Joe Sonka December 12th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Predictably, the Club for Growth slams McConnell for his big-government pork giveaway plan:

Club for Growth Criticizes McConnell Plan on Omnibus

Washington - In response to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s press conference this afternoon on the Omnibus bill, Club for Growth President Pat Toomey issued the following statement:

“It is a shame to see the highest ranking Republicans in the Senate move to the left of the Democrats on earmarks. For weeks, House Republicans stood strong against wasteful spending, resulting in a victory when Democratic Representative David Obey proposed eliminating all earmarks from the Omnibus Appropriations bill in order to reduce the bill’s price tag to meet the President’s request. We think this is a fantastic idea and applaud Obey for recognizing that earmarks are the least worthy component of the Omnibus bill.”

“Unfortunately, Senator McConnell and Trent Lott are perpetuating the practice of wasteful pork-barrel spending. Rather than part with his own and his colleagues’ pet projects, Senator McConnell announced his intention to offer an amendment that will reduce spending in the Omnibus bill by about two percent across the board, including earmarks. Trent Lott jumped to Senator McConnell’s defense, arguing that ‘Earmarks are justified and legitimate . . . I wouldn't give up my earmarks.’ We disagree. The earmarking process is inherently abusive. The earmarks are not subjected to committee hearings, competitive bidding, or other normal vetting processes. This is why the earmarking practice must end. We have even recently seen earmarks famously abused as a currency of corruption. Senators McConnell and Lott’s support for pork projects in the Omnibus is a sad statement about the priorities of the Republican Leadership in the Senate.” 

True conservative Republicans: isn't it time to Draft Forgy?

• Club for Growth , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell , Pork Spending
• Comments(1)

Matt Gunterman November 8th, 2007

I was talking to my parents last night about the KET coverage of the election on Tuesday, and they said that former state Republican Party chair Ellen Williams’ comment on Larry Forgy’s strong words for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) was that Forgy is, and I paraphrase since I didn’t see the interview, “a three-time loser.”

That, Ellen, is not how one deals with Larry Forgy. If McConnell’s people continue to mock Forgy, he’ll show them how much of a factor he is. In the end, if he runs as an independent against McConnell, Forgy will likely end up a four-time loser, but he’ll make McConnell a first-time loser — and who has the most to lose?

Mitch McConnell.

Here’s Joe Arnold over at WHAS on how things played out among Kentucky Republicans on Tuesday night.

What’s next for Kentucky’s GOP?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — So what’s next for Kentucky Republicans after Ernie Fletcher’s loss?

Prominent Republican Larry Forgy says the party is fractured. And in her first interview since she lost to Fletcher in the primary — former congresswoman Anne Northup says it’s time to move on.

Northup has kept mum for nearly six months since losing in the primary to governor Fletcher. Today, she responded to criticism that the primary fight contributed to Fletcher’s loss.

“Forgiveness is, and moving forward with confidence and pulling together is something you really shouldn’t be in politics if you can’t do,” she says.

But prominent Republican Larry Forgy is not moving on to forgiveness just yet. “The party is fractured today, and it was fractured by a few people at the Republican headquarters in Louisville. This did not have to happen.”

Forgy says he is angry with Northup, Senator Mitch McConnell and Lieutenant Governor Steve Pence. He calls Northup’s primary challenge a “fratricidal war,” which drained energy and $5 million from the Fletcher campaign.

“The primary is so long ago, it’s over! And so is the election over,” says Northup. “And the administration. And so in a sense, we have a chance to start fresh.”

Forgy says the time for party unity was years ago, at the outset of the merit hiring investigation.

“And everybody had said, that’s absurd, and we had all stood as a party and moved forward together, we’d have a totally different outcome tonight,” he says.

“You know, I really don’t want to talk about the past, but clearly, the polls have been the same for a year,” Northup says.

The governor himself had no cross words last night for Republicans who didn’t support him. “There’s no question, as I said tonight, I helped create some of that distraction myself,” Fletcher says. “I have no one to point to or to criticize. The important thing is to come together and let’s move Kentucky forward.”

