Election Musings

OK, it's over, and no real surprise it will be Beshear vs Bevin this fall.
That despite a surprisingly strong challenge to the governor from Robert Goforth, and a similar one to the attorney general from Rocky Adkins. If Goforth pledged his support to Bevin, it was pretty lukewarm. Rocky made it clear that if asked, he will help and with his E. Kentucky base that could be important. So also may be the fact  that 395,000 voted in the Democratic primary, versus 259,000 in the GOP. (Statewide they are very close in registration figures.)


But, as veteran political reporter Al Cross pointed out on KET despite Bevin's very low popularity he has 3 major things going for him which could make him a potent candidate this fall: power of incumbency (true, but the last GOP incumbent, Ernie Fletcher, lost); a booming economy (even truer, remember that famous Democratic consultant's maxim.."it's the economy, stupid"), and Trump's popularity in Kentucky (also true, but the vultures are hovering over our Teflon-president and each week comes new anti-Trump revelations. How much popularity he still has in November is anybody's guess.  (And I remember as Watergate hovered over Nixon, who assured us he was not a crook, which he was, he was re-elected.)

As Cross also correctly observed, the major media, print and broadcast, did not spend as much time or talent covering this primary. What will they do this fall?
You could almost hear him saying, "Gosh I wish we had had some independent polls this Spring." Will the media author their own, again, this fall? IF so, will they be any better than in the past, where their track record is poor.Stay tuned.

And stay tuned to KET, which had far & away the most comprehensive coverage--carrying all but one major speech, victory or concession, live, and whose display of the returns was clearer and better than either 27's or 18's. Anchor Renee Shaw didn't mind letting viewers in on behind the scenes chitchat--talking on air to the control room, and telling viewers KET was staying on longer than had been scheduled, while the commercial stations went back to their entertainment schedule.

The only thing one can say that was good about the 19% voter turnout was that it was "better" than the 12.5% prediction. But 19% is shameful in our democracy, and the legislature needs to work on this. There have been a lot of suggestions (some good and some baddd; I plan a blog later on this) but  let's start with a law requiring primary candidates to state their party in all their ads! (Remember this is a PARTY primary, not a PEOPLES' election-that's in November.) To have a party election but not tell the public what party you are in is illogical, immoral and fattening, and should also be illegal. The vast majority of candidates in both major parties did NOT do so, which is truly ridiculous as ridiculous as our 19% turnout.

I'm just sayin'...