This week in the Kentucky blogosphere, mainly on the left but also on the right, controversy erupted around the political jockeying that’s taking place at this very moment to become the Democratic candidate to challenge Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) in 2008.

Whatever the behind-the-scenes reality, appearances are that some people with power and influence in Democratic circles in the state and national party and the state and national blogosphere are lining up behind State Auditor Crit Luallen (D) in an attempt to muscle out other potential candidates from a Democratic primary, namely Attorney General Greg Stumbo (D) and Lt. Col. Andrew Horne (D).

As one insider told me in a Friday-night conversation, it’s generally understood that a few Luallen supporters are out there making “assholes” of themselves and in the process, in my opinion, are doing a disservice to their favored candidate among the state’s grassroots.

So, in the context of the workings of these aforementioned and institutionally recognized assholes, came earlier this week the rather odd coincidence that, when reporting on the freshly released and newsworthily dismal approval ratings of Sen. McConnell, national bloggers Kos of Daily Kos and Jonathan Singer of MyDD, simultaneously chose to highlight the draft movement for Crit Luallen while entirely ignoring the far more official candidacy of Greg Stumbo and the strong grassroots movement to draft Andrew Horne.

Again, whatever the reality, it very much appeared that Kos and Singer were participating in a coordinated effort to paint Stumbo and Horne out of the picture.

Add to the Kos and Singer episode the fact that Liz Fossett, a northern Kentucky native and student at Georgetown University who is coordinator of the Draft Crit website, appears to have been participating in a trolling operation that targeted the comments sections of neutral or non-Crit aligned blogs using the handles Kim, Katie, and Kati.

The principle outlets were this blog, PageOneKentucky, BlueGrassRoots, and Rural Democrat. The principle targets of the trash talking were Andrew Horne and Joe Sonka of BlueGrassRoots and DitchMitchKY, who was accused of being a “bought” blogger.

Now, trolling and vindictiveness in the comments of blogs has been with us since the beginning and I predict it will be with us until the end, but if you are a person leading a draft movement for a candidate, it’s wisest not to participate in that behavior.

When confronted with the evidence of the trolling efforts, Ms. Fossett wrote a mea culpa of sorts in a diary at BlueGrassRoots. While Ms. Fossett admits that the various inflammatory comments did come from a single IP address that is a computer in her family’s home in northern Kentucky, she denies that she wrote the comments. Instead, it is her contention that other people in this household participated in the digital flogging. I myself find this scenario difficult to believe.

I personally want to say that I like and respect all the potential Democratic candidates for this race. I deeply admire the fight within and political conviction of Greg Stumbo and am thankful for the personal encouragement he gave him in my own campaign for county judge/executive in 2006. For me Stumbo appeals to my working class roots, and I believe he has a strong and guiding sense of fairness.

I have never met Andrew Horne in person, but I have many good friends who are his die-hard supporters. Many people in his extended political network have helped in nurturing this blog along and have aided efforts across the state to highlight the miserable record of Mitch McConnell.

I met Crit Luallen at Fancy Farm this August, where she gave two invigorating and rousing speeches, one at the Democratic breakfast and the other on stage at the picnic itself.

All three of these people would make fine candidates against Sen. McConnell.

I believe that if one looks at the field objectively and takes into consideration what is likely to be the political environment and national mood of 2008, then one is forced to admit that, on the whole, none of these candidates stands measurably above the rest in his or her potential against McConnell.

Each has his or her strengths and, likewise, weaknesses. Yet, there are examples from 2006 of Democrats very much like Stumbo, Horne, and Luallen all defeating Republican incumbents in the Senate. In Rhode Island former state attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse (D), whose tenure in that office had not been uncontroversial, defeated Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R). In Virginia former Marine Jim Webb (D), who had never before held elected office, took down George Allen (R), and in Missouri state auditor Claire McCaskill (D) defeated Jim Talent (R).

While none of our potential Democratic candidates in Kentucky are perfect, it’s important to keep in mind that not even the perfect candidate is guaranteed to beat Mitch McConnell, who himself is about as far from perfect as a human being can be.

