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October 26, 2011

Solving Lexington's Budget Dilemma

In today's coverage of the Lexington City Council's bowing to city employees protesting health coverage that's more in line with what is available in the private market, we were amused to read this line:

"We are in a bad recession, and there's no fat in our budget," Gray said after the meeting. "We've been considering options to improve health insurance, but we are going to have to cut someplace to pay for those changes."

We've written for years on an obvious opportunity for the city to save at least $1 million dollars - by reducing, eliminating or selling the city's oversupply of public golf courses. In July 2010 we wrote:

In terms of revenue, golfers in Lexington paid about $3.4 million dollars to play on Lexington's courses in 2009, a sum the city will have been lucky to reach in 2010. Netted against the $4.3 million in expenses, the result is an annual deficit of nearly $1 million. This deficit is more than the city's budget for special programs, which includes holiday events, festivals and arts funding.

While Lexington's golf courses are routinely bailed out of million dollar losses, the entrepreneurs and employers who operate golf businesses do not have that luxury. They must compete for customers with an operation that can lose money regularly but still survive. Instead of constantly improving, they are forced to cut corners and forgo improvements in order to compete with Lexington's artificially low prices.

Lexington's losses degrade the golf experience in the entire region.

Instead of maintaining the status quo of losing money, Lexington deserves an alternative.

Lexington's golf budget today is not improved. Not only could the city potentially save by cutting losses on golf, the city could actually generate revenue by bidding out operations or selling assets.

It is laughable for Mayor Gray to say there's no fat in the Lexington budget while golf continues to lose over $1 million each year.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 12:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 24, 2011

Checking in on Illinois' Tax Hikes

It's time again to check in on the effects of Illinois' ridiculous tax hikes passed in January to avoid necessary spending cuts.

Since raising taxes, Illinois has lost nearly 100,000 jobs.

Here's the latest jobs report:

Unemployment in Illinois rose in September for a fifth straight month and hit 10 percent for the first time since August 2010.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 11:58 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 21, 2011

What Does Beshear's False New Ad Say About Casinos?

Gov. Steve Beshear has another nonsensical ad on TV that will be found less-than-wholly-true by whatever journalist decides to fact-check it. Here it is if you want to waste 30 seconds:

The only interesting part of the ad is that he calls attention to two bills -- raising the dropout age to 18 and an amendment that would allow casino gambling in Kentucky.

There are many comments we could make about this part of the ad -- that it's remarkable that these are the only two priorities Beshear has pursued in four years, that it's remarkable that Beshear is running an ad that completely admits that his opponent David Williams has won the debate over what he considers his top priorities, or that it's a complete lie to say that "Williams personally blocked" RS08 HB 550 which never even received a vote in the House.

What we are most interested in, however, is the fact the Beshear includes his failed casinos bill in this ad at all. Campaign messaging is driven by polling, and every word in a 30-second spot is precious. The fact that he chose to include the vote indicates one of two things. Either Beshear has polling that suggests that voting on casinos is a popular piece of public policy, or he's so far ahead in the polls himself that he doesn't mind including a controversial issue he supports. (I suppose bad polling could be a third explanation.)

Because of the long record of defeat at the polls for legislators who support horse-benefiting casinos, we're inclined to believe focusing on this issue is just the whim of a candidate with a comfortable lead. After all, we certainly haven't heard much from him otherwise on what was his signature issue in 2007.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 1:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 20, 2011

Do-Nothing Steve Beshear Helpless to Compete with Ohio's Pro-Growth Reforms

Ohio Governor John Kasich is on a roll.

He's enacted real pro-growth reforms that will control the costs of government and bring jobs to Ohio. Here is a clip of him on Morning Joe describing the changes he has made in just a year in Ohio.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Just how good is he doing? He recently convinced two large Covington companies to move their operation across the river to Cincinnati.

After the rally, Beshear talked about the competition between Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana for jobs. Omnicare in September announced it would leave Covington for office space in Cincinnati. Reports also indicate another large employer in Covington, AC Nielsen, may leave for Cincinnati.

Asked about Kentucky losing jobs to Ohio, all Beshear had to offer was:

"It's always a competition," Beshear said. "I don't blame the governor of Ohio for trying to bring more jobs to his state. I'm going to do the same thing in Kentucky. There's lots of things we'll cooperate on. We're cooperating on an interstate drug task force, where we're trying to find ways to crack down on prescription drug abuse. On job creation, we're going to keep fighting to keep jobs in Kentucky, and I guarantee we will win more than we lose."