“Clearly, Trey Grayson’s win says that the people of Kentucky have not lost faith in Republicans and are eager and willing to vote for Republicans,” Northup says.

Northup tells me she would love to run for office again, but is now helping others run. She defended U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, calling him a “unifying force.”

And when I asked if she voted for Ernie Fletcher, she said she voted straight Republican.

Meanwhile, Larry Forgy tells me he might run against McConnell next year.

###

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy
• Comments(1)

Matt Gunterman November 7th, 2007

If Larry Forgy (R) switches to Larry Forgy (I) and enters the U.S. Senate general election against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R), then McConnell’s defeat next November is assured, and here’s why.

[Below, I've included three graphs. The first details where Ross Perot outperformed his statewide haul in 1992; there's an obvious geography to that performance. The second shows what counties Forgy won in his 1995 gubernatorial bid. The third is of the counties that McConnell captured in 1990, in what was his closest reelection bid. McConnell depends heavily on large margins in south central Kentucky, of course, to pull out a victory in close races.]

First, the economy and mood of the nation in 2008 are shaping up to be a lot like they were in 1992. The nation looks headed towards recession, there’s a lack of confidence in the markets, inflation will likely kick into higher gear, the dollar is collapsing, and gasoline is expected to approach $4 per gallon in the summer and stay above $3 per gallon for a long, long time. Combine all this economic pain with the fact that the United States will most assuredly still be bogged down in Iraq and spending tens of billions of dollars there every month, and you’ve got a recipe for a political environment in 2008 that makes 1992 look like a Sunday afternoon picnic.

Second, you’ll recall that in 1992 billionaire Ross Perot entered the presidential race as an independent. He ran on a platform centered on fiscal conservatism and not much else. He ran a provocative but rocky campaign. Stating plots against his daughter (or something like that), he dropped out of the race, only to jump right back in a short time later. Democrats and Republicans alike started to questioned his mental state. Yet, in the end, in an election where voters were in a protesting mood, Perot’s troubles didn’t stop him from taking 18.9% of the national vote and 13.7% here in Kentucky.

Now, enter the possibility of Larry Forgy (I) in 2008. The nation is in a sour mood once again, and even many Republicans are searching for a new direction. I think it’s safe to generalize that what most of these questioning Republicans are searching for is a “true” conservative because, in their minds, what’s wrong with the nation isn’t that it embraced conservative ideology in the first place. No, as they see it, what’s wrong is that Republican leaders like Pres. Bush and McConnell abandoned conservative ideals. That’s what’s at the core of Republican complaints (whether those complaints are coming from Larry Forgy or The Club for Growth) against McConnell: the senator’s not in it for the conservative movement, he’s in it for himself. And McConnell has provided plenty of evidence to frustrated conservative Republicans to justify this belief, from his support for bloated spending bills to his support for immigration reform (which, on the latter point, he only pulled when it became clear that his own political survival was at risk; in other words, he didn’t satisfy the conservative base with that switch; he only demonstrated what they suspected: that he’s a feckless, self-interested man).

And, moreover, in keeping with the Perot comparison, both Democrats and Republicans alike say nasty things about Larry Forgy and his state of mind, but that doesn’t stop many Republicans in Kentucky, like my childhood best friend, from saying when asked about the possibility of a Forgy run against McConnell, and I quote, “I’d follow Larry Forgy over a cliff.” The memories of what was, in the minds of many Kentucky Republicans, Democrat Paul Patton’s theft of the 1995 governor’s race are still alive and festering. Forgy has a way of firing up something in people that McConnell has never and will never have.

Forgy would make for a powerful protest candidate. He has name recognition, so he wouldn’t need a ton of money, but I think he’d do rather well in fundraising. If Ron Paul (R) can raise over $4 million in a day, I think Larry Forgy (I) can do pretty well with a national pool of small donors to tap and those he already has here in Kentucky. Forgy has an intensely loyal following; he has an established network.

