Yes, Virginia, There's a Big Difference Between Candidates Tomorrow

Yes, Jack Conway is a terrible candidate and a repug-lite Blue Dog.  But I'm strapping on the hazmat suit and voting for him and all the other Democrats anyway because the alternative is catastrophe.

Jack Conway will keep Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion - a Democratic policy that has already lifted thousands of Kentuckians out of poverty and into good health, not to mention thousands of new healthcare jobs and billions of dollars into the economy.

Bevin has vowed to kill Obamacare and Medicaid. Widespread suffering and economic collapse doesn't bother him.

Jack Conway will keep the state pension system.  Yes, it's a clusterfuck squared, and needs a thorough clean-out, but state employee pensions keep billions of dollars in the state economy every year.

Bevin told state retirees flat-out that he would eliminate the pension system, adding insult to injury by labeling it "tough love."

Jack Conway understands how state taxes support the economy, and that slashing them creates an inescapable downward spiral like the one currently killing Kansas.

Bevin thinks Kansas Governor/Destroyer Sam Brownback is an economic genius and wants to implement the same lethal plan in the Commonwealth.

Jack Conway thinks human beings should have human rights, and will uphold the laws ensuring that.

Matt Bevin would put Kim Davis on the State Supreme Court if he could, but since he can't, he'll just put her in charge of his new Department of Only Freakazoid Christians Have Human and Civil Rights.

And so on and so forth on every issue you can imagine.  Get out and vote for Jack Conway.

Sam Youngman at the Herald:

At its heart, this is an election about issues, though it's not easy to tell given the personalities of the candidates, the modern style of politics and the general disinterest (disdain?) displayed by the electorate.

In a state where Democrats often sound like Republicans, the choice voters often face is between night and later that night.

But in this race, Conway and Bevin are night and day — even weeks — apart on major issues of enormous importance to the future of the commonwealth.

Not on coal or guns or some of the commonwealth's traditional battlefields, but on health care, labor union laws, education and many other topics. The two major-party candidates are offering two very different visions of the future.

We've seen the attempts to nationalize this race by Republicans who have painted Conway and the rest of the Democratic slate as presidential puppets, but the issues being debated will have a real-life, practical effect on the lives of the people who live here.

If the people who show up Tuesday are looking to avenge Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis' short stint in jail, then Conway is toast. If Kentuckians go to the polls with the goal of ensuring that the state's health care programs aren't set on fire and left to burn, then Bevin will be on the outside looking in.