That's right - Ohio may be eating our lunch, but I'm fighting drugs and I guarantee that I'll create some more jobs.

The biggest problem with Beshear guarantees is that they are complete lies.

In 2007, when asked what he'd do to help Kentucky if his signature issue of casinos didn't pass, his only response was "I won't have to tell you what I'll do because I'm going to pass it." As we all know, Beshear is a complete failure on this front, not only not passing any legislation, but getting defeated politically every time he tried to support a pro-casino legislative candidate.

In fact, there have been plenty of seriously contested elections we can think of since Beshear took office where casinos were an issue and the anti-casino candidate won: Sen. Smith won Mongiardo's seat, Sen. Givens won an expensive race. In the February (2009) special election for the 32nd district, both candidates were against casinos.

Additionally, he promises jobs that simply do not materialize.

From the Herald-Leader's John Cheves...

In campaign ads, Beshear says he created or retained nearly 19,500 jobs using tax incentives. But a check with individual employers has shown that many specific jobs he touts do not exist.

One of Beshear's biggest jobs disappointments, which he no longer brags about, is an electric-car factory in Shepherdsville that would employ 4,000. The project won approval for $48 million in incentives, and Beshear famously drove a victory lap around the state Capitol in a prototype car. But the deal later evaporated, and nothing was built.

Meanwhile, Kentucky's unemployment rate stood at 9.5 percent this summer, up from 5.6 percent the day he took office. The state's median household income fell in 2010, forcing one in three Kentucky households to live on less than $25,000 a year.

Beshear is letting Kentucky get whipped by Ohio, and he's got nothing to say about it.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 3:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

Adam Edelen Hates the Tea Party

We've written occasionally about the Tea Party in Kentucky, and helped host the first one in Lexington in March 2009. It can be difficult to define the Tea Party precisely, but it is easy to identify the issue that created the movement and sustains it: government that spends too much, holds too much debt and is too rapidly expanding and encroaching on our lives.

Individual liberty and responsible spending would seem to be commonsense, "mainstream" values in our great Commonwealth, but candidate for Auditor Adam Edelen doesn't seem to think so.

In a visit to Northern Kentucky yesterday, Edelen had this to say:

"Let me say this about this whole partisan business. Folks, the Republican Party in Kentucky has been completely taken over by the tea party. What that means for us, the Democratic Party is the mainstream party reflecting the mainstream values of Kentucky voters of any party in Kentucky."

Rejecting the values of limited government and living within your means is strange for a candidate hoping to hold statewide office, but perhaps not surprising from Edelen. It is perhaps one more piece of evidence that Mr. Edelen's highest motivation is to promote himself.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 10:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 19, 2011

Links for October 19, 2011

Candidate for Agriculture Commissioner Bob Farmer's comedy CDs have been removed from state parks' gift shops

After joking that Eastern Kentuckians are inbred, Dems proudly campaign there with Farmer

Optometrists throw their money around to several candidates

Gatewood is an "unconventional" candidate for Governor

Richie Farmer is an unconventional candidate for Lt. Governor

Posted by Andy Hightower at 3:25 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 17, 2011

Beshear Buddy Judge Wingate Makes Up The Law Again

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate has a record that would embarrass any reasonable person.

Whether he's getting reversed by higher courts on blatantly political decisions, or, more ridiculously, being told he may never, ever have jurisdiction again over a particular issue, you might think he'd stop listening to whatever Steve Beshear tells him, and/or retire so we would never have to hear from him again.

Alas, he's ruled again (we hear without even informing the Defendant that he was considering a situation involving them) without any merit, facts or proper procedure. It seems once again that his only compelling interest was his strong commitment to his dear friend, Gov. Steve Beshear.

He has ruled that Kentuckians are suffering irreparable harm from the Political Action Committee 'Restoring America' running ads on television, and that they are banned from running ads.

Leaving aside the fact that the ads are political speech protected by the First Amendment, the ruling is preposterous.

The idea that there is such irreparable harm in putting forth a political argument that demands that it never be heard by the public is condescending to the public, oppressive and an incredible infringement on liberty.

