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Commentary on Life in Kentucky

By wmadministrator

Kentucky’s November Elections
In December 2006 – one year ago – The Lane Report forecast that Gov. Ernie Fletcher and former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear would win the Republican and Democratic primaries in May, and Gov. Fletcher would be re-elected governor on Nov. 6, 2007.

Our forecasts about the primaries were accurate; our anticipated winner in November was wrong.  During Publisher Ed Lane’s interview with Beshear on July 16, Beshear complimented The Lane Report on its accurate primary forecast.  However, he cautioned that the forecast for November was going to be wrong. Beshear was correct.

Campaign Retrospective
It’s always easier to write political commentary after the election is over. Keeping that in mind, here are a few thoughts about the elections.

The Democratic Primary
Without question, the Democrats were united and committed in their effort to regain control of the executive branch of Kentucky government.

Throughout the primary, Democratic candidates did not attack each other. In the end, Beshear won the nomination with a united party and without a primary runoff election.  Beshear carefully solidified the Democratic Party base and started his general election campaign in a very strong position.

The Republicans
The Republican Party should have consolidated its support behind Gov. Fletcher – the titular head of the party. For a number of reasons, it failed to do so. The reasons are many and depend on your point of view.

The merit-hiring issue was a splash in the HR pond that became a statewide political tsunami. Attorney General Greg Stumbo filed indictments for misdemeanors. The state’s big city newspapers wrote, over an extended period of time, an estimated 2,000 news stories and negative editorials about Gov. Fletcher.

Gov. Fletcher’s pardons relating to merit hiring and his subsequent break with Lt. Gov. Steve Pence; a perceived, if not actual, poor working relationship with U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell; and former U.S. Congresswoman Ann Northrup’s anti-Fletcher primary campaign, all left the Kentucky Republican Party in a weakened condition. The May polls after the primary substantiated the state GOP’s unfavorable position with the voters.

The General Election
Gov. Fletcher won 55 percent of the vote in his 2003 governor’s race with now U.S. Congressman Ben Chandler. Fletcher won because many Democrats and independents voted for a Republican. They voted for Fletcher because they were disenchanted with the Democrats’ 32-year control of state government and scandals in Democratic Gov. Paul Patton’s administration.

Beshear’s campaign focused on how, in his first term, Fletcher disappointed the voters by his mismanagement of the merit hiring issue. Beshear ran a simple campaign with these basic issues: bringing honest, ethical management to the governor’s office; using casino gambling to increase state government’s general revenues; and providing health-care benefits for all Kentuckians.

Fletcher’s campaign was positioned to oppose casino gambling in Kentucky and also made an appeal to evangelical voters. Both were wedge issues that were not likely to attract, in 2007, the Democratic and independent voters who pulled the lever for Fletcher in 2003.

In a post-general election interview with the Herald-Leader, Fletcher’s campaign manager Marty Ryall said, “The first internal poll taken in June also revealed that nearly every conventional campaign strategy for an incumbent – touting accomplishments, attacking the opponent or trying to re-inspire voters – wouldn’t be enough.  If we could make it a referendum on casinos instead of a referendum on the governor, we might have a chance. We knew it was a long shot.”

Fletcher’s best chance for re-election from our perspective was to run a campaign that demonstrated what an effective governor he had been. There are numerous examples on how state government – under the guidance of the Fletcher administration – had been an excellent steward of the taxpayer’s dollars. This campaign strategy was probably the only one that could have convinced and re-energized a majority of Republicans, Democrats and independents to vote for Fletcher in 2007.

This is the type of successful campaign that Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Agricultural Commissioner Ritchie Farmer ran. Even with Democrat Beshear heading the ticket and getting over 58 percent of the votes cast in the governor’s race, Farmer and Grayson received 64 percent and 57 percent of the total votes cast in their respective races; Commissioner Farmer, a Republican, received more votes than any other statewide candidate.

The votes indicate that Kentuckians will cross party lines and vote for the candidate they perceive to be the best qualified for the job.
The voters ultimately make the final judgment!

The future
We congratulate Gov. Beshear. The state of Kentucky needs great political leadership if it is going to increase the educational level of its citizens, attract 21st-century employers who will expand and relocate high-paying jobs to Kentucky, and cost-effectively invest the taxpayer’s money in quality and efficient government services.

Steve Beshear has the experience, energy and ability to create a superlative executive branch of Kentucky state government.  His success is Kentucky’s future.  We wish him the best as Kentucky’s new governor.
Happy New Year to our new Governor Beshear!

Spotlights Shine Around Kentucky for Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday

Commonwealth residents have a rare opportunity to gain insight into the state’s most historic native son, Abraham Lincoln, via special events beginning now and planned throughout 2008, the bicentennial of his birth.

The “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” exhibit opened Dec. 13 at the Louisville Free Public Library, 301 West York St., Louisville, and will be on display in the library’s Bernheim Gallery through Feb. 14.

A traveling exhibit, “Forever Free” showcases rarely seen photographs and reproductions of famous documents, letters, engravings, newspaper reports, cartoons and memorabilia that focuses on Lincoln’s life as he dealt with the events and challenges leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation. It also highlights the role of black soldiers during the Civil War.

The City of Hodgenville, meanwhile, has commissioned the Daub Firmin Hendrickson Sculpture Group of Berkeley, Calif., to create a life-size bronze sculpture of the boy Lincoln to be installed in front of the existing bronze seated Lincoln sculpture in the Hodgenville town square.

The in-the-round sculpture will depict Lincoln, at age 7, leaning against an old tree trunk, reading a copy of Webster’s Elementary Spelling-book, with a linen satchel filled with ears of corn, a fishing pole, and his dog, Honey, sitting attentively close by.

Daub Firmin Hendrickson Sculpture Group, selected from a field of more than 75 proposals by sculptors nationwide, primarily works to commemorate significant contributors to American history. Funding was provided by the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission through a grant from the Kentucky Arts Council.

“Forever Free” is funded by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with its Kentucky showings also funded, in part, by the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Louisville is one of only four communities in Kentucky chosen to host the exhibit. “Forever Free” will travel to the Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville in late February 2008. From there, it will travel to the Hardin County Public Library, the Lexington Public Library and the Boyle County Public Library. Each library will have the exhibit for approximately six weeks.
For more information on upcoming Lincoln Bicentennial events in Kentucky, visit the commission’s Web site at http://kylincoln.org/.