And, as far as Mitch McConnell’s future is concerned, his candidacy would all but end McConnell’s career. Ross Perot did extremely well across northern Kentucky in 1992; people there were more than willing than the average Kentuckian to pull the lever for the man. Northern Kentucky is a base for McConnell, but its voters have demonstrated that an independent message can resonate with them. Are voters like that simply people who wouldn’t normally turn out to the polls? Possibly. However, Larry Forgy is very much an establishment character, so he’s likely not going to inspire the kind of outsider interest that Perot’s candidacy did.

Also, Forgy will do severe damage to McConnell across the Republican bedrock of south central Kentucky. There’s no way around the fact that loyalties would be divided there. That’s not to say that McConnell won’t win the vast majority of Republican votes in the region, but every percentage point that Forgy pulls will draw blood for McConnell in the statewide picture.

I think an independent run in November 2008 by Forgy takes 10 to 15 percent of the vote, and nearly all of it from McConnell.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell
• Comments(2)

Joe Sonka October 11th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Let’s get that Draft Forgy train rollin’! Here’s a big write-up on the possible challenge that Mitch McConnell will face in the primary from one of our favorite looneys of the KY right, Larry Forgy.

From the right-wing nutjobs at Cybercast News Service:

(CNSNews.com) - Before he led his party in the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was credited for building his home-state GOP into a competitive political force. But after a bloody GOP primary earlier this year for the governor’s race, some Bluegrass state Republicans are not ready to unite behind the Senate minority leader as he prepares for his 2008 reelection bid.

“I’m very proud of Mitch and all of his accomplishments, but I feel like he is partly the cause of this,” said Velma Childers, 77, of Pikeville, Ky., who was the state co-finance chair for George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992, and a former state GOP committee member.

“I know a lot of Republicans who are angry at him and several have told me that. It broke my heart what has happened to my party,” Childers said.

Though the national Democratic Party is targeting McConnell’s seat, the divided GOP in Kentucky might prompt a legitimate primary challenge against the four-term incumbent.

Larry Forgy, the 1995 Republican nominee for governor, is considering taking up the task based almost entirely on what McConnell does to help embattled Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher in his race against Democrat Steve Beshear, to be decided on Nov. 6.

“He can not count on a united Republican front in 2008 in the event that the damage he’s done to Gov. Fletcher proves to be fatal,” Forgy told Cybercast News Service.

Though McConnell was officially neutral, it’s widely believed by Forgy and other Fletcher supporters that the senator orchestrated former Republican Rep. Ann Northup’s unsuccessful primary challenge against Fletcher. In the post-primary, some Fletcher supporters accused McConnell of not doing enough to help the governor.

Forgy, who almost won the governor’s office in 1995, is known for being a master at plain-spoken red meat stump speeches.

“I believe Sen. McConnell has done serious damage to Gov. Fletcher, and I’m sore about it, as are about 30-35 percent of Republicans in the state,” Forgy said.

“I don’t have the desire to be in the U.S. Senate. I think it’s a corporate mess. But if Mitch McConnell thinks he can continue to dump on Gov. Fletcher and have no retribution in 2008, he’s got another thing coming,” he added.

This party rift stemmed from a state employee hiring scandal that led to Fletcher’s indictment on misdemeanor charges in state court. The charges were dismissed, but Fletcher faced criticism from his own party while battling the Democratic attorney general who pursued the case.

McConnell has raised $9.15 million and has $6.8 million on hand for his 2008 Senate race.

Forgy has raised no money, and disavows the Draft Forgy Web site as a probable Democratic dirty trick to further divide the party. Still, Forgy - an attorney who was the state’s campaign chairman for President Ronald Reagan in 1984 - thinks he would start out with a substantial number of people already against McConnell.

“I would run to win, but what I’m telling you is that I could get 30-35 percent of the vote without spending any money,” Forgy said. “It would be David vs. Goliath, with an articulate enough David.”

McConnell’s chief of staff Billy Piper thinks there is no reason for a Republican rift in the state.

