KDP Defrauding Dem Challenger Heather Ryan

Oh, I do love piling on, so I'm adding my voice to David Shankula and R Democrat at BlueGrassRoots and Barefoot and Progressive.

The Kentucky Democratic Party is crowning a year of non-stop fuckups with a fundraising email that falsely implies it supports a candidate to whom it has consistently refused to give a thin dime or short minute of support.

(Apologies to Shankula for quoting his entire post, but it's so tightly and powerfully written I can't edit it.)

Several months ago, Ms. Ryan entered the race against Ed (Whitfield) in a district the state's Democratic Party had entirely conceded. Since then, the Democratic Party of this state has had very, very little use for Ms. Ryan and her campaign. Until now.

Earlier this week, Exxon Eddie Whitfield refused to debate Ms. Ryan. His cowardice garnered statewide coverage and a good dose of national attention.

After having done nothing for Heather Ryan's campaign for months, (KDP Chair Jennifer) Moore and the KDP now wish to capitalize on her success as a candidate.

Jennifer Moore's e-mail is below. It recounts Ms. Ryan's triumph, Mr. Whitfield's cowardice and the sad state of our state's news media. She writes all of this simply to request money. For the state party.

Money the state party has shown no desire to share with their own Congressional candidate.

I call on Jennifer Moore to pledge $10,000 of the KDP's money to the Heather Ryan campaign immediately.

And I call on Democrats across the state to not give this Party one more cent until Ms. Moore has pledged to do what is right.

It is not right for the party to use and abuse the candidates it has forsaken. This is our party, and until our party starts representing our interests and our candidates, it shouldn't get another penny.

In the meantime, as we wait for Ms. Moore's response, please make a donation to Heather Ryan's campaign.

Lord knows the KDP won't.

Here's the fundraising email from the Chair of the KDP. Read it and weep.

Breaking with their long standing tradition of not allowing candidates who choose not to debate to appear on the air in any manner, Kentucky Educational Television (KET), has decided to make an exception for 1st District Congressman Ed Whitfield.

Whitfield, who has refused to discuss the issues facing voters in the 1st District in any forum that has included Democratic challenger Heather Ryan, will be allowed by KET to present what amounts to an unedited campaign commercial following Ryan's appearance in which she'll take questions from the press.

This is another example of Ed Whitfield's lack of accountability. More importantly, the decision by KET to accept Whitfield's demand has effectively taken away a valuable opportunity for voters to decide; and they have set a precedent that will likely result in elected officials refusing to face the press and their constituents in favor of a recorded message of their choosing.

Please call KET at 859-258-7000 to let them know how you feel about their decision.

Sincerely,
Jennifer A. Moore
Chair, Kentucky Democratic Party

P.S. Help support the long campaign ahead. You can make a one-time contribution or join our new PLEDGE TO WIN program, where you can make an automatic monthly contribution using your credit or debit card.

A commenter at BlueGrassRoots says refusing to donate to the KDP would deny funds to "excellent candidates across the state." Really? Name three. (Silence) Name one. (Crickets.) Precisely. The KDP has reserved what little it actually has to give to candidates for washed-up hacks like convicted felon Carroll Hubbard ($14,000).

Contributing money to the KDP is buying drinks for an alcoholic and then handing him the car keys.

Donate directly to Heather Ryan's campaign here.

Donate directly to another Real Democrat being ignored by the KDP, Michael Kelley, here.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Repugs Think If They Ignore Their Opponents, the Voters Will Too

I swear the rapidly approaching Obama tsunami is causing serious mental illness among republican candidates even in supposedly "red" states like Kentucky.

How else to explain the toddler-level behavior of Mitch McConnell, Ed Whitfield and Geoff Davis in refusing to play nice with Kentucky Educational Television and debate their Democratic challengers?

Especially since their temper tantrums handed the challengers the stage all to themselves - an hour of free television time to field questions from local journalists.

The first to make the most of the opportunity was Dr. Michael Kelley, seeking to take the Fourth District Congressional seat from Geoff Davis.

Watch the video of the debate (in three parts) here.

Kelley's an obvious political neophyte, unpolished but determined to make his points and not afraid to call the republicans out for the lying nation-destroyers they are.

(Note to Kelley's campaign staff: stop trying to teach Kelley to talk like a politician; sit back and bask in the warmth of genuine, passionate integrity.)

