The editor says McConnell's campaign manager barred him from asking a question. McConnell blocks liberal writer

Mitch McConnell’s campaign shrugged off an accusation by a Kentucky reporter who claimed he was barred from a campaign event and threatened with police action if he asked a question.

Joe Sonka, an editor for Louisville alternative paper LEO Weekly, claimed on Twitter several times on Monday afternoon that the Senate minority leader’s campaign manager, Jesse Benton, had barred him from a news conference held by McConnell.


“Jesse Benton says I’m only allowed into McConnell event if I don’t ask question,” Sonka said. “I said I’d like to ask a question if others are allowed to. Benton said he would call the police on me to keep me out.”

( Also on POLITICO: The rich strike back)

“LMPD officer cut me off as I entered presser, said he’d arrest me if I walked past him, on orders of @Team_Mitch,” Sonka said of the police. He indicated later he intended to ask McConnell a question about immigration.

Benton said that Sonka’s claims are off-base.

“Our campaign held a private event at a hotel today, and select members of the media were invited to attend for an intimate question and answer session. Mr. Sonka was not invited, and was therefore asked to leave. When he refused, the matter was turned over to the hotel staff who followed their internal protocol,” Benton wrote in an email.

The Louisville Courier-Journal’s Joe Gerth said McConnell’s staff explained that other, unnamed Kentucky reporters asked the campaign to prohibit Sonka from the event.

( PHOTOS: Kentucky Senate race: Mitch McConnell)

“@Team_Mitch says @joesonka will be removed by Capitol Police if he tries to attend press conference,” Gerth said. Gerth said McConnell was asked why Sonka was prohibited from the press conference and responded: “I don’t know.”

Sonka has been known to be critical of McConnell and conservatives when writing for Barefoot and Progressive, a Kentucky blog. Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff and now a top official at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, dismissed the complaints by Sonka and other Kentucky journalists over press access: “Media at work folks: Attend #KYSEN open press event, ask about #McConnelling, go home and tweet about a lib activist who wasn’t invited.”