Kentucky's Second District Gets a Democratic Candidate

I'd prefer that Leach stood up for some real Democratic principles rather than bleating about bipartisanship, but in the blood-red Second, I'll take what I can get.

Jack Brammer at the Herald

Democrat Ron Leach, a retired military officer from Brandenburg, filed Thursday to run for Kentucky's 2nd District U.S. House seat, which stretches from western Jessamine County to Owensboro.

Leach, 49, is making his first bid for public office. He filed his candidacy papers at the secretary of state's office with his wife, Kelly, and other members of his family.

So far, Leach is the only Democrat to file for the office, now held by Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green. The district includes Bowling Green and Elizabethtown. It primarily covers west-central Kentucky. Last year, state lawmakers moved Garrard, Mercer and Boyle counties from Central Kentucky's 6th District to the 2nd.

Leach said he is entering the race because he "got frustrated while deployed in Afghanistan in 2011 in that it seems we no longer have a functional democracy."

He said he wants to improve working relationships in Congress.

Third-Party Candidates Provide Opportunity KY Democratic Party Ignores

Third-Party Candidates Provide Opportunity KY Democratic Party Ignores


See, in normal states, extremist reich-wingnuts running as independents in races where the repug had the advantage would have state Democratic officials shouting "Hallelujah!" and pouring money and volunteers and everything else they can find into the Democratic candidate's campaign.

Not in Kentucky.

Scott Wartman at NKY.com:

Graphic anti-abortion television ads with images of aborted fetuses that ran in the Cincinnati market during the Super Bowl will likely return in the fall.

Two anti-abortion activists, David Lewis and Andrew Beacham, filed Tuesday to run as independents for Congress in Kentucky.

Lewis, 27, of Batavia, ran the anti-abortion ads in his candidacy against Speaker of the House John Boehner earlier this year in the Republican Primary. He said he will run the ads again in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky markets now that he filed for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District against Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Bill Adkins.

Beacham, 29, of Elkhart, Ind., filed for Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District against Republican incumbent Brett Guthrie, Democratic challenger David Lynn Williams and Libertarian Craig Astor. Beacham gained notoriety for ripping pages out of a Koran in front of the White House.

And from the repug-led Kentucky Democratic Party?

Crickets.

In the Second District, it's hard to blame them. David Lynn Williams is a perennial loser who delights in choosing races where he can cause the maximum damage to Democratic hopes. No one - not even the most rabid anti-Guthrie repug-haters - wants him to win.

But it is certainly the state party's fault that no real Democrat ran against him in the primary.

In the Fourth, however, Bill Adkins is a Real Democrat who is running a pro-Obama campaign. In racist, repug-heavy Northern Kentucky he didn't stand a chance against billionaire-supported teabagger darling Thomas Massie.

Now Lewis' entry into the race gives Adkins a chance. Not a great chance, but a chance.

If only the Kentucky Democratic Party were in the business of electing actual Democratic candidates.

KY Dems Waste Another Opportunity

Kentucky's Second District is a repug hell-hole, but it doesn't help the liberals stranded in Bowling Green, Owensboro and Bardstown that the Kentucky Democratic (Republican) Party refuses to even try to contest it.

This year, the lack of a viable Democratic candidate allowed perennial loser David Williams (no, not the state senate president, although most people who vote for him don't know that) to grab the Democratic nomination.

That was bad enough, but now it's criminal political malpractice, because there's a libertarian in the race.

According to the Associated Press, the candidate is a former repug county chair and an ordained minister. What would Ayn Rand say?

But the very bestest part is his campaign chair: Ken Moellman. Would that be former national repug party chair and openly gay person Ken Moellman?

This could be the most hysterically funny congressional race in the country - if only the Democrats had fielded a real candidate.

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Ed Marksberry Live, Answering Your Questions, on KET Tonight

Real Democratic Candidate Ed Marksberry will be on KET's Kentucky Tonight tonight at 8 p.m. eastern, 7 p.m. Central.

He and incumbent repug Brett Guthrie will be answering questions from the viewing audience. You can send your questions now by email, including first and last name and town or county, to kytonight@ket.org.

