Farmer loses ag commish race to farmer

The big story out of Kentucky's election tonight is that Kentucky voters apparently are not as stupid as we were sure they were. Or maybe they are more susceptible to blanketing commercials pitching a single, simple idea.

Yes, repug nominee James Comer, who claims to be an actual working farmer, has snatched a clean sweep away from the dems by beating Democratic nominee and Department of Agriculture employee marketing executive - but not actual working farmer - Bob Farmer. It wasn't even close - Comer got 62 percent of the vote to Farmer's 38 percent.

Comer ran non-stop ads on the theme of "there's only one real farmer in this race," but most of us doubted such a subtle message could overcome the Democrat's built-in advantage of a name that not only described the job but also is the exact same name of the incumbent commissioner: losing Lt. Gov. repug nominee Ritchie Farmer.

It didn't help that Democratic nominee Bob Farmer is a former stand-up comic who repeated worn-out jokes about Eastern Kentuckians, which is shooting fish in a barrel. Warning to aspiring politicians: if you must publicly insult people whose vote you might want some day, try to make sure no one is videotaping you doing so.

Big winner is Allison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky's Secretary of State-elect who ran on a platform of protecting the franchise against repug nominee Bill Johnson's despicable attempts to prevent minorities, students, the elderly, the disabled, the poor, the homeless and veterans from voting.

Grimes had the largest vote percentage of the night - 64 percent to 36 percent for Johnson. Even Beshear got just 57 percent.

I am not a fan of Grimes and will be watching her carefully, but if all she accomplishes for the next four years is ensuring that everyone votes, she will be the most successful Democratic office-holder in Kentucky since Paul Patton left the Governor's Mansion in 2003.

Comer, by the way, is a state legislator, so there will be a special election to fill his seat. Don't get excited though; Democrats have a comfortable majority in the House and don't need Comer's seat.

Losing gubernatorial repug nominee David Williams unfortunately does not also lose the state senate seat from which he terrorizes the Commonwealth; he's not up for re-election until 2014.

But there's a silver lining: incumbent Commissioner of Agriculture Ritchie Farmer lost his bet on being Williams' lite guv and is now out of Kentucky politics for good. Though with any luck, not out of the news: his extremely messy divorce goes to court later this month.

Kentucky Blogging Treasure Joe Sonka is twittering election night here.