Judd’s recent visits to Washington to meet with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and senators have been handled like a state secret. On Friday, she ignored questions shouted from reporters about whether she would run. In Kentucky, she has quietly spoken with some establishment Democrats and labor leaders, called state legislators and conferred with the Democratic governor. She is being informally advised by Democrat heavyweights Anita Dunn and J.B. Poersch, neither of whom responded to a request for comment.

McConnell strategists said the campaign is well aware that it has to walk a fine line between defining Judd negatively and appearing nasty. Privately, senior advisers say they were dismayed that Karl Rove — himself a controversial figure — chose to produce an online ad recently, ridiculing Judd as an “Obama following radical Hollywood liberal.” By comparison, McConnell’s first Web ad was a humorous riff on how the Democrats have been unable to find a candidate to run against McConnell, and it included a clip of Judd saying that Tennessee — not Kentucky — was home.

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A number of state Democrats have passed on opposing McConnell, 71, next year, appreciating that it will be one of the most intense and expensive races in the country. Despite his weak approval ratings in the state presently, McConnell retains a strong organization there. Recent polls have shown Judd holding her own against the Senate minority leader, but that’s before any real attention has been focused on her.

“He’s vulnerable. It’s doable — but it’s still a tough one,” says one Democratic operative involved in advising Judd.

An adviser to the McConnell campaign said the operation’s guiding light is a statement Judd made in Britain six years ago about running for office, noting that “such an unguarded chunk of my truth is very likely to completely disqualify me.”

“The real highlights for Kentucky purposes,” said the adviser, “are her conceptions of the relationships between men and women and family life, and her views on coal and the Obama agenda at large. This is a state where the president only carried four of 120 counties. They really dislike this president, who she spent countless hours stumping for on television.”

Judd was born and raised in Kentucky and attended the University of Kentucky, but hasn’t lived in the state for years. She currently lives in Tennessee and would have to establish residency in Kentucky this year to run in 2014.

The GOP airing of her past statements seem designed to separate Judd from the red state’s more traditional voters. Republicans also point to writings on her own website, one a published speech where she suggests it’s sexist for men to walk their daughters down the aisle “‘giving her away to her husband,” and takes women to task for adopting their husbands’ names after they marry. And her detractors raise questions about whether someone with Judd’s celebrity has the patience and tenacity to commit to the grueling and unglamorous work of a tough state campaign.

“There are 120 counties in Kentucky and 120 Lincoln Day dinners to attend,” said one McConnell ally. “Is she really going to do that?”

James Hohmann contributed to this report.