“Sen. McConnell enthusiastically supports Gov. Fletcher and has appeared at fundraisers with him and looks forward to campaigning with him in the future,” Piper told Cybercast News Service.

On this point, Forgy was cynical.

“We don’t need him in rural Kentucky,” Forgy said, as Fletcher is already doing well in many rural regions. “We need him in eastern Louisville at precinct meetings.”

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell
• Comments(0)

Matt Gunterman August 27th, 2007

Ryan Alessi over at the Herald-Leader’s PolWatcher’s blog, has this fantastic installment on the rather juicy connection between former Republican gubernatorial candidate and potential primary opponent to Senator Mitch McConnell (R) and Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D).

In short, they’re law school buddies, but don’t think this association would necessarily hurt Forgy in a Kentucky GOP race. The key is to understand how hated Mitch McConnell is in substantial factions of the Kentucky GOP (he’s very hated). In a primary election where turnout among McConnell Republicans might be suppressed because their man is the embodiment of everything about their party that turns their stomach these days and Forgy loyalists who hate McConnell with a passion and will turnout if for no other reason to cause McConnell trouble, it will be an interesting election.

An odd couple?

The prospect of a Republican primary next year between U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell — the Republican leader in the Senate — and former gubernatorial candidate Larry Forgy continues to capture the imagination of Kentucky political observers and has sparked any number of conspiracy theories.

Perhaps the most far-reaching game of connect-the-dots leads to the Senate’s top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, who is an old law school buddy of Forgy.

Forgy has been rumbling all summer about potentially challenging McConnell, and last week he lobbed criticism at McConnell in a Washington Times article.

Forgy says his interest has nothing to do with his longtime friendship with Reid.

Forgy and Reid’s relationship dates to their time at George Washington University law school together in the 1960s. Reid graduated in 1964, while Forgy, who took a semester off to campaign for Kentucky U.S. Sen. Thurston Morton, got his degree in ‘65.

“Harry and I both worked our way through law school,” Forgy said. Both served in the U.S. Capitol security detail, working 4 p.m. to midnight.

“We were very close,” Forgy said.

Later, Forgy’s son, John, worked in Reid’s U.S. Senate office in Washington while attending the University of Georgetown.

And Forgy wrote a $1,000 check to Reid’s re-election campaign in 1998 — the same year McConnell served as chairman of the National Senatorial Campaign Committee that was trying to beat Reid and other Democrats. Reid ended up beating Republican U.S. Rep. John Ensign by about 500 votes that year.

The only other federal candidate in the last decade to whom Forgy has contributed was his sister, state Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr of Lexington, who ran for Congress in 2004. Ironically, it was McConnell’s key staff members — chief of staff Billy Piper and press secretary Julie Adams — who took time away from Washington to run that campaign.

Reid’s office declined to comment.

Forgy maintains that his frustration with McConnell stems from the senator’s reluctance to endorse Fletcher during the GOP primary and unwillingness last week to echo Fletcher’s opposition to casino gambling, which is the main message of the governor’s re-election campaign.

“The reason I have strong feelings about Sen. McConnell is the way he’s treated Gov. Fletcher. It’s that simple. If he helps Gov. Fletcher in this campaign and doesn’t sit down on him over there in Louisville, then he doesn’t have a problem with me,” Forgy said.

“Harry Reid has nothing to do with this,” he added.

McConnell has remained mum on Forgy.

But he is in the middle of a weeklong fund-raising circuit on Fletcher’s behalf that includes a Louisville fund-raiser last Thursday and events in Owensboro tonight and Lexington on Tuesday.

- Ryan Alessi

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Minimum Wage
• Comments(0)

Matt Gunterman August 20th, 2007

When the Washington Times is running stories about Senator Mitch McConnell’s extreme vulnerabilities in Kentucky, you know the buzz on him is not good inside the Beltway.

