All Politics are Local

Republican attorney general candidate Todd P’Pool announced Thursday that former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson and former University of Kentucky basketball player Travis Ford will headline a fundraiser for him in October. Grayson served as Kentucky Secretary of State from 2003 to 2011, before taking a position in January as the Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.

Democratic Governor Steve Beshear has picked up another endorsement from a noted Republican politician. Former Sixth District Congressman Larry Hopkins says he has nothing against GOP Challenger, David Williams, but he believes Beshear is doing a good job and should be re-elected.

A week after his campaign manager quit, Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams announced plans to move forward with a committee of consultants for the remainder of the race.  Last week, Luke Marchant, who joined the campaign in May to help garner Tea Party support, stepped down to pursue other professional opportunities. Opponents have pounced on the resignation as a sign of Williams’s weakness as Democratic Governor Steve Beshear holds a commanding 24-point lead.

Call it the urge to merge. Thanks to a 2006 law and perhaps the distressed economy, public discussion about the unification of city and county governments is under way in more Kentucky communities now than ever before.

Responding to an attack ad released by the Republican Party of Kentucky on Friday, the campaign to re-elect Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway is scolding Republican challenger Todd P’Pool for taking money from universities that are under investigation.  The GOP released the YouTube video to mark 100 days of criticizing Conway for helping his brother, Matt, obtain legal counsel while he was the focus of a narcotics investigation.

Guaging  public sentiment on a wide variety of issues is common practice today.   But, political surveys may top the list.  And, assessing Congressional performance is a question routinely put before likely voters.

“Congress tends to be unpopular and has been for decades really since we’ve done polling…there’s some ups and downs, but this we’re reaching new lows every day at this point,” said Joe Gershtenson

A former admissions officer at the for-profit Spencerian College in Louisville  told the Lexington Herald-Leader Thursday that executives being investigated by Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway have urged employees to support his opponent in the fall election.  Campaign finance records show the chancellor of Sullivan University, which owns Spencerian, and his executives contributed $12,000 to Republican attorney general candidate Todd P’Pool’s campaign.

The campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams is stepping down to pursue other professional opportunities, leaving the GOP nominee without anyone to run his day-to-day operations.  Luke Marchant joined the campaign in May to replace Scott Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, who stayed on as a consultant.

Comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in a letter posted to former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche’s website, state Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville, calls for the president to step down over what the Kentucky lawmaker calls the “unconstitutional” debt ceiling legislation.  Using official state letterhead, Clark says the recent agreement to raise the debt ceiling and create a 12-member super committee to reduce spending violates the U.S. Constitution. The south Louisville Democrat goes further, saying the bill is a “direct echo” of legislation that handed over power to the “murderous Hitler government” in 1933.

The campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams is stepping down to pursue other professional opportunities, leaving the GOP nominee without anyone to run his day-to-day operations.

Luke Marchant joined the campaign in May to replace Scott Jennings, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, who stayed on as a consultant.

Is the tea party movement shrinking? According to a recent New York Times poll, support for the tea party is at 18 percent, the lowest level since April 2010, before a wave of tea party candidates was elected in November and sent to Washington, D.C. Paul Keith, chairman of the local Bowling Green/SOKY Tea Party, said while the majority of local tea party supporters weren’t in favor of the debt deal reached in Washington last week, it hasn’t translated into a dip in support.

Taking a road trip to Iowa, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined his father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tx., on the presidential campaign trail Wednesday to enliven supporters leading up to the August 13 straw poll. Congressman Paul is making his third attempt at the presidency, but this is the first time his Sen. Paul has joined his father on the 2012 election bid. The father and son congressional duo spoke to a crowd of about 50 people during a meet and greet in the city of Waterloo, where Kentucky’s junior Senator told the audience that both parties need to compromise to bring government spending down.

 For a moment Tuesday, it looked as if Steve Wiggins wouldn’t get to pose his question to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at a packed town hall meeting in Ohio County. Wiggins stood through the meeting, listening to Paul speak against what he calls big government and the over-regulation of farms and small businesses, as well as the spending problem in Washington, D.C. Finally, Wiggins got to ask his question, and the exchange arguably offered the best illustration of the mood inside the room.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee continued to underscore Republican congressional candidate Andy Barr’s support for the Ryan budget plan in a new radio ad that began airing Monday.  Barr is challenging Congressman Ben Chandler, D-Ky., in a rematch from 2010, where he came within less than 700 votes of unseating the incumbent last fall.

Returning from Washington for the congressional recess, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has scheduled his first town hall meeting with constituents on Tuesday. The event will be held at City Hall in Hartford, Ky., 116 East Washington Street at 2 p.m. CDT. It is expected Paul will address the contentious debt ceiling debate that embroiled Congress for the past month and the deal that was reached a week ago, which the Tea Party favorite voted against.

Anyone who assaults a doctor or nurse in a hospital emergency room would be charged with a Class “D” felony under a bill proposed by Kentucky state Senator John Schickel. The Republican from Union spoke in support of his measure during a meeting today of a legislative panel. Schickel says the proposal has the support of the Kentucky Association of Emergency Room Nurses and the Kentucky Hospital Association.