You can get more of Kelley's outspokenness in the answers he gave to the Courier-Journal for its Voter Guide. (Do I need to add that Davis never responded to the Courier's questions?)

Some choice excerpts:

Republican mismanagement has severely damaged our economy. I will support Barack Obama's efforts to repair the damage caused by the Republicans and get America's economy back on track.

SNIP

We need to get our army out of Iraq starting now. By ending our occupation of Iraq we will start to rebuild our tarnished image in the region. We then need to launch a full-blown national effort toward breaking our addiction to oil - an Apollo Project for energy independence. Once we no longer are addicted to Middle East oil we will no longer need to prop up repressive oil-rich dictatorships. Much of the hatred of America stems from our support of these repressive governments.

Let's remember, Saddam Hussein was once protected by the U.S.A. - and he had been a brutal dictator the entire time we were protecting him. Once we no longer need middle eastern oil, we will no longer be held hostage by this region of the world.
Iraq will fall apart whether we leave now or a decade from now (or 100 years from now as McCain suggested.) The Shia, Kurds, and Sunni hate each other and always have. We cannot force peace upon them - they have to want peace enough to earn it for themselves

SNIP

I oppose mountaintop removal (coal mining), which is a practice that damages our waterways while despoiling our mountains. I am running because I want my children to inherit a community that is in a condition at least as good as when we inherited it. I don't see how mountaintop removal achieves that goal.
Furthermore, any talk of "clean coal" is currently wishful thinking. ... I believe it is time for our country to focus on moving beyond fossil fuels altogether. Global warming is real. We also suffer under frequent smog alerts. Let's move to clean solar, wind, and biomass.

SNIP

(On gas prices:) There is no short term solution aside from consumer-driven conservation. For the 30 years since our last oil crisis, our leaders have spent their time doing exactly nothing to push America toward a sustainable energy policy. Thanks to this failure of leadership we find ourselves with crushing energy prices. It's time to do what we should have been doing all along - and what Carter tried to get us to do - use less fossil fuels.

SNIP

(On universal health insurance:) I am a practicing family doctor and I know healthcare can be affordable for all Americans. Other developed countries spend half what we do on healthcare with quality at least as good as ours.

(SNIP)

(On the financial bailout:) If I was going to ask the taxpayers to hand over 700 Billion (on top of our approximately 10 Trillion debt,) then I would prefer that we invested in infrastructure (such as fixing our crumbling bridges, sewers, power transmission and rail networks, etc.,) conservation, renewable energy, research, and possibly education. Those kind of investments increase the wealth-building capacity of our nation, help us live more safely and sustainably, and result in the creation of jobs.
Bailing out irresponsible lenders and borrowers is not my idea of an investment, especially when the bailout contained no regulations to prevent this from happening again.
President Bush's attempts to force the bailout through with fear-mongering and panic flew in the face of the traditions of responsible governance. This rush-job smells a lot like the rush-job that landed us in the mess in Iraq.

Read the whole thing, and be sure to watch watch the video of the debate.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

A Kentucky Candidate Says No to Big Tobacco

Rep. Geoff Davis, R-KY4, isn't known for either intellect or political smarts. But by voting against federal regulation of tobacco when his Democratic challenger is a physician, he may have surpassed his own record of stupidity.

In response to Davis' vote, Dr. Michael Kelley wrote:

... So who would be opposed to a common sense idea such as FDA regulation of tobacco? Our current U.S. Representative, Geoff Davis. Once again Representative Davis has come out on the side of his big corporate campaign donors at the expense of the American public. He has voted against this bill which would protect Americans, and instead voted to protect Big Tobacco. In doing this he has voted for higher healthcare prices and for worse health for Kentuckians. (Kentucky has the highest adult smoking rate in the nation and 25% of Kentucky teens smoke.)

Davis claims that his ‘no’ vote was simply an effort to help the poor, overworked folks at the FDA, which “struggles to handle its current responsibilities.” How kind of him! But Davis and his ultra-conservative allies in Congress are partly to blame for the under-performance of important government agencies - since the conservative philosophy is to defund government until it is “small enough to drown in a bathtub.” Collapsing bridges, FEMA mismanagement, and an underperforming FDA are all linked to conservative distrust of, and under-investment in our government.

