Rally for the Home Stretch

Mine eyes have seen the turning of Kentucky to the Blue,
Dems are stamping out the repugs - Ernie now and next Mitch too ...

It was an old-fashioned, barn-raising, tent-revival of a rally tonight, complete with fire-and-brimstone preaching from State Senator and former Governor Julian Carroll, last of the who-needs-a-microphone screaming Democrats.

More than 500 people packed the National Guard Armory in Frankfort to rally for the Democratic ticket that's about to sweep the November 6 election.

I've been attending Democratic campaign events in Kentucky since 2002, and this is the first time I've felt that swooping wave of confidence, that irresistible urge to burst out laughing and hug the nearest person out of sheer, giddy anticipation of victory.

It's not a sure thing, as speaker after speaker warned. Secretary of State candidate Bruce Hendrickson is neck-and-neck with incumbent Trey Grayson, and liberal dems are abandoning Hendrickson over his refusal to disavow the endorsement of wingnut freakazoid Frank Simon.

Even with gubernatorial challenger Steve Beshear, Attorney General candidate Jack Conway, Treasurer candidate Todd Hollenbach and Auditor Crit Luallen all up 15-20 poll points over their opponents, and more than $1.5 million up in fundraising, dems this time are taking nothing for granted.

"Ernie's thrown everything but the kitchen sink at us," Beshear told the crowd, "and we expect to see the kitchen sink before this is over."

But Beshear also promised that his victory will be only the beginning for Kentucky Democrats. Next year will see the return of the state Senate to Democratic control and Democrats back in the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts.

And Mitch is going down.

For 32 years, from 1971 to 2003, Kentucky Democrats goofed off as the state turned slowly red, ignoring the all-repug national elections as long as the state house stayed in their hands.

But Ernie kicked their complacent asses raw in 2003 when he took the Governor's mansion away. They lost the state Senate in 2004 and were staring into the Abyss of Political Irrelevancy.

It was exactly what they needed. It'll take more than a few electoral victories before Kentucky Democrats start taking a single vote for granted again.

Although they do still seem to be taking a whole constitutency for granted.

Still.

Of the 500 faces in the crowd tonight, fewer than a dozen were non-white.

Memo to Kentucky Democratic Party chair Jonathan Miller: the state's minority population is growing, and they're not going to hand you their votes because you're boyishly cute and have a nice smile.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.