Hmmmm. Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo (D) is not a super delegate, but the endorsement is interesting to see. Although barring some strange act that no-one presently sees Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) will win Kentucky on May 20, Sen. Barack Obama (D) will nevertheless be the Democratic nominee.

My question is: Is Mongiardo endorsing Obama to negate the earlier endorsement from Rep. Ben Chandler (D) should 1) Obama be the next President and 2) Mongiardo and Chandler meet one another in the Democratic primary in 2010 to see who gets to slaughter dementia-suffering Sen. Jim Bunning (R) at the polls that year? I hear that Obama’s people are very thankful for Chandler’s endorsement because it came at a time of need (during the worst two weeks of his campaign) and from a place of importance (the heart of HillaryLand).

Per a press release from the Obama campaign:

Kentucky Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo Endorses Senator Barack Obama

LEXINGTON, KY - Today, Kentucky Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo announced his endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President, less than two weeks before the state’s May 20th primary.

“I am happy to announce my endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President,” said Lt. Gov. Mongiardo. “I believe Senator Obama can unite the Democratic Party and build a coalition of Independents and Republicans to win in November. A proven leader at working across the partisan aisle, he will bring relief to the hardworking families of Kentucky and a responsible end to the war in Iraq. As a surgeon I am particularly impressed with Senator Obama’s plan to deliver health care to all Americans, with an imperative focus on cutting medical costs for all families. It’s time for real change in Washington, and Sen. Obama is the candidate to deliver that change.”

On Saturday, the Obama campaign announced that Senator Obama will hold a rally Monday night in Louisville. Earlier this week the Obama campaign opened its 16th office in the Bluegrass state, as well as weekend canvassing in 27 cities and towns across Kentucky.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Coming to a newsstand near you: The Nation with Bob Moser’s cover story entitled “Kentucky at War,” which examines Kentucky’s progressive grassroots community and how it’s reshaping the political and ideological landscapes of that state — and doing so outside the rigid, tepid, and unresponsive party structures.

It’s gonna be a hell of a read!

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If you didn’t get your fill of delicious food and fiery political conversation at Fancy Farm, there’s still a chance to belly-up at O’bryan’s in West Louisville, KY. O’bryan’s is playing host to the second annual Red, White, & Blue Picnic, the successor to the picnic formerly held at Red’s in Sorgho.

Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer’s Owen Covington reports (no link; subscription only):

For decades, politicians followed up a weekend at Fancy Farm in western Kentucky with a stop at Red’s Fish House of the South in Sorgho, where Thomas “Red” Saltsman hosted a political picnic with free food and speeches.

O’Bryan’s owner Jamie Murphy estimated that the first year of the Red, White & Blue picnic drew about 900 people with candidates for U.S. Congress as well as state and local office taking their turns on stage.

[…]

O’Bryan’s will be cooking more than 400 chickens to provide the free dinner for the event, which is sponsored by the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce and the Daviess County Democratic and Republican parties.

[…]

This year features all state constitutional offices on the ballot, with a contested gubernatorial battle between incumbent Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Steve Beshear.

Fletcher has said he will be in West Louisville for today’s event, and Beshear running mate Dan Mongiardo of Hazard, who currently serves in the state Senate, will represent the Beshear camp, according to the chamber.

As some know, Red’s hosted its own picnic for nearly 50 years, the last one being held in 2004. Owner Red Saltsman died in 2005, and the restaurant closed in 2006. Red’s place was sold earlier this year. With 900 people showing for the Red, White, & Blue Picnic’s inaugural year, O’Bryan’s seems poised to be every bit as treasured as its predecessor.

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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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Saturday’s Courier-Journal offered a great preview to the goings-on at Fancy Farm.

Commenter kilowat1946 was kind enough to offer a brief report for those of us who couldn’t make it:

it was hot
Republicans were outnumbered ~20 to 1
Reception to Sen. Mitch McConnell included lots of booing
Attorney General Greg Stumbo did, indeed, have the bloodhounds

He also left a link to photos of the event, which can be found here. Thanks for sharing these!

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The reviews from national media and blogs are pouring in after Greg Stumbo’s announcement of a possible run against McConnell. They all are quite similar: Stumbo is a formidable opponent to Senator Mitch McConnell and should he run, this would be a very competitive race.