I am a practicing family doctor, and I see patients every day who are sick because of smoking. I cannot see how Representative Davis can stand to look at himself in the mirror after voting against common sense and the best interests of his constituents - unless he considers his true constituents to be his Big Money campaign donors. Geoff Davis’ voting record - one that proves he serves Big Money backers over the best interests of Americans - is why I chose to run against him. I can promise you this: if you elect me as your Representative, I will serve you – and never Big Money.

Read the whole thing.

If you don't live in a state where they grow tobacco, trust me when I say that in Kentucky opposing smoking, cheap cigarettes or Big Tobacco is an act of political courage. Although many Kentucky communities have banned smoking in public buildings and the amount of tobacco grown in the state has dropped significantly, opposing any part of the tobacco industry is still considered anti-farmer and anti-Kentucky, even by non-smokers.

Keep givin' 'em hell, Dr. Kelley.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

Will It Turn My Red State Blue?

While the national Democratic “leadership” is busy trying to figure out how to squeeze just one more state into the Democratic electorial vote column, on the ground here in the ignored “red” states, we’re setting our sights higher.

Twenty-four years after Mitch McConnell’s upset of Senator Dee Huddleston started the republican takeover of traditionally Democratic Kentucky, 2008 is shaping up as the year our 6-2 red congressional delegation flips to a 4-4 or possibly 5-3 blue group.

Three weeks ago, I would have said 4-4 was a lock, 5-3 likely and a complete reversal to 6-2 Democratic a definite possibility.

But the withdrawal of the only Democrat with a chance in hell of beating Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell makes it far less of a sure thing.

Nevertheless, we have progressive political novices courageously challenging republican incumbents in two Congressional Districts, and a wide-open race in another.

In the far-western First District, military veteran Heather Ryan is challenging seven-term incumbent Ed Whitfield. You’ll remember that Ryan was fired from her job on Mitch’s orders because her 12-year-old daughter Heaven dared to challenge McConnell on his support for the Iraq catastrophe.

Although Ryan is being studiously ignored by the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP), and although the KDP has failed to support a challenge to the extremely weak Whitfield for six straight election cycles, the unemployed mom, whose husband is on military deployment, has the determined support of Kentucky’s progressive blogosphere.

She also, unlike some supposedly stronger candidates in other districts, has a campaign website.

In the Second District, which ridiculously stretches almost 200 miles from the western flatlands past the Bluegrass to the foothills of the eastern mountains, republicans are still reeling from the last-second decision (seriously – barely an hour before the filing deadline) of seven-term incumbent Ron Lewis to not run again.

The rural Second is pretty conservative but not stupid, which is why it kept re-electing worthless piece of furniture but real repug Lewis over the pathetic repug-lites the KDP kept putting up against him.

The good news is that now Democrats have a real chance to take back the Second. The bad news is that two Democrats are running in the primary, and neither one of them can claim to be a progressive.

David Boswell and Reid Haire are both from Owensboro, at the far western edge of the Second District. Both are experienced local politicians – Haire the Daviess County Judge-Executive, and Boswell the state senator. Neither has a campaign website up.

Boswell is anti-choice (or as Eva Destruction put it, “believes pregnant women are the property of their husbands or parents”) and Haire has contributed to Mitch McConnell’s re-election. Hard to say who comes out better in that comparison.

Two republicans initially filed to replace Lewis, but Lewis’ chief of staff has now dropped out, leaving state senator Brent Guthrie of Bowling Green with no primary challenge.

As DINOs, neither Boswell nor Haire is likely to excite Kentucky’s progressives much, so the Second District race will come down to how powerful the Democratic wave is in November.

But we’re going to have fun in Louisville’s Third District, where humiliated ex-congress critter Anne Northup is begging for another whuppin’ from Proud Liberal John Yarmuth.

Northern Kentucky’s Fourth District might be interesting, if novice Michael Kelley can get some support from state Democrats for his challenge to repug two-term incumbent Geoff Davis.

In the Fifth and Sixth Districts, incumbents are sitting pretty. DINO extraordinaire Ben Chandler of Lexington’s Sixth has two republican challengers that nobody ever heard of and will coast to re-election. As will republican Hal Rogers of eastern Kentucky’s Fifth. Eastern Kentuckians may be overwhelmingly Democratic, but they appreciate somebody who knows how to bring home the bacon, no matter how unethically or illegally. Kentucky Democrats may be none too bright at times, but they’re nowhere near stupid enough to run against Rogers.

