Behind McConnell ad, a Ky. woman’s complex story

ADAM BEAM
Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — In a recent campaign ad for Republican Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky woman tells of how the U.S. Senate’s minority leader fought to help get her daughter back from war-torn West Africa in a custody battle that spanned two years, two governments and two continents. The woman, a community college professor named Noelle Hunter, mentions that her marriage ended “after a dark period in my life.”

That was a reference to Hunter’s struggle with drug addiction, including a 2007 child endangerment arrest after she smoked crack cocaine in a car with her then-infant daughter, who tested positive for cocaine at a hospital. Hunter began a long path to recovery that eventually led to a judge granting her joint custody of her daughter.

What does it say about McConnell that he chose to help Hunter? Or that he picked her story to highlight in his first feel-good ad of an attack-heavy campaign against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes? Or that the spot — at 60 seconds, an eternity in the pricey world of political TV advertising — stops short of spelling out what happened in that dark period?

If nothing else, it shows that as much as campaign ads are meant to convey candidates and issues in the simplest, starkest terms, there’s always more to the story.

Hunter’s arrest has been removed from public record, but she does not hide it. She told McConnell’s staff about it from the beginning. And McConnell’s campaign sent a letter from Hunter to his supporters last week when the ad first aired, in which she discussed her drug addiction and her arrest, which made news at the time because Hunter was a popular professor at Morehead State University.

“I wasn’t in my right mind,” Hunter, of Morehead, said of her arrest. “It was my actions in addiction. … It was an unfortunate and grievous mistake on my part.”

Hunter completed a drug treatment program, and her case was expunged. She and her husband tried to put their family back together, but it didn’t work.

One day in 2009, Hunter says, her husband told her he would file for divorce. That triggered a brief relapse, the only one Hunter says she’s had, but she quickly got back on her feet, crediting her faith and the support from her church and community.

After another chance at reconciling, Hunter and Ibrahim N’Diaye divorced in April 2011. That October, a judge — who Hunter says knew about her arrest and her relapse — granted both parents joint custody of their daughter, Muna. Hunter said the judge gave her Muna’s U.S. passport as a safeguard against Hunter’s fear that N’Diaye would take the child to his native Mali without permission.

Days after Christmas, he did just that. She would be in Mali for the next 2½ years.

Kentucky authorities issued a warrant for Hunter’s ex-husband. Interpol, the international police organization, also put out a notice for N’Diaye.

Hunter hired a Mali-based attorney. And she began calling and visiting her elected officials, except one: McConnell.

Hunter is not politically naive. She has a doctorate in political science from West Virginia University and she interned for U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller. She knew McConnell had a tough re-election campaign coming, and Hunter assumed he would see her background as a liability.

And — touching on exactly the image problem McConnell’s campaign aimed to address with the ad featuring her — she said his public persona scared her off.

“He appeared to me to be very unapproachable,” she said. “Desperation for my child caused me to override that.”

Hunter says she told McConnell and his staff her full history, and McConnell decided to help her anyway. He wrote letters to the Mali government and kept asking the State Department for updates on the case. He would call Hunter personally to ask her how she was doing.

In a brief interview last week, McConnell described his motive for helping Hunter in terms every bit as straightforward as the ad itself.

“The court awarded custody of Muna to her mother. You know, the court weighs all kinds of evidence in deciding who gets custody,” McConnell told The Associated Press. “I felt like my job was to try to restore that custody to her mother.”

Asked twice if he thought Hunter’s arrest should have been made clear in the ad, McConnell declined to answer directly, instead reiterating that he felt compelled to help. Hunter said she did not think her arrest should have been in the ad, noting it was no secret and that despite the court records being purged, there are still local news accounts of her case available to anyone who wants to look.

“Nothing ever dies on the Internet,” she said.

Today, Hunter says her now 7-year-old daughter is happy and healthy. Her ex-husband is still in Mali. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.

For now, Hunter says she is enjoying the “sweetest days,” even though her daughter won’t let her walk her to her classroom anymore.

“I watch her skip in,” she said.

Hunter also started iStand Parent Network, which she describes as “a coalition of parents, families and organizations standing together as one to put a stop to international parental kidnappings.” Months before she brought Muna back from Mali this summer, she testified before Congress about her group and her struggle.

And she’s telling anyone who will listen about McConnell, about his phone calls to check on her and his efforts to push the State and Justice departments to help her.

“Sen. McConnell, he just wore them down. He just wore them down. Me and him.”

___

Associated Press writer Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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