a Republican's base, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Patterson's share of the vote will likely shrink closer to election, he said, and won't likely cost McConnell more than 1 percent of the vote.

"McConnell could theoretically lose on account of Patterson," Sabato said. "But it isn't as clear-cut as a lot of people think. Some analysts assume the lion's share of Libertarian votes comes from the GOP column, and that isn't true in most states."

Polls have shown Grimes and McConnell neck and neck all year, with Grimes leading McConnell by a few percentage points earlier in the year. So it's not inconceivable that Patterson will have an influence.

Moellman thinks the Libertarian influence has only increased in Kentucky in recent years. The number of registered Libertarians has increased from 1,000 to 4,000 since 2006, according to Kentucky Board of Election statistics.

The last Libertarian Senate candidate that got on Kentucky's ballot was Dennis Lacy in 1996, who got 0.66 percent of the vote. McConnell won that race, beating Democrat Steve Beshear, who is now governor, 55 percent to 43 percent.

Libertarians, however, have done much better since then in Kentucky. Moellman, who ran for treasurer as a Libertarian on the platform to eliminate the office, received 37,000 votes, good for 4.6 percent of the vote.

"I have a feeling we'll do better than that," Moellman said. "More people will vote in this election."