CORBIN — By Ronnie Ellis / CNHI News Service

Last night’s victory speeches by Democrat Jack Conway and Republican Rand Paul were clear indication that the fall general election has already begun.

Paul made a national speech with hardly a nod toward unifying a divided state Republican Party, attacking President Barack Obama and vowing to remain true to the TEA Party which he credits for propelling him to victory and of which he says he wishes to be the national spokesman. He didn’t have much to say to his defeated opponent Trey Grayson or to Kentucky’s other senator, Mitch McConnell.

John David Dyche, a contributing columnist for The Courier Journal and commentator on KET’s election night coverage broadcast, said Conway’s speech — after winning a razor-thin margin over Daniel Mongiardo — was a much more aggressive appeal to Republicans who might be disaffected with Paul.

“It was explicitly an address to Republicans,” Dyche said of Conway’s speech. “He made a pitch for Republican votes that might be afraid of Paul.” Dyche, a Republican who is close to McConnell, said he was surprised Paul didn’t reach out more to Grayson and McConnell in an effort to heal wounds from the unusually bitter primary.

“I think it was surprising — and probably surprising to McConnell — that Paul’s speech was no more gracious toward Republican unity than it was. Paul gave a national speech aimed at a national audience on national issues.”

Paul has declined to promise unqualified support for McConnell to keep his Senate Leader’s post and he and Grayson did not speak Tuesday night. Grayson apparently talked to Paul’s campaign manager, David Adams, but not to Paul. Wednesday, Paul said there was a misunderstanding — either a member of his staff misinformed Paul Grayson didn’t want to speak to him or Grayson’s staff misspoke. But Paul said he was trying to call Grayson Wednesday to “put it right.”

He said unity won’t be a problem.

“People are asking me how are you going to unify the party, and I say to them, well we’ve already got 60 percent unity,” Paul said the morning after his 61-35 win over Grayson. He said he’d received calls from McConnell, Rep. Ed Whitfield, Rep. Geoff Davis, Rep. Brett Guthrie and such nationally known Republicans as Mitt Romney and Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson. But he has no intention of changing his message to accommodate the advice of either political pundits or the Republican establishment.

“I’ll run on the same message I’ve run on for the last year,” Paul said. “That’s the TEA Party message.”

He said Democrats and independents favor his major platform planks of a balanced budget amendment, term limits, requiring lawmakers to read bills before voting on them, and ending runaway federal spending.

Dyche said he expects the national Democratic Party to target the race as a potential pick-up and contribute money and resources to defeating Paul. He thinks McConnell will provide Paul with any help he asks for and the two of them will be together Saturday at state Republican headquarters in Frankfort “to at least put on the show of unity.”

Grayson said Tuesday night he will be there “to stand side-by-side” with Paul and will support him in the fall.

Unlike Paul who won every congressional district, Conway won by rolling up big margins in the state’s two most urban counties, his home of Jefferson and in Fayette County. He was probably helped by higher turnout in those counties due to high interest mayoral races, said Louisville political consultant Danny Briscoe.  Dyche said Mongiardo “won where he was supposed to win (in rural areas) but not by the margins he needed.”

Briscoe thinks – contrary to some conventional wisdom – that Conway faces a tough battle in the fall against Paul in an increasingly conservative state in which 60 percent of voters oppose health care reform and in which Obama remains unpopular.

But Briscoe also noted that a 25 percent turnout Tuesday undermines the notion that a huge wave of voter anger will sweep out incumbents or party establishment figures.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.