Take a look at the comments in this article by Larry Forgy, a Lexington lawyer and former Republican gubernatorial candidate who came within a hair of being elected governor in 1995. He’s adopting a very Pat Buchanan-esque populist Republican message. I think he’s taking the possibility of a run against McConnell very seriously. What does he have to lose? The McConnell branch of the Kentucky GOP already hates him, and the Fletcher and Nunn branches of the party would rally around him (thus Forgy would have a ready and energized base). He’d humiliate McConnell in the process by at least taking 30 percent of the votes (hell, you’d better believe I’d switch my registration to Republican to vote against McConnell in a primary), and in a perfect storm the little bugger might actually win that primary.

McConnell’s unspectacular performance under the national spotlight shone on him in his capacity as Senate Minority Leader has only brought Washington elites to question whether McConnell’s deficiencies aren’t also largely to blame for the severe problems now rocking the Kentucky GOP that he fathered.

McConnell’s sort of a Senate equivalent of Karl Rove: mostly blow and very little substance. For the better part of a decade now, there’s been a cult around McConnell in Republican circles in Kentucky and Washington. He’s revered for his supposed tactical mastery of procedure and narrative, ruthless partisanship, and money-grubbing ability.

Yet, once the Kentucky GOP that Mitch built became pretty much the only show in town, McConnell’s mean and massive machine started to sputter, fast and hard. It all fell apart in scandal, amateurishness, and incompetence.

McConnell quickly cast the blame on the nascent Fletcher wing of the party, but it was McConnell who handpicked his minions.

I’ve said it many times before: even if Mitch McConnell somehow survives reelection in 2008, he will nevertheless inherit the legacy that he rightly deserves (and that’s not a good thing for McConnell). History will record that he was feckless and ineffective as a leader, that he was instrumental in bringing the corrupting culture of money-grubbing and influence-mongering to our nation’s capital, and that he cultivated the hyper-partisan atmosphere there that has totally paralyzed our institutions of government at a time when the American people most need them to be providing answers and solutions.

McConnell’s base of support erodes

August 20, 2007

By Ralph Z. Hallow - Sen. Mitch McConnell’s close backing of President Bush on immigration and the Iraq war is costing him support among Kentucky Republicans, and, according to some party members, hurting his chances for re-election next year.

He even could face a primary challenge from former Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Forgy, who contends that Mr. McConnell’s in-state problems are compounded by job losses to producers beyond America’s borders.

“The average Kentuckian feels we are giving away this country with both hands — jobs are going, essentially the primacy of the people who made this country great is going, and Mitch McConnell is lumped with the Washington types on this,” Mr. Forgy said.

“And the war in Iraq is less troublesome in Kentucky than in many other places, but it is not popular here, and Republican voters see Mitch’s views as too close to the president’s on the war,” said Mr. Forgy, a Lexington lawyer.

It’s a troublesome assessment for Mr. McConnell, who as minority leader has found himself having to defend unpopular Bush administration policies.

“The immigration issue is trouble for everyone in central Kentucky,” Republican state Sen. Tom Buford said. “The Iraq war is always difficult for all incumbents, even if they support pulling the troops out. It is a no-win situation when elections are at risk.”

Mr. McConnell registered a 48 percent approval rating last month in a SurveyUSA poll.

A county party chairman who supports Mr. McConnell but asked not to be identified said Mr. McConnell’s re-election next year is uncertain — despite the Capitol Hill clout he brings Kentucky — unless he shows the folks back home he understands their distrust of Washington on enforcing immigration laws.

The chairman said he has tried to tell Mr. McConnell that he needs to assure the party’s base that he opposes Mr. Bush’s immigration bill.

The Kentucky Republican Party, torn by the immigration issue, was further fractured when critics claimed Mr. McConnell had acted behind the scenes to back an ultimately unsuccessful primary challenge by former Rep. Anne Northup against Gov. Ernie Fletcher earlier this year. The Fletcher faction of the state Republican Party is backing the “draft Forgy” campaign.

Despite his role as Republican leader in the Senate, Mr. McConnell withdrew himself from much of the fight among fellow Republican senators over the Bush-backed immigration bill supported by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Arizona’s Republican senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, among others. Besides border-enforcement provisions, the bill provided a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and a new worker program for foreign workers.

