In what could well be his parting shot at the Republican establishment, retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R) on Wednesday tapped surgeon Rand Paul (R) as his chosen successor.

Paul, son of iconoclastic Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is in a heated primary with national party favorite Trey Grayson, the Kentucky secretary of state. Recent polls have Paul now leading by double digits.

Bunning, long a burr in the side of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), his Kentucky colleague, issued a release saying Paul is the candidate who shares his “core values.”

“Dr. Paul will be his own man in Washington, not beholden to the special interests and beltway insiders who come looking for handouts on a daily basis,” Bunning said.

Conway-Mongiardo Primary Gets Tighter

Kentucky’s Senate primary has no clear leader on the Democratic side, according to a new poll released by the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The survey of 659 likely Democratic voters showed that Attorney General Jack Conway now trails Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo by just 3 points, a number that is within the poll’s 3.9-point margin of error. A Courier-Journal poll from March showed Mongiardo leading Conway by 18 points.

Among Republicans, the poll showed that Rand Paul continues to keep Secretary of State Trey Grayson at arm’s length,

Paul led Grayson 45 percent to 30 percent, according to a survey of 446 likely GOP voters.

That part of the Survey USA poll had a 4.1-point margin of error.

Paul’s lead equaled what it was in the paper’s March poll, when he led Grayson 42 percent to 27 percent.