The ruling seems to rely on the fact that Wingate was dissatisfied with the way 'Restoring America' met its disclosure requirements.

"By hiding the contributors to the 527 from the public, respondents have immediately and irreparably harmed the petitioner and the pubic of their right to have a transparent campaign finance system whereby all contributors are disclosed publicly," Wingate wrote.

If this was actually harmful, the appropriate remedy would be to require an alternative disclosure, and perhaps a fine. But the "right to have a transparent campaign finance system whereby all contributors are disclosed publicly" is dubious. We hardly know how much unions are spending in their support of candidates, what sort of exchanges have taken place between the Governor and the individuals who have appeared in his ads because of the tax breaks he has given them, or how much of the $1 million Steve Beshear raised from state employees by having his cabinet secretaries suggest they donate.

Wingate continues to muck up Kentucky and he's never accountable for it.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 4:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

Rep. Keith Hall Embarrasses Everyone

On the merits, we have long had poor regard for Representative Keith Hall. His scores of 41, 15, 30 and 28 already demonstrate a contempt for the taxpayer in his policy choices.

But Mr. Hall is the worst kind of bad.

Not only does he consistently vote to tax more, to spend more than the government has taken in, to overregulate and to burden employers, he votes to enrich himself with taxpayer funds, and rejects opportunity to provide reasonable transparency to his activities.

Specifically, he worked to appropriate funds to a company that turned around and awarded Mr. Hall hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of no-bid contracts. As the Legislative Ethics Commission Recently found, he broke the law:

State Rep. Keith Hall, D-Phelps, broke the law by using his public office to benefit himself, the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission ruled Tuesday as part of a plea deal.

In a rare punishment of a legislator, the commission fined Hall $2,000 and notified House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, that it had publicly reprimanded Hall.

Specifically, Hall voted in 2005 to appropriate coal-severance taxes for a Pike County sewer project from which one of his companies was given more than $171,000 in no-bid contracts.

Because of the death of a key witness, the Commission was not able to hear the direct process by which Mr. Hall secured his contracts. Instead the Commission felt compelled to accept a plea-deal where Mr. Hall "denied guilt but agreed that enough evidence existed to make a case against him."

There's enough guilt in the circumstances without needing any input from Mr. Hall or the witness.

The Herald-Leader has called on Speaker Stumbo to remove Mr. Hall from his seat on the Appropriations and Revenue Committee:

At a minimum, House leadership should react to the Commission's finding by getting Hall out of the business of influencing how public money is spent, which he does from his seat on the House Appropriations Committee.

However, there's nothing that requires the House to discipline a wayward member and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, didn't seem to be in any hurry to take action against his fellow Democrat from the mountains. Stumbo said he'd wait to see the commission's report first.

If Speaker Stumbo is half as righteous as he professed to be during his investigation of the Fletcher administration's firings of no one, he'll want to exclude Mr. Hall from the caucus entirely.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 2:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 14, 2011

Courier-Journal Finds Any Ol' Excuse to Endorse Hollenbach

The Courier-Journal's recent endorsement of Todd Hollenbach for Treasurer is pathetic.

There is simply no compelling reason to replace Mr. Hollenbach after just one term, and there are solid grounds for returning him to office.

Like what?

Well for starters, KC Crosbie's great, but she's a Republican, they say in editor-code:

Ms. Crosbie is an appealing newcomer to the state political scene. She has perhaps tried too hard to appeal to right-wing elements of her party, but she herself adopts a more moderate tone and displays engaging energy and enthusiasm. She should have a promising future in Lexington and state politics.

His other opponent, Ken Moellman wants to do away with the office of Treasurer. They concede that he's right, but dismiss him anyway.

A Libertarian candidate, Kenneth C. Moellman Jr. of Pendleton County, is also on the ballot. He proposes doing away with the treasurer and his top assistants and replacing them with computers. That's a simplistic notion, although the idea of making the treasurer a gubernatorial appointee has some merit. In any event, Mr. Moellman hasn't the exposure to sell his candidacy or ideas.

They dismiss Crosbie's valid concerns about Hollenbach's competence because Crit Luallen endorses him.

Actually, Ms. Luallen, who has endorsed Mr. Hollenbach, found that problems at the beginning of his term in reconciling the state's bank accounts were due to implementation before he arrived of a new computerized accounting system. She reported that Mr. Hollenbach's office had made progress in the reconciliation process and said more recently that state accounts are now reconciled for the first time since 2006.