Help expose Guthrie for the rich-cock-sucking parasite he is and show the KDP how a Real Democratic candidate like Ed Marksberry can win.

The original show is tonight, but it will be repeated all week:

Monday, September 20 at 8:00/7:00 pm CT on KET

Monday night, September 20 at 12:00/11:00 pm CT on KETKY

Tuesday, September 21 at 7:00/6:00 am CT on KETKY

Tuesday, September 21 at 6:00/5:00 pm CT on KETKY

Wednesday, September 22 at 2:00/1:00 am CT on KET

Thursday, September 23 at 5:00/4:00 am CT on KETKY

Support a Real Democrat in Kentucky's Second

Are you sick and fucking tired of Blue Dog/DINO candidates who either can't beat the repugs they're copying or who will cruise back to Congress only to vote with Orange Boner?

Here's something to soothe your Real Democratic soul: the Democratic challenger in Kentucky's Second Congressional District, which includes the current residence of none other than Rand Paul.

Ed Marksberry is exactly the kind of candidate the Kentucky Democratic Party should be thanking their lucky stars for: genuine, populist, a working-class regular guy standing up for working-class Kentuckians. But the repug-run KDP is ignoring him, which is why you should support him.

Both Jake and Media Czech featured this new video from Ed yesterday.



Yes, he's a country guy with a country accent and a true Democratic heart whom patrician millionaire Franklin Delano Roosevelt would embrace without hesitation.

As Jake wrote:

It’s a shame the Kentucky Democratic Party has washed its hands with decent candidates like Ed.

Media Czech:

I don't think that Ed has good chance of winning, but it's refreshing to have a Democrat running in this state that doesn't fawn over god-awful Republican ideas like extending Bush's tax cuts for the top 2%. And he's also a good, decent guy who is stepping up to challenge Brett Guthrie even though his chances were slim and he's not getting help from the state party.

Here's his website.

When Has Even a Blue Dog Democrat Crossed the Line?

On June 24, I sent State Senator David Boswell, the Democratic candidate for retiring Rep. Ron Lewis' Second District Congressional seat, an email asking Senator Boswell his position on five issues. The last issue was this:

Publicly endorsing Barack Obama and enthusiastically campaigning for him.

On July 11, I received Senator Boswell's response. His answer to the last issue, on publicly endorsing Barack Obama and campaigning for him, is, in full:

"I am proud to be a Democrat."

Really, Senator? More than a month after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination and received Senator Hillary Clinton's strong endorsement, that's all you have to say?

"I'm proud to be a Democrat"? Really? Because Kentucky's Democrats sure as hell aren't proud to have you as a Congressional candidate.

Kentucky's Second District may poll conservative - although that may also be an artifact of not having a real Democratic choice for the past 15 years - but does Boswell really think rejecting his own party's Presidential Nominee is going to endear him to Second District Democrats?

Boswell's fundraising has been weak since his May 20th primary victory, and public response to his candidacy indifferent, to put it politely.

A recent fundraiser in one of the more prosperous communities in the rural Second District had to be re-named a "reception" because of the reluctance of invitees to commit to making a donation. Even so, fewer than 40 of the anticipated 100 attendees actually showed.

Boswell struggled to connect with the guests, and his short speech drew barely polite applause at the end. Perhaps that's because he spent most of the time telling irrelevant stories about A.B. "Happy" Chandler and Earle Clements, two former governors who were rivals more than 50 years ago.

The closest Boswell came to discussing the issues of the campaign was to say:

"I don't have to tell you what the issues are, because you know what they are."

Yes, Senator, WE know what WE think the issues are; we want to know what YOU think the issues are.

In answer to other emailed questions, Boswell said he was

against the FISA amendments that "give unlimited
unConstitutional warrantless wiretapping powers to the president, and gives amnesty to lawbreaking corporations." Easy to say now that the vote is over.

supported "withdraw without time line" from Iraq

supports "cutting taxes on wage earnings below $50,000 per year," although he failed to respond to a question about increasing taxes on those earning above $200,000 per year

"supports" establishing single-payer health insurance comparable to that enjoyed by members 0f Congress

and of course, with regard to his own party's nominee for President, Boswell is "proud to be a Democrat."

If only he really were one.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.