Constituent pressure began to peel other Senate Republicans from their support of the bill, and Mr. McConnell wound up voting against it, though he voted for a similar bill last year.

“His vote against the bill at the end showed his thinking and that he knew the bill was not going to be good policy for Kentucky or the country,” said Fred Karem, a Lexington businessman who went to law school with Mr. McConnell.

Mr. Karem said it’s impossible for him to imagine Mr. McConnell facing re-election difficulty. “Shortly into his new term after he is re-elected next year, Mitch will be the longest-serving U.S. senator in Kentucky history. He has been the heart and soul and leader of the Republican Party in this state,” he said.

Republican leaders in the state agree that immigration is a big issue with the party’s core voters, but some say it won’t hurt Mr. McConnell.

“I don’t know anyone who is more in touch with his constituency than Mitch McConnell,” said Jack Richardson of Louisville, party chairman in Jefferson County, the state’s most populous county and home to Mr. McConnell.

Mr. McConnell recently acknowledged grass-roots discontent over immigration.

“During the immigration debate, and ever since, countless well-informed Americans spoke up about the need to enforce our borders and our laws,” he said. “Their voice was heard in the Capitol and the White House. The billions we’ve added to the homeland security funding bill for border security and interior enforcement, and the administration’s enhanced commitment to cracking down on illegal immigration are necessary steps toward securing our nation — and living up to the expectations of our constituents.”

Another McConnell supporter, Bourbon County Chairman Andre Regard, said, “I would be surprised if McConnell faces a challenge because of immigration. I think we should give everyone amnesty and start over.”

Other party leaders in the state privately made it clear that supporting Mr. McConnell is important because of the benefits he brings Kentucky through his seniority — he is completing his fourth term — and as the Republican leader in the Senate.

Ballard County party Chairman Charley Martin said: “I know immigration is a very emotional issue with Republicans, but it’s not the fundamental issue. The party wants to continue the conservative views of Senator McConnell — the views he stood for through the years.”

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell , Money-Grubbing
• Comments(7)

Matt Gunterman August 15th, 2007

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, WKYT’s Bill Bryant reports that Democratic Representative Ben Chandler (KY-06) isn’t ruling out a run against Senator Mitch McConnell just yet.

I tend to share the sentiment of WHAS’s Mark Hebert on this one, “it ain’t gonna happen,” but it’s nice to think about.

I think one of the big political dangers for Chandler in waiting for a 2010 contest against the extremely vulnerable Senator Jim Bunning (R) is that Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo (D) will probably have his eyes on a rematch against Bunning, and my gut tells me in a two-way primary Mongiardo would defeat Chandler.

Voters would see a replay of 2004 as “good karma” and, should the race against McConnell be close in 2008 but fall short for the Democrat, the progressive base of the party might well hold it against Chandler that he didn’t jump in and fight the good fight when the party needed him.

Hebert also notes that Republican Larry Forgy is not ruling out a primary challenge against McConnell. In fact, from Hebert’s post, you can tell that there’s no love lost between these two:

[...]

Larry Forgy wouldn’t rule out, or in, a run against Mitch McConnell next year when I asked him about that prospect at the Fancy Farm picnic. Forgy says he’s glad to hear McConnell is helping Gov. Fletcher’s reelection bid and the senator’s help is really needed in Jefferson County where Fletcher is particularly weak. In response, McConnell told reporters “I have nothing to say to Larry Forgy.”

[...]

What’s the significance of all these possibilities, other than whetting the appetites of political junkies?

I’d say that the story is this: despite all that money McConnell brags about, both Democrats and Republicans aren’t fearful of McConnell; the smell of opportunity is in the air, and that smell is the rotting political corpse of Mitch McConnell’s political brand.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Ben Chandler , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell
• Comments(8)

Terri Whitehouse August 3rd, 2007

The DM-KY team has a jam-packed weekend, and while I won’t be attendance at Fancy Farm, my posting, too, will be sporadic. Don’t let that stop you from checking in, though, as I know that I am looking forward to hearing about YearlyKos and Fancy Farm from some of my favorite bloggers. (I’m not just saying that, I promise.)