Sure she did. Luallen's a Team Democrat player. But what the Courier-Journal fails to mention is what Luallen really thinks. From Ryan Alessi in February:

"I think it probably is worth a look to see whether or not in the future the treasurer's office has enough responsibility to really justify it being a separate statewide elected constitutional office," she said. "And that's nothing against the current office holder. I think as a matter of state oversight and efficiency, we ought to look at that issue."

Her comments on Monday's Pure Politics follow the release of her office's latest audit report that found several repeat problems with the state treasurer's office. Most notably, auditor's found that the state Treasurer Todd Hollenbach's office had failed to keep the state's financial books balanced as required. It also failed to fix problems auditors cited last year with insufficient safeguards on who has access to key state databases.

Back in February, Luallen agreed with Moellman and Crosbie.

It's really all pretty pathetic. The editorial, the board, the Treasurer and the Treasurer's office itself.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 10:43 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

Why Republicans Should Expect to Pick Up Seats in the Kentucky House

This is a reprint from our newsletter. If you do not currently receive our newsletter, you can sign up for it for free here.

Even though the Kentucky General Assembly probably will not act until January, the census data is available on the LRC website, and discussions are already underway. Below are some results of our preliminary analysis of how Kentucky House districts will have to change for the 2012 elections and 2013 General Assembly.

Ryan Alessi listed the ten largest House districts back in March, noting that eight of the ten are held by Republicans. Expanding to the top twelve, we find that nine of the top twelve are held by Republicans.  But that isn't the whole story. 

Every one of these top twelve districts were carried overwhelmingly by Rand Paul in the 2010 US Senate election.  Below are two charts. The first is a chart of the twelve districts, the current representative, the 2010 Census population and how much the current population exceeds the population target of 43,394.  The second chart details the same districts, the percentage vote for Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway in the 2010 US Senate election in each district, and the difference victory for Paul. (*Note - Where precinct voting data was not readily available for a county, an estimate was created, awarding the vote proportionally by population.  Estimates are indicated with an asterisk.)

Dist.	Rep.	Party	Pop.	Over	Over%
60	Sal Santoro	R	61922	18528	43%
29	Kevin Bratcher	R	58398	15004	35%
62	Ryan Quarles	R	58212	14818	34%
48	Bob DeWeese	R	57335	13941	32%
58	Brad Montell	R	55607	12276	28%
59	David Osborne	R	54114	10720	25%
66	Addia Wuchner	R	52522	9128	21%
21	Jim DeCesare	R	52399	9005	21%
20	Jody Richards	D	51873	8479	20%
25	Jimmy Lee	D	51569	8175	19%
49	Linda Belcher	D	50626	7232	17%
45	Stan Lee	R	50499	7105	16%

Dist.	Rep.	Party	Paul%	Conway%	Diff.	'10 Scr
60	Sal Santoro	R	75%	25%	50%	57
29	Kevin Bratcher	R	60%	40%	20%	60
62	Ryan Quarles	R	57%	43%	13%	N/A
48	Bob DeWeese	R	57%	43%	14%	35
58	Brad Montell	R	61%*	39%*	23%*	60
59	David Osborne	R	65%*	35%*	30%*	57
66	Addia Wuchner	R	73%	72%	46%	76
21	Jim DeCesare	R	61%	39%	23%	81
20	Jody Richards	D	59%	41%	18%	24
25	Jimmy Lee	D	60%	40%	21%	23
49	Linda Belcher	D	62%	38%	25%	23
45	Stan Lee	R	59%	41%	18%	86

Scores: Green = Friend of the Taxpayer; Black = Disappointing; Red = Regular supporter of tax and spend policies

These districts total over 134,000 in excess population, enough to create three new House districts.  What's more is that these top districts voted for Rand Paul over Jack Conway by an average of 62%-38%, nearly a 25-point swing. While it is true that Jack "Aqua Buddha" Conway was strongly despised in this election, 24 points is a landslide, indicating that three districts' worth of voters who lean heavily Republican will have to be put somewhere in the new map.

Population growth is strong in Boone County, Georgetown, East Louisville and the Louisville suburbs, and Bowling Green. Looking at the low scores among all but three or four of the legislators representing these fifteen districts' worth of population, there is ample opportunity to add some conservatives in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 8:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

Links for October 14, 2011

Governor Beshear's Finance Secretary "innocently" forgets to hide her use of state resources for Beshear's campaign.