The national media picking up on McConnell’s vulnerability in next year this early in the election cycle is an extremely bad sign for the Senate Minority Leader. First, it helps to destruct the idea that McConnell is somehow unbeatable and will energize voters who are tired of his unabashed support of Bush’s disasterous policy. Second, usually the national media only reports on an incumbent candidate’s vulnerability after a defeat or extremely close race is already certain. In fact, while working forDaniel Mongiardo’s bid for Senate in 2004, we all knew the bid to defeat Jim Bunning was going to be very close months before the national media would even give us the time of day.

From Chris Cilliza at WaPo:

This race has potential despite McConnell’s significant political chops and fundraising capacity.

MSNBC highlights McConnell’s woes:

McConnell, in his fifth term, has taken heat from all sides for sticking with President Bush on Iraq and initially on immigration — before he ultimately voted against the measure. Stumbo will likely look to capitalize particularly on immigration in the conservative state.

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In an effort to reach out to the progressive KY blogosphere, soon-to-be-Governor Steve Beshear (D) conducted a conference call with several local bloggers. The roll call included: Matt, Shawn, Cliff, Jim and I from DitchMitchKY; Jonathan Singer from MyDD; and Ted Shlechter from The Bridge. (there might have been others, fill me in if I missed someone)

Beshear noted that the blogosphere is going to continue to play an important role in KY politics, not just in this year’s Governors race, but next year with the Congressional and Presidential campaigns. He felt that this call presented an opportunity to hear some concerns and feedback from us, and the gesture was greatly appreciated by all. Any candidate that wishes to have success in the next 2 years would do well to embrace the post-Bluegrass Report blogosphere.

Steve also noted that he was glad he avoided a run-off election in the primary, as the Kentucky Democrats appear to be united on all fronts and in good shape for this Fall. Though polls show him well ahead of Fletcher, he cautioned that we shouldn’t be overconfident. Fletcher is sure to raise and spend plenty of money for attack ads, which could always make it a close race. He did note that he plans on raising $4-5 million himself, excluding outside dollars.

Several of the questions and concerns dealt with Beshear’s advocacy of "clean coal" as the future of KY’s energy policy. Beshear said that he would sit down with leaders from all sides of the issue to reach some kind of common ground; allowing union leaders, environmentalists and industry to meet at the table. He also expressed a desire to enforce regulations on strip mining and mountaintop removal that are not currently followed through on. Additional funding for alternative technologies at universities will also be a top priority. He noted a quite interesting tidbit on the Peabody deal- that Peabody wouldn’t even have the feasibility study done for one of its plants until April. Which makes the special session plan a little….shady?

Beshear also talked a great deal about improving Kentucky’s economy. He noted that KY’s budget is currently woefully inadequate to fund everything that we are in need of. One method of increasing revenue, of course, is his plan to expand gaming. He also criticized the tactic of offering outside businesses tax breaks to move to KY as rather short-sided, in itself. He noted that such companies often move here for a few years, only to leave for Mexico or somewhere else where they can get even cheaper labor. Beshear wants to give small and medium sized independent businesses incentives to stay and thrive here in KY, and he also wants to fund job training programs.

When asked what he would do as Governor in the instance that a bill is passed which prohibits UK and UL from implementing its domestic partner benefits plan, he said that he would veto it. We need to help our universities compete nationally, and having the government impose such a restriction will not allow them to attract and keep our best candidates.

The folks at DitchMitchKY, BlueGrassRoots, The Bridge and MyDD thanked Beshear for setting up this conference call, as it shows a good deal of respect for both the KY blogosphere and grassroots activism. As local blogs in Connecticut and Virginia showed last year, we can have a huge impact on the political scene. We’re glad that Beshear and his staff have recognized this new political reality.

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

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The Steve Beshear team won a resounding victory on Tuesday night, but the big winners are the people of Kentucky, who will have an outstanding candidate on the ballot in November and an outstanding governor come 2008.

Here are some videos from the Tuesday evening victory celebration at Beshear/Mongiardo headquarters.

Also see:

Click here to see Jonathan Miller at the victory celebration.

Click here to see Beshear running mate Daniel Mongiardo at the victory celebration.

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