We aren’t striving for perfection in our candidate. We’re striving to find a candidate and a message that we can rally 50 percent plus one of the voters around on November 4, 2008.

I see no problems if all three candidates run. I think the eventual nominee would be stronger for having gone through a competitive, issue-based primary.

Kentucky Democrats have proven over the course of the last two years that they can indeed run against one another in primaries and rally around the eventual winners.

Horne and his supporters were enthusiastic supporters of Rep. John Yarmuth (D) in November 2006. The 2007 Democratic gubernatorial primary was generally well behaved, and Stumbo was gracious in coming up short of victory there. For Luallen, having to run a competitive statewide primary would help her demonstrate that she can campaign hard to corners of the grassroots that see her 2003 effort as weak and her 2007 contest as far from baptism-by-fire.

In the end it will be much easier for Kentucky Democrats of every stripe to rally around the eventual nominee if each knows his or her candidate was beaten fair and square at the ballot box. It does more harm than good to pressure potential candidates out of the Democratic primary because the supporters of those candidates would rightly feel cheated.

They would rightly feel cheated because allowing that to happen would be an example of Democrats with much individual power and influence stopping Democrats with little individual power and influence from exercising what little power and influence they do have. For the latter category, the ballot box serves as their chief means to express political will.

It’s naïve to think that people with power and influence will ever stop trying to use their advantages to game the system, but the rest of us can better organize to resist them.

And that’s what’s going on.

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So the new Survey USA numbers come out today showing that McConnell’s approval is tanking, and several national bloggers pick up on what should be a purely happy and schadenfreude-filled story for all parties concerned with the effort to banish Mitch McConnell (R) from the halls of congress.

Unfortunately, many of those big-name bloggers took the good news and managed to alienate needlessly a significant portion of the grassroots in Kentucky with it. Of particular note are Kos of DailyKos and Jonathan Singer of MyDD who ended their posts on the matter with nearly identical lines. To quote Singer, “If you want to help turn up the heat on McConnell, head over to DraftCrit.com — which is seeking to get Democratic state Auditor Crit Luallen to run for the Senate — to get involved.”

Now, everybody here knows that Crit Luallen (D) isn’t the only Democrat considering a run against Mitch McConnell. Attorney General Greg Stumbo (D) and Lt. Col. Andrew Horne (D) are actively doing so, as well. Everybody knows that; it’s been talked about for months now.

And since everybody knows that, that’s what makes the singular focus of Kos and Singer on the draft Luallen movement (which is by no means a bottom-up, grassroots effort; it’s entirely driven by the Kentucky Democratic establishment) a blatant dissing of Stumbo, Horne, and their respective supporters.

DitchMitchKY as a blog has remained neutral among these various Democrats, while pretty much every other major blog has picked its pony. Only nice things have been said about the serious potential candidates here, from Charlie Owen (D), to Stumbo, Horne, and Luallen. No matter who the eventual Democratic nominee is against McConnell, this blog will enthusiastically support him or her. Our mission here is simply to ditch Mitch.

I have my own opinions about which candidate might be best at making that goal a reality, and I have my own opinions about the individual strengths and weaknesses of the potential candidates. I’m keeping those to myself, however, and we are using this platform to inform and edify the people who find their way here.

And, you know what? This nation and its progressives will rally around whichever Democrat is the eventual nominee. That’s a fact. So, Kos, Singer, and the like achieve absolutely nothing positive in thumbing their digital noses at Stumbo and Horne supporters. This race is for Kentucky Democrats to decide. The one thing they did achieve (along with whoever is encouraging them to focus solely on Luallen at this stage) is to tick off a lot — and I mean a lot — of Kentucky progressive activists.

No-one’s saying that honest discussion and handicapping of the candidates isn’t appropriate, but to ignore that the other candidates are in the race is simple arrogance. All supporters of the other candidates are asking is for a little respect for the Democratic process and for their candidates.