In addition to the $4.1 million Beshear raised in part using state resources, some other group has $1.3 million to support him

Agriculture Commissioner candidates James Comer and Bob Farmer met at the Kentucky Farm Bureau, and Farmer still spoke about marketing as if it was one of the important functions of the office

Companies afraid of being sued line up to support an organization of litigious Democratic Attorneys General and Jack Conway

WFLP interviews Attorney General Candidate Todd P'Pool

Posted by Andy Hightower at 8:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 13, 2011

Links for October 13, 2011

Agriculture Commissioner candidate Bob Farmer is sour grapes when his ethics complaint against opponent James Comer is dismissed.

Auditor candidate Adam Edelen has an ad

Candidate for Governor Gatewood Galbraith has a running mate who has broken into houses and excessively borrowed cars

Governor candidate Steve Beshear reports raising $4 million, opponent David Williams reports raising $1 million

Treasurer candidate KC Crosbie outraises opponents Todd Hollenbach and Ken Moellman

Posted by Andy Hightower at 12:20 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 12, 2011

A Sensible Plan to Help Combat Peudoephedrine Abuse

Last year, the General Assembly considered passing legislation to fight Methamphetamine abuse by effectively banning decongestants. While this legislation would have allowed Pseudoephedrine purchases through prescription, that was an unnecessary and costly hurdle to construct. That policy has several specific undesirable consequences, including:

• forcing doctors to police access to the drug in a state notorious for prescription drug abuse;

• making felons out of any individual who purchased a pseudoephedrine product out of state then returned with it to Kentucky; and

• requiring a visit to the doctor for relief to the common cold.

Fortunately, the legislation did not pass, although efforts are underway to make pseudoephedrine a "legacy drug", which would have much the same effect other than removing the treat of accidental felony.

Fortunately, a reasonable alternative has been offered for the 2012 session:

Carlos Gutierrez, director of state government relations for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, told the Interim Joint Committee on the Judiciary on Friday that limiting the sale of pseudoephedrine to those who have been convicted of meth-related crimes has worked in other states.

Anyone convicted of a methamphetamine-related crime would go into a registry and would be blocked from buying cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, he said.

Of course, such a reasonable suggestion was immediately dismissed by the pseudoephedrine abolitionists, who laughably suggest that all criminal pseudoephedrine purchasers are addicts with no former criminal history.

The proposal was immediately rejected by Dan Smoot, law-enforcement director of Operation UNITE, a drug task force in southeastern Kentucky, who said a registry or block list just won't work.

"Most meth cooks don't buy the cold medicine," he said. "This isn't going to do anything. It's useless."

Meth "cookers" typically pay people called "smurfers" to buy the cold medicine. "Smurfers" are addicts or other people looking to make money who rarely have criminal histories, Smoot said. "Cookers" can give "smurfers" $50 to buy a $12 package of cold medicine, he said.

It seems ridiculous for Mr. Smoot to claim, on the one hand, that no one who purchases the pseudoephedrine would be caught by a blacklist because they're just normal people making a quick buck, then on the other hand claim that a doctor is the best person to monitor this activity and sort out the good and bad apples! Either you can identify them and catch them or you can't. Doctors aren't any more psychic than the police.

Instead of inadequately shifting the problem from law enforcement to the doctor's office, let's just blacklist the bad actors and let everyone else have their cold medicine.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 1:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

Links for October 12, 2011

Governor Candidate Steve Beshear graces the world with his presence

The debate did not surprise Gabe Bullard

The Courier-Journal endorses Alison Grimes for Secretary of State, taking a moment to call her opponent Bill Johnson "loud, combative...angry and unfocused."

AG candidate Todd P'Pool accuses Jack Conway of a conflict of interest

Republican rising star candidate for Agriculture Commissioner James Comer outraises Democratic rising star candidate for Auditor Adam Edelen.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 12:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 11, 2011

Beshear's Shortcomings Numerous

Another great list for the Herald-Leader's John Cheves. Here, Cheves investigates the several ways Beshear has come up short on his promises to Kentuckians:

He couldn't pass casinos

When Steve Beshear ran for governor in 2007, he built a winning campaign on the promise of legalizing slot machines at horse racetracks.

