Judd, a prospective challenger to McConnell, has scarcely dipped her toes in the water. | AP Photos McConnell polls on Judd's politics

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is already playing hardball with Ashley Judd.

The actress and prospective 2014 challenger to McConnell has scarcely dipped her toes in the senatorial waters, but she’s about to get a bitter taste of what a bid against the wily GOP leader would be like.


( Also on POLITICO: Judd exploring Senate run)

McConnell’s campaign has singled out a series of the actress’s statements and positions it’s prepared to use against her should she decide to run against the Republican. Judd wouldn’t make it through the starting gate, the GOP leader’s political team believes, once her views on coal, abortion and Obamacare are known to voters in solidly red Kentucky.

In fact, McConnell’s campaign has polled some of Judd’s comments and found that the nearly 28-year Senate veteran’s prospective lead in a head-to-head match-up increases from just 4 percentage points to 20 points once voters understand her political profile, according to a memo provided to POLITICO. The poll found voters like Judd much less when they learn that she lives in Tennessee and Scotland, her grandmother referred to her as a “Hollywood liberal” and she has suggested it is wrong to breed given widespread poverty in regions around the world.

( PHOTOS: 10 stars who ran for office)

“Considering the fact that Judd begins with such strong name ID, the informed voter swing is devastating for her, and the 16-point swing is one of the biggest I have seen in my career,” said Jan R. van Lohuizen, McConnell’s longtime pollster. “Given the ability to move the ballot so substantially by pointing out only a few of her positions, her candidacy does not appear viable.”

The fact that McConnell’s team is testing Judd’s viability shows how seriously the GOP leader is taking any possible threat to his reelection to a sixth term. And that includes a Hollywood celebrity and liberal activist with no experience running for political office.

If she mounted a bid, Judd would begin in a favorable position — two polls now show her within striking distance of McConnell — and she could energize Democrats from coast to coast. That’s largely because she remains a popular figure with nearly universal name ID. But if Judd is really serious, that free ride is bound to last about as long as a Kentucky Derby given the millions in attack ads McConnell and his allies would unleash against her.

( Also on POLITICO: PPP: Kentucky Dems want Judd to run)

Democrats are quick to dismiss McConnell’s poll. They say it fails to account for McConnell’s own divisive reputation and weak poll numbers — and the inevitable barrage of attack ads he, too, is certain to face. And it’s not as if Judd wouldn’t hit back or explain her positions, they add.

A Judd spokeswoman suggested that the actress welcomes McConnell’s attention.

“Ashley has yet to decide about running for the United States Senate,” said Cara Tripicchio, the Judd spokeswoman. “She is honored by the incredible encouragement from her fellow Kentuckians and the national interest, including Senator McConnell.”

Democrats plan to make McConnell their biggest target in 2014. They were emboldened by a survey by the Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling that pegged his popularity at just 37 percent. Other surveys, including McConnell’s own, have his approval just north of 50 percent.

Judd, an eighth-generation Kentuckian, is still seriously weighing whether to jump into the race and is in no rush to make a decision, according to sources familiar with her thinking. She has expressed interest in running in Kentucky, after growing more involved in liberal social causes in recent years, including abortion rights, AIDS prevention and environmental protection.

Judd has been a strident voice against the controversial practice of mountaintop removal mining, which is common in eastern Kentucky and which she’s dubbed “rape” of pristine parts of Appalachia.

Judd has spoken about a bid with a handful of lawmakers, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who declined to comment Thursday. But she has yet to speak with senior Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Even though Judd lives in Tennessee and was a delegate from the Volunteer State for President Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention this year, she is unlikely to run for office in that state, sources say. She is also weighing whether to take on Kentucky’s junior GOP Sen. Rand Paul in 2016, rather than take on a bare-knuckle campaigner like McConnell.

If she decides not to run against McConnell, Democrats have their eyes set on several other prospective candidates, including Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. And while her candidacy would energize the liberal base and draw enormous media attention, some Democrats in Kentucky and Washington are clearly uneasy about her running. They fear she could be overwhelmed by attacks from the McConnell operation, which has been preparing for a presidential-style campaign for two years.

McConnell’s campaign sees several of Judd’s positions as particularly harmful. When voters learn she lives in Tennessee and in Scotland — the native country of her husband, auto racer Dario Franchitti — 51 percent of voters are less likely to vote for her, according to the McConnell poll.

When they hear her remark that “the era of coal plant is over,” 49 percent of voters are more likely to vote against her, the survey found.

And when voters are informed that Judd reportedly said it’s “unconscionable” to “breed” when people in Africa and other regions of the world are starving, 55 percent say they’re less likely to vote for her, the poll found.

Finally, after McConnell’s team points out that Judd’s grandmother called her a “Hollywood liberal,” about 40 percent of voters were more inclined to oppose her.

Taken together, the poll found, McConnell’s lead jumps to 56-36 over Judd.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in a state where Obama lost 116 out of 120 counties, Republicans say.

“She’ll have the same problem whether it’s against McConnell or myself,” Paul told POLITICO on Thursday. “One of our bigger industries is coal, and she’s an extremist on that issue. It will make it tough for her.”

Democrats say McConnell is showing just how vulnerable he is by leaking a poll about the actress — two years ahead of his election and when Judd is clearly still in the exploratory phase.

“If Mitch McConnell had spent as much time worrying about creating jobs in Kentucky and heading off the fiscal cliff as he is spending worrying about a potential candidacy from Ashley Judd,” said a Democratic consultant involved in discussions about a potential Judd candidacy, “he probably wouldn’t be as vulnerable.”