And by offering only implicit disrespect, these national bloggers are doing the budding Kentucky progressive movement no good.

UPDATE(Wed. 1:00pm ET): I retract my use of the word “entirely” above when speaking of Crit Luallen’s draft movement being a Kentucky Democratic establishment phenomenon. That’s simply not the case. I should have written “significantly”.

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Chris Cillizza over at the Washington Post’s political blog The Fix helps spread the word that Steve Beshear’s victory on Tuesday and the general resurgence of Democrats in Kentucky severely complicates Sen. Mitch McConnell’s reelection picture. Read it, it’s pretty good, but I do take issue with the one bit on potential challengers that I highlight below.

Kentucky: Will Dems’ Bandwagon Roll Over McConnell?

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s (R) lopsided defeat at the hands of former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear (D) last night already has the political community — both here and in the Bluegrass State — buzzing about what it all means for the ‘08 reelection chances of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell’s decision to begin running TV ads late this week is sure to fuel talk that he is nervous and getting more so after Fletcher’s loss. McConnell is spending roughly $117,000 on the 60-second ad, which The Fix has yet to see. That cost includes 500 gross ratings points (meaning the average viewer will see the ad five times in a week) in the Louisville media market and 600 points in the Lexington market.

[…]

Beshear’s win will almost certainly energize the Democratic political establishment and the activist base in the state, and could also provide encouragement for candidates considering the race.

At the top of that list is state Auditor Crit Luallen, who was reelected overwhelmingly to a second term last night, with 59 percent. Luallen visited with officials from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee earlier this year to talk about a race, and the DSCC has commissioned two polls in the state — perhaps in an attempt to convince Luallen to take the plunge.

Democratic strategists like Luallen for several reasons, including a compelling personal story — she has twice battled cancer in recent years — and believe her tenure in her current post gives her a nice launching pad from which to challenge McConnell. (A recent poll by Research 2000 for the Lexington Herald-Leader showed Luallen trailing McConnell by a 45 percent to 40 percent margin.) One potential hiccup in that plan, however, is that Luallen served as executive secretary in the administration of disgraced Gov. Paul Patton (D) — a connection Republicans would be sure to make if she decided to challenge McConnell.

Although Luallen appears to be Democrats’ first choice, there is also serious talk about a candidacy by Greg Fischer, the CEO of Dant Clayton, which, judging from their Web site — stadiumbleachers.com, appears to specialize in “stadium and bleacher solutions.” Fischer is a political novice but is apparently quite wealthy and might be willing to spend significant funds on a race against McConnell.

State Attorney General Greg Stumbo, wealthy businessman Charlie Owen and Andrew Horne, an Iraq war vet and unsuccessful congressional candidate in 2006, are also in the mix for Democrats, but not as highly regarded as Luallen or Fischer.

[…]

###

Yes, Chris, Kentuckians hold Greg Fisher — he of “stadium and bleacher solutions” fame — in much higher regards than Greg Stumbo, the outgoing attorney general who held the corrupt Fletcher administration accountable, than Charlie Owen, who’s used his wealth to fight the good fight for Democrats in the past, and former marine and progressive activist Andrew Horne.

Yes, Chris, if Fisher jumps into the race, his virtual non-history in the Democratic movement in Kentucky will inspire so many. I myself will just be beside myself with enthusiasm.

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You no doubt all seen the new Herald-Leader commissioned poll that finds the support of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) to continue its fast-paced erosion.

In short, it finds that McConnell’s unpopularity is now surpassing his popularity, and that all his potential Democratic opponents are sitting very pretty a year out from the election.

Here’s the quick breakdown:

McConnell v. Chandler: 46/41
McConnell v. Luallen: 45/40
McConnell v. Stumbo: 46/37
McConnell v. Horne: 45/34

What are the most telling findings of the polling?

First, that McConnell never gets above 46 percent support against any of the Democrats. Second, that that’s the case even against Horne, whose inclusion in the polling essentially represents — because of what I suspect is low name recognition across the state — the equivalent of “generic Democrat.” A majority of Kentuckians don’t want to vote for McConnell.

What’s the most inane comment in the H-L article? This one from Danny Briscoe:

[…]

Although Chandler and Luallen showed the same deficit to McConnell, Chandler is better off because he’s already endured barrages of harsh ads during the 2003 election, said Danny Briscoe, a Democratic campaign consultant.

“Ben Chandler’s had millions of dollars attacking him, Crit Luallen’s never taken a punch,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine if she had millions attacking her that she’d be in the position she’s in now.”

[…]

This makes no sense. Then why is Chandler sitting in the position he’s sitting in, even after the millions of dollars spent attacking him? Are we to imagine that negative advertising takes a person a set distance from some base? Did Chandler start professional life at something like 70 percent, and after decades of negative advertising he’s been eroded to 41 percent against McConnell? Because, you know, there’s never been a case in all of electoral history where a challenger defeated an incumbent by surviving (and actually gaining popularity) in the face of his or her rival’s relentless negative attacks.

Where do they find these inane people?

Plus, I’ve heard lots of people argue — and not that I agree with it — that a strength of a Luallen candidacy is that it’s harder to relentlessly attack a woman. I’m not so sure about that. It might be hard to attack them in the conventional sense, but there are ways of undermining people’s confidence by playing on stereotypes, whisper campaigns, and the like.

The thing to keep in mind here, I think, is the case of Sen. Jim Webb (D) of Virginia. In 2006, Webb’s incumbent opponent Sen. George Allen (R) outspent Webb $19 million to $8.5 million.

In June of 2006, six months out from the election, Webb still trailed Allen 56 percent to 37 percent.

So, neither Horne, Stumbo, Luallen, or Chandler is in a bad position.

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From this week’s Trail Mix:

Trail Mix: Beshear finds allies in GOP country
By Ryan Alessi And Jack Brammer

[…]

Luallen for U.S. Senate?

In her speeches at the rallies last week, state Auditor Crit Luallen said success at the polls for Democrats this fall could lead to the party’s capture of more state legislative seats and congressional seats next year — maybe even the U.S. Senate.

Luallen was asked after Wednesday’s rally in Frankfort if she’d be interested in running next year against Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

She smiled and said only she has received encouragement to do that

[…]

###

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I’m pasting today’s Political Notebook from the Courier-Journal’s Joseph Gerth below. It’s especially fun to read today, and he even offers a contest at the end: email him your ideas for doctored photographs of Ernie Fletcher.

Okay, very briefly, let me tell you how I see the world of politics, political journalism, and political blogging evolving in Kentucky.

First, professional political journalists now produce (and will continue to produce in the future) the vast majority of raw factual, objective materials that bloggers use. That’s the case because journalists are trained professionals, they get paid to do what they do full time, and they build up the networks needed to get the information they need to produce their craft.

Second, bloggers — on the left and the right — take the raw material that journalists produce and put it in a partisan context. Now, of course bloggers do upon occasion produce news of their own, but that’s the exception and not the rule. As an aside, I would never, ever, ever want to blog full time. I enjoy my day job too much, which is probably what these journalists would tell you about their experience with blogging, too. There is a real need among political junkies for our partisan context, however. We also spur dialog and provide a platform that allows for ideological issues and differences to be vetted.

In the end, with all this talk in the national media and traditional press about the inherent friction between bloggers and journalists, I think the biggest threat to political journalists, their profession, and trade is apathy among the public and a population that is so disconnected and uninformed from politics that it can’t digest and engage with it at the level of complexity that is needed in an increasingly complex American society.

In short: political bloggers number among political journalists most ardent readers, and political blogging has introduced me to the work of several journalists that I was previously very unaware of. Political blogging and political bloggers, as they both mature as a medium and community, might well serve to strengthen and broaden the impact of political journalism.

That having been said, I want to say that I’m a little bit disturbed by the behavior of Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) and his goons as of late. This altering of the image of Democratic candidate Steve Beshear takes the cake. Why?

As a transparently and viciously partisan and vicious blogger, I can and do say very ornery things about incompetent Republicans in Kentucky. That’s the luxury of being a blogger, especially one sitting a thousand miles away in the quiet seclusion of Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, where the only thing distracting me at the moment is a beautiful creature standing a few feet away from me and looking at the New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia.

I doctor photographs, like this one and this one. I say things like, “Ernie Fletcher has a vagina up his asshole,” and, “Robbie Rudolph is a redneck idiot with no formal education,” and, “Stan Lee mixing his Christian fundamentalism with our politics makes him no better than a radical Islamicist.” I say these things because there’s a lot of truth to them and I say these things because I can. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read my blog.

Yet, when our governor and his campaign start behaving like me, I think it betrays a great deal–that we already knew–about why the Fletcher administration is where it is. Ernie Fletcher and his goons never really understood the gravity and responsibility of the office and the unique opportunity they’ve been given. They still don’t understand it, and they never will understand it. But the people of Kentucky do understand it, and that’s why they’ll elect Steve Beshear this November.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Joseph Gerth | Political Notebook
Look before you leap

State Auditor Crit Luallen recently produced an audit mildly critical of the way state tourism funds have been spent, saying that Kentucky needs to develop a better strategic plan for spending new marketing money and determining if the money was spent wisely.

That upset at least one Republican blogger, Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl, of Conservativeedge.com, who asked in a headline: “What does LuAllen know about tourism?”

In the blog report, Goettl goes on to ask, “What does LuAllen know about tourism or marketing? What does her audit staff know about it? I would venture to say very little … LuAllen has no business making such pronouncements unless she can demonstrate her competence in the area or show that she relied on competent experts.”

Well. Luallen, a Democrat, points out that she served as tourism secretary under former Gov. Brereton Jones and continued to work on tourism projects as executive cabinet secretary under former Gov. Paul Patton.

During her time in those two roles, the state expanded or built convention centers in Louisville and Northern Kentucky, passed a $100 million bond issue to upgrade state parks and saw the private development of numerous attractions, including the Newport Aquarium, Louisville’s 4th Street Live and Kentucky Speedway, which she said were partly the result of changes she and the administrations she worked for sought in state law.

“The record is there,” she said. “I have a strong background in marketing, in economic development and in tourism and that was one reason we looked at this issue.”

Goettl said in an interview that he would like to review Luallen’s record as tourism secretary more closely before determining whether she and her office are qualified to make such recommendations.

The doctoring is in

Last week state Republican Chairman Steve Robertson said that doctoring photos is fair game in the governor’s race between Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his Democratic opponent, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear.

In its first salvo, the party unveiled brochures that have Beshear’s head Photoshopped onto a body wearing a white blazer, a white, open-collar shirt and a necklace, leaning against a roulette table and holding a glass of what looks to be white wine.

“Easy Money Steve” they call him because of his proposal to bring casino gambling, and $500 million annually in revenue, to Kentucky.

But we were a bit surprised by Democratic Party Chairman Jonathan Miller’s response condemning the practice. We figured the Democrats would view the Republican attack as tacit approval for such shenanigans if they chose to do the same.

If you were running Beshear’s campaign, how would you doctor a photo of Fletcher? And if you were running Fletcher’s campaign, how would you follow up the “Easy Money Steve” brochure?

E-mail me at jgerth@courier-journal.com, and we may run some of your responses in upcoming weeks.

Poll dancing

Last week we led with a couple of items about a poll by the Lexington public relations firm of Preston-Osborne, which drew questions on the Courier-Journal Web site from some readers who wondered if we had been “snookered.”

The poll, commissioned by The Lane Report, a Lexington business journal, dealt with issues ranging from the governor’s race to casino gaming and seemed to give Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Beshear an edge on several fronts.

The basic argument that we had been “snookered” is that Preston-Osborne was founded by Tommy Preston, a longtime friend of Beshear, and the firm also has a contract to do public relations work with the Kentucky Equine Education Project, which supports casinos.