Slots would save Kentucky's ailing horse industry and create $500 million a year in state revenue, Beshear told voters. He would use that money to end college tuition hikes, give health insurance to every child and extend prescription drug coverage to senior citizens.

"Now, the question is, what happens if we don't pass it?" Beshear asked at a rally that year. "Well, I'm gonna tell you something. I'm not going to have to answer that question because I am going to pass it."

He didn't pass it.

He helped make the state less stable financially

Beshear claims that he "balanced the budget eight times in three years." However, Kentucky relied on $3 billion in federal stimulus money to fill the void created by decreasing state tax revenue. Washington, which Beshear attacks as dysfunctional in his campaign ads, helped Kentucky pay for prisons, schools, health care, construction and many other routine expenses.

Even with that outside aid, the state's debts -- including the multi-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability for state workers, among the nation's worst -- prompted ratings agencies to downgrade Kentucky's bonds this year.

In a report issued in July, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce warned that Beshear and the legislature are lashing together state budgets with massive borrowing and one-time funds that can't reliably pay for recurring expenses.

He hasn't created the jobs he claims

In campaign ads, Beshear says he created or retained nearly 19,500 jobs using tax incentives. But a check with individual employers has shown that many specific jobs he touts do not exist.

One of Beshear's biggest jobs disappointments, which he no longer brags about, is an electric-car factory in Shepherdsville that would employ 4,000. The project won approval for $48 million in incentives, and Beshear famously drove a victory lap around the state Capitol in a prototype car. But the deal later evaporated, and nothing was built.

Meanwhile, Kentucky's unemployment rate stood at 9.5 percent this summer, up from 5.6 percent the day he took office. The state's median household income fell in 2010, forcing one in three Kentucky households to live on less than $25,000 a year.

He has cut education funding

Education, among other crucial state services, took a bruising in the past four years.

Beshear and the legislature labored not to cut funding for Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, the main channel for state money to flow to local school districts. SEEK funding held fairly steady, dropping only slightly to $2.9 billion this fiscal year, or about $3,900 per pupil on average, according to the state Education Department.

The problem with frozen SEEK funding is that statewide school enrollment climbed by as many as 20,000 children in the past five years, reaching 645,000 this year, department spokeswoman Lisa Gross said. Funding might be frozen, but expenses are not, she said.

With SEEK funding off the table, nearly everything else the Education Department does for schools has been axed.

"We're getting to the point where state funding for our school districts just isn't adequate anymore," said Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and former Fayette County schools superintendent.

The state has clearly gone in reverse while the current Governor has done little. And Kentucky's voters are ready to reelect him overwhelmingly.

Posted by Andy Hightower at 10:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

Links for October 11, 2011

Man says Governor candidate Steve Beshear politically targeted his religious signs

David Williams' wife Robyn enunciates a vision for Kentucky, something Governor Steve Beshear is unable to do

There will be an actual debate including all three candidates for governor tonight in Richmond

The Auditor candidate debate was 'contentious'

Candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer has raised a boatload of cash

Posted by Andy Hightower at 10:01 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 10, 2011

Links for October 10, 2011

David Williams is supported in his candidacy for Governor by an outside group's investment of $1.365 million in media

Auditor candidate Adam Edelen says opponent John Kemper's bankruptcy hurts his qualifications for office, while Kemper says Edelen is financially beholden to the people he is supposed to audit

Lt. Governor candidate Dea Riley, running mate of Gatewood Galbraith, joins anti-coal but not anti-all-coal protest

Al Cross is puzzled why Governor candidate Steve Beshear seems so resilient

when he hides from public debate, has a bad economy and must defend the actions of liberal national leadership

Agriculture Commissioner candidate Bob Farmer is most notable as being confusing thought to be a relative of Richie Farmer says the AP

Posted by Andy Hightower at 2:22 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks

October 7, 2011

Statewide Links for October 7, 2011

AG candidate Jack Conway announces, after four years of doing nothing, teaming with Governor candidate Steve Beshear to tackle prescription drug abuse

Beshear says the plan is basically to make physicians self-police better

Beshear is using his popularity to help Jack Conway's campaign

Conway says that none of this effects his ability to investigate Beshear's unethical activity

Jack Conway also ruled that the public university's hospital is a public entity

Posted by Andy Hightower at 10:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks