Mike Wynn

@MikeWynn_CJ

FRANKFORT, Ky. With much of the U.S. Senate race focused on coal, union miners are seeking a "game change" for Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky's embattled coalfields — starting at a stopover by former President Bill Clinton today.

The United Mine Workers of America endorsed Grimes over the weekend and is planning an undisclosed amount of advertising this fall in Eastern Kentucky, where animosity runs high toward President Barack Obama and his policies on coal.

Union leaders, who declined to back Obama in 2012, are also pulling together two busloads of miners from the western portion of the state and urging hundreds of miners from the eastern region to turn out when Clinton stumps for Grimes in Hazard, Ky., today.

"This is going to be a game changer for this race, particularly in Eastern Kentucky," said Steve Earle, international vice president for the union's district 12. "Our people bloc vote, and we figure we are worth about 20,000 votes."

Grimes is vying to unseat Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has sought to tie Grimes to the Obama administration and federal regulations that call for lower emissions at coal-fired power plants.

And Clinton's campaigning, targeted at conservative and rural Democrats, helped Hillary Clinton secure more than 65 percent of the vote in Kentucky during a 2008 primary battle with the president.

But Scott Jennings, a spokesman for Kentuckians for Strong Leadership, a political operation that supports McConnell, raised doubts Tuesday that an endorsement by "union bosses" can influence the race's outcome.

"The overwhelming empirical evidence is that coal miners and people who live in coal communities have turned away from, and given up any hope, that the national Democratic Party is anything but an anti-coal party," he said.

As for Clinton's appearance, Jennings said there's nothing the former president can say to make voters in Eastern Kentucky "feel any better about the fact that Barack Obama has destroyed thousands of coal jobs."

Joe Gershtenson, a professor from the Department of Government with Eastern Kentucky University, predicts that the endorsement could give Grimes a small boost but said it mostly provides something "concrete" to deflect arguments that she is anti-coal.

"It has real potential to inoculate her to some extent from those attacks coming from McConnell's camp," he said.

According to a 2014 report by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and the Kentucky Coal Association, employment in Kentucky mines has fallen from about 50,000 workers in 1980 to about 11,900 last year.

The decline was attributed to increased automation, competition with low-cost natural gas, and what the coal industry views as government regulation that has impacted Eastern Kentucky particularly hard.

Eastern Kentucky has lost around 7,000 jobs in coal mine layoffs since the middle of 2011, the report said.

Meanwhile, results from the latest Bluegrass Poll, released last week, show that voters favored McConnell to Grimes — 43 percent to 39 percent — when it comes to preserving coal jobs and simultaneously protecting the environment from coal-burning emissions.

And both campaigns have attacked each other over the issue.

McConnell spokeswoman Allison Moore said in a statement Monday that, "partisan" endorsements aside, rank and file miners know that a vote for Grimes is a vote for the "war on coal."

"Grimes not only cast two ballots for Obama after he declared he would bankrupt the industry, her election itself would ensure that Harry 'coal makes us sick' Reid would continue to set the Senate's sights on eliminating Kentucky coal," she said.

But Grimes spokeswoman Charly Norton issued a statement arguing that McConnell and his "Washington allies" are lying about Grimes' position, and that her "commitment to protecting our coal miners stands in stark contrast to that of Mitch McConnell, who has done nothing to improve miners' safety and health."

Earle, from the UMWA, acknowledged that McConnell is pro-coal but said the union believes Grimes is a better voice for workers and their families, particularly on issues involving health and safety. He said she also believes that environmental regulations are having a detrimental effect on the industry.

Earle added that while the union has fewer than 1,000 active workers, it has the backing of 12,000 retirees and thousands who remain unemployed.

"What's Sen. McConnell doing for those laid off coal workers," he asked. "When the rubber meets the road, Alison will stand up in our corner."

Still, Jennings said, endorsements by the UMWA did not help Democrat Bruce Lunsford in his effort to unseat McConnell in 2008 or Attorney General Jack Conway's bid for a Senate seat in 2010.

McConnell bested Lunsford by about 107,000 votes, while Conway lost out to Republican U.S. Rand Paul by nearly 156,000 votes.

Jennings also argues that Grimes struggled to secure votes in Eastern Kentucky during this year's primary and that Obama lost more than 40 percent of the vote in the 2012 Democratic primary to "uncommitted" voters due to his stance on coal.

"Rank and file coal miners and their families, and the people who live in their towns, understand who is with them and who is against them," he said. "Mitch McConnell is with them. Obama and Reid, and his party, are against them."

Clinton is appearing in an 11 a.m. campaign event in Lexington followed by a stop at 3 p.m. in Hazard.

Reporter Mike Wynn can be reached at (502) 875-5136. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeWynn_CJ.