To kick things off, check out Sam Youngman’s national coverage of Kentucky’s governor’s race and the impact it will have on the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign. I think all this interest will make for a very interesting picnic!

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Blogging , DitchMitchKY.com , Ernie Fletcher , Fancy Farm 2007 , General Knowledge , Greg Stumbo , Gubernatorial race '07 , Herald Leader , Jim Bunning , KY Blogosphere , Kentucky , Kentucky Blogosphere , Kentucky Dems , Kentucky GOP , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell , Rural America , Senate Minority Leader , Steve Beshear , U.S. Senate , fundraising
• Comments(1)

Shawn Dixon July 29th, 2007

As we pointed out here earlier this week, the main stream media has begun to pick up on the fact that Mitch McConnell is vulnerable, very vulnerable, in next year’s election. Both the Lexington Herald Leader and the Courier Journal ran columns today highlighting Senator Mitch McConnell’s problems heading into 2008.

Larry Dale Keeling at the HL even gives a shout our team here at Ditch Mitch while pointing to the fact that McConnell is also being attacked by his base and highlights DraftForgy.com.

McConnell is skewered daily by blogs on the left (DitchMitchKy) and the right (DraftForgy). He’s already being targeted by TV ads paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and a group called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Al Cross at the CJ clearly lays out the major problems facing McConnell: his unwavering support for President Bush and his ill-conceived war in Iraq and his failed leadership on the immigration overhaul he fought for before voting to kill at the eleventh hour.

After keeping President Bush’s immigration bill alive, he voted to kill it in the face of energized opposition, including advertising that lumped the Kentucky conservative with liberal lion Teddy Kennedy.

He took a tough public shot from an unnamed colleague speaking through conservative columnist Robert Novak, contending that he failed to show leadership during the closing hours of the immigration debate.

He was the target of attack ads from antiwar groups linking him with Bush’s increasingly unpopular policy in Iraq, as he led the effort to block a vote on legislation that would have started a withdrawal.

While Larry Dale Keeling writes that the Dems don’t really have any “A” list candidates in the upcoming election, Al Cross correctly points out that Stumbo is one of the best campaigners in the party and has a lot of statewide name recognition. And, Keeling himself admits that Iraq war veteran Andrew Horne would be an attractive option for Dems against McConnell in an election that will largely be about the mess in Iraq.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Al Cross , Herald Leader , Larry Dale Keeling , Larry Forgy , MSM , Mitch McConnell
• Comments(3)

Matt Gunterman May 29th, 2007

The right-wing blogosphere is really starting to hammer Senator Mitch McConnell for his failing and flailing leadership. It’s funny how shining the national spotlight on a man like McConnell will show his inadequacies and blemishes right quick.

McConnell’s not bright enough, articulate enough, or dynamic enough to handle this leadership position.

As potential McConnell opponent Larry Forgy pointed out recently: the emperor has no clothes.

From Right Wing News:

Mitch McConnell Proves He Is Too Out Of Touch To Be An Effective Minority Leader

While I was on vacation, our mediocre leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who happily (because we may have a chance to get rid of him) is up for reelection in 2008, had this to say about the Senate’s immigration bill,

“I don’t think there’s a single member of either party next year who is going to fail to be re-elected over this issue.”

Of course, a guy who’s that politically out-of-touch is too incompetent and dumb to be in the Senate, much less Minority Leader, but rather than give him the beating he deserves for 3 or 4 paragraphs, I have three words for you,

Draft Larry Forgy.

I don’t know much about the guy, but I do know that he’s not Mitch McConnell and that would certainly be a powerful argument in his favor during a 2008 primary race…

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell , Republican Party Decline
• Comments(0)

Matt Gunterman May 27th, 2007

Here are excerpts from Joseph Gerth’s piece on Senator Mitch McConnell’s failed unity rally yesterday in Frankfort at Republican party headquarters:

Fletcher’s opponents sit out unity rally
Bridging state GOP divide may not be quite so easy

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Republicans gathered yesterday to proclaim that they are now united in their effort to re-elect Gov. Ernie Fletcher in the fall — but the absence of Fletcher’s two defeated primary opponents continued to raise questions about whether the fractured party can come together.