The fact of the matter is that Preston sold his interest in the firm to Phil Osborne in 1997 and hasn’t been involved in the company since (although he and Osborne are friends and still talk regularly). As far as the KEEP connection, Osborne notes that if he fudged numbers for one client to benefit another, he wouldn’t be in business very long.

I don’t doubt he’s correct on that. But what ultimately led us to run the Lane Report results was the fact that the numbers were right in line with other polling data we’ve seen, which gives them some measure of reliability.
Outta here

I’ll be taking some much-needed vacation over the next two weeks. The column should return Sept. 10 but keep the cards and letters coming. I’ll be checking e-mails while I’m away.

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This was my first visit to Fancy Farm and I’m glad I went. The Saturday morning breakfast was out of this world this world. All of the Democratic candidates were there and gave speeches. All of the speeches were great, but Crit Luallen gave one of the best speeches I have ever heard and then she gave a totally different speech that afternoon, two different speeches on the same day, I was impressed.
I didn’t shoot video at the breakfast, but I did get video of the afternoon speeches. I have edited them into short clips in an attempt capture the flavor of the event.

BELOW ARE THE VIDEO CLIPS. CLICK ON THE NAMES TO VIEW THE VIDEO OF THAT SPECIFIC PERSON.

Steve Beshear

Dr. Dan

Jack Conway

Crit Luallen

Greg Stumbo

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I’ve been going to the Fancy Farm Picnic for a long time, I only live 15 minutes down the road in Columbus, but this year was my favorite — the political energy and excitement were palpable. I hope you had the good fortune of being there, but incase you didn’t here are some of the highlights.

BIG WINNERS:

Democratic Party

Without any exaggeration, Dems outnumbered Republicans by at least a 4-to-1 margin and that is probably an understatement. I’ve never seen the crowd so heavily Democratic. And, incredibly fired up, I might add. Even the heat (about 120 degrees in the shade) couldn’t stifle the rowdiness of the crowd.

The favorable political environment for Dems on the state and national level certainly helped to turn out the crowd. But, hats off to the leadership of KDP Chairman Johnathan Miller and the Beshear-Mongiardo ticket who have been able to capitalize and organize around that momentum and turn it into a base of support that will hopefully serve as a strong foundation for several years to come.

Crit Luallen, State Auditor

Crit Luallen set the kind of tone and message that all Democrats should be using in their races this fall. I heard her speak at the Graves County Democratic breakfast and at Fancy Farm. Both of her speeches were fiery and hammered home a values based message centered on the simple beliefs that everyone deserves quality healthcare and a quality education. As she told the crowd, these are the social issues we should be talking about.

This kind of message speaks to working class families. Also, it helps Dems set the agenda so the Republicans can’t perpetually drag us into useless debates about the scare tactic issue de jour. With a substantive message based on strengthening the middle class through access to healthcare, education and high quality jobs, we will beat Republicans at the ballot box every time.

Hopefully more Dems will adopt her strategy because it resonates with Kentucky voters and I believe it’s how Dems will start to win back rural American voters.

BIG LOSER:

The Demoralized Republican Party

The most obvious thing everyone took away from Fancy Farm is that the Republican Party in Kentucky is totally deflated and fractured. If they weren’t so tactless you would almost have felt sorry for them.

Mitch McConnell and Ernie Fletcher owe Secretary of State Trey Grayson big time. He is the only Repub who turned out any volunteers for Fancy Farm. However, one little Repub on the right did give McConnell credit in a sign that read “Welcome to the House that Mitch Built.” Too bad for him it was built on cards.

Also worth noting, Grayson tries to brand himself as a new Repub who doesn’t share the same visceral disdain for Dems or bipartisanship as some his colleagues on the right. However, you certainly couldn’t tell it from the crowd he brought with him. As Daniel Mongiardo spoke the Grayson crew all dangled their hands out in front of their bodies in an attempt to look as though they had “limp wrists” and gay-bait.

Shame on you, Trey. If your minions are going to be so blatantly offensive, at least have them attempt to be clever.

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