Speaking of stupid Democrats, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and DSCC Chair Chuck Schumer have guaranteed Mitch McConnell’s re-election by forcing Andrew Horne out of the race in favor of Criminal and Democratic Traitor Bruce Lunsford.

How bad a candidate is Bruce Lunsford? Bruce Lunsford is so bad, that there are dedicated progressive Democrats in this state who will not vote in the Senate race if Lunsford is the Democratic nominee.

Which he probably will be, even though he technically has six primary opponents. The only one of the six who is seriously challenging Lunsford is millionaire Greg Fischer, who is already getting slammed for falsely claiming to have picked up Horne’s supporters.

Last year, I wrote that the Democratic win in the Kentucky governor’s race was a good omen for Democratic wins statewide and nationally in 2008.

I still believe that, even though Governor Beshear has proven not to be the Great Democratic Hope I thought he was.

Cross-posted at Watching Those We Chose.

2008 Year of the Novices?

A political novice has stepped forward to take on two-term Congressman Geoff Davis, Republican of Northern Kentucky.

New Kentucky political blog Page One Kentucky broke the story August 14, including the first interview with Dr. Michael Kelley, a physician from the northern Louisville suburbs.

Our sources say Kelley will not be a candidate just for candidacy’s sake— he won’t be the sacrificial lamb— that he’ll have support similar to that of Ken Lucas in 2006. If you remember the horde of commercials purchased on behalf of Lucas (and the $1.5Million the FEC says he raised that year) you realize this could potentially be big bucks— and aid— for Kelley.

According to a contact at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, “Kelley will garner strong support from the state and national party because he’s not a career politician. He’s not your average hack from Halliburton. He has a simple plan that hits home with the voters and he connects with people on a personal level that career-types like Davis cannot.”

Read the whole thing, but short version is Kelley wants the troops out of Iraq, major health care reform, and campaign finance reform.

Davis is an interesting case. Despite being an intellectual and political lightweight, valued primarily for his reflexive RWA, wingnut Smirky-worship, he's beaten two fairly strong Democrats.

In 2004, he ran for retiring Democrat Ken Lucas' open seat against journalist Nick Clooney. Yes, that Clooney - brother of Rosemary, father of George (DOWN, girls!) Not only is Nick just as handsomeas his famous son, he's also just as smart, articulate and passionately liberal. You may have read George's comments that Nick's journalism career and First Amendment values inspired him to make Goodnight, and Good Luck.

2004, of course, was a bad year for Democrats, especially in Kentucky, and it didn't help Nick that Northern Kentucky is a conservative republican bastion.

In 2006, however, a grassroots draft persuaded former Congressman Ken Lucas to try to unseat Davis. 2006 was a good year for Democrats, as Proud Liberal John Yarmuth proved by defeating five-term incumbent Anne Northup in Louisville. Davis was considered so endangered that he was a recipient of some of Karl Rove's taxpayer-funded save-the-repugs media events, now under investigation. But conservative Lucas ran as republican-lite (DAMN you, Rahm Emmanuel!) and as always when given a choice between a fake and the real thing, people chose the real republican.

Now things are looking extremely bad for Kentucky republicans, with Governor Ernie Fletcher hurtling toward a historic crash-and-burn in November, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, up for reelection in 2008, looking weaker by the moment.

Dr. Kelley faces some serious hurdles. The Fourth District is, as Kentucky Enquirier columnist Pat Crowley notes, "a 24-county behemoth that stretches more than 200 miles along the Ohio River from Ashland to near Louisville to near Lexington." In other words, from Appalachian Mountain redoubts to liberal suburbs. Kelley may also suffer from "doctor fatigue" among Kentucky voters, who have a physician running for Lt. Governor, whose ticket beat another physician in the primary, against a physician who is the incumbent governor.

But if Dr. Kelley is able to stand tall for progressive values and resist DLC and DCCC advice to play nice, he should be able to unseat Davis in a year when republicans will be fighting for their political lives.

(Betcha didn't know George Clooney is a native Kentuckian, born in Lexington and raised in the beautiful Ohio River town of Maysville. Heard a rumor a month ago that George is considering running against Mitch McConnell. Waaaaaayy too good to be true.)