[...]

Fletcher’s primary opponents, Anne Northup and Billy Harper, didn’t attend the rally, and neither did Fletcher’s lieutenant governor, Steve Pence, who backed Northup.

And a letter that Northup and her running mate, Jeff Hoover, sent at the request of the Fletcher campaign stopped short of an outright endorsement.

“Winning tough primaries creates momentum for the winners,” the letter said. “We hope that this is the beginning of a successful campaign for the party and for the Commonwealth.”

[...]

[Larry] Forgy, who backs Fletcher, knows how important Jefferson County is. A 1995 Paul Patton victory by 13,000 votes in Jefferson County cost Forgy the governorship. And he said it’s up to McConnell to deliver Jefferson County voters to Fletcher.

Forgy has said McConnell was responsible for getting Northup into the race against Fletcher — a claim both McConnell and Northup dispute — and he said McConnell’s re-election in 2008 may depend on it.

“It’s not (Ernie Fletcher’s) problem. It’s Mitch’s,” Forgy said. “I can guarantee you right now, if the Republican voters of Jefferson County don’t turn out for Ernie Fletcher, the voters in the rest of the state who support Fletcher are going to be watching.”

McConnell refused to say who he voted for in the primary and added, “I don’t have anything to say about Larry Forgy.”

Jackson said that it’s up to Fletcher to heal the party, not McConnell.

“People overestimate any one person’s ability to mobilize voters,” said Jackson, who went fishing rather than attend the unity rally. “Senator McConnell is not the solution to Ernie Fletcher’s problem in Jefferson County.”

And [Larry] Hopkins [who faced Larry Forgy in a nasty Republican gubernatorial primary sixteen years ago] said Forgy’s ongoing attacks on McConnell may further divide the party and make it more difficult for Fletcher to heal the rift.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell
• Comments(0)

Matt Gunterman May 24th, 2007

My estimation yesterday that a Larry Forgy challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2008 would humiliate McConnell by taking upwards of 30 percent of the vote from the senior senator and senate minority leader provoked a response from several Republicans across the state.

Their message?

Don’t underestimate how hated Mitch McConnell is in certain Republican circles, like the faction still loyal to the memory of former Governor Louie B. Nunn and, obviously, the emergent faction of present Governor Ernie Fletcher.

Larry Forgy is the perfect candidate to take advantage of these factional dynamics because, unlike McConnell, Forgy’s stood by Fletcher throughout the many ordeals of the governor’s rocky term. Thus Forgy, who came within a few thousand votes of being governor of Kentucky in 1995, would be well positioned to unite the substantial wing of the Kentucky GOP that hates McConnell’s guts.

Rumor has it that the only race McConnell has ever lost was a Republican primary for the state legislature, but I haven’t been able to confirm that bit of information yet.

I thought quite a bit last night whether I’d switch my party registration to vote for Forgy and against McConnell in a Forgy versus McConnell Republican primary. For that to happen, Forgy would have to announce before December 31st because that’s when you have to switch your party registration in Kentucky to be able to vote in the May primary.

My answer: I’d consider it, and so would probably thousands of other Democrats.

Roughly 202,000 Republicans, or right at 20 percent of Republicans, voted on Tuesday in a hotly contested Republican primary for governor. You won’t get more than that out for a senate primary, and in fact the turnout numbers would likely be smaller.

And, as I was told by a wise Republican last night: people will drive from McLean County to Pikeville to vote against a man, but you can’t get him to go from here to the corner store to vote for him.

Amen to that.

If Forgy runs, Mitch McConnell is vulnerable.

• 2008 KY U.S. Senate Race , Larry Forgy , Mitch McConnell
• Comments(2)