Pol Watchers

Fischer faces uphill climb for Senate

By Greg Kocher
GKOCHER1@HERALD-LEADER.COM

HOPKINSVILLE -- Louisville businessman Greg Fischer had to make a sensitive decision.

At the conclusion of the Christian County Democratic Women's Club meeting Monday night, the candidate for U.S. Senate was asked to judge a Derby hat contest. About a half-dozen women had worn fancy hats to the meeting, including one sporting a Fischer campaign sticker.

Fischer was somewhat taken aback about being put in what he called "a tight spot." After all, this was a crowd whose support he needed, and the relatively unknown, first-time candidate couldn't afford to offend with a poor choice that would be embarrassing or, at worst, could cost votes.

But thinking on his feet, Fischer enlisted the crowd to help in his selections. He put his hand above each contestant, and judged from the audience applause who should receive recognition. Everyone seemed pleased by his adroitness, including the third-place winner whose chapeau had the campaign sticker.

A bigger audience on May 20 will decide whether Fischer, Louisville businessman Bruce Lunsford, or one of five other candidates should be the Democratic nominee for U.S. senator. The winner will face Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who is seeking his fifth six-year term, in the November general election.

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Guests announced for this weekend's 'Comment on Kentucky'

Joining host Ferrell Wellman on this weekend's "Comment on Kentucky" will be Linda Blackford, a reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader; Owen Covington, a reporter with the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer; and Stephenie Steitzer, a reporter with The Courier-Journal.

The public-affairs show on the Kentucky Educational Television network begins at 8 p.m. Friday on KET1.

--Jack Brammer

Clinton camp: KY turnout is key to nomination hopes

A key to U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's strategy to lock up the Democratic presidential nomination is surpassing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in the total popular vote, a top campaign aide said Thursday. 

Obama currently leads Clinton in total pledged delegates, number of states won and the popular vote with just six states left to vote. That has left Clinton and her campaign supporters fielding endless questions about whether she plans to stay in the race and how she can possibly pull off a win.

The two candidates have so far virtually split the more than 500 Democratic superdelegates who have picked sides. Another 260 remain undecided.

Neither candidate can win without those superdelegates, who will cast their votes at the national convention, said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of Clinton's campaign and former DNC chairman.

To help sway the undecided superdelegates in early June, Clinton's campaign hopes to win the popular vote. To do that, Clinton will need heavy voter turnout in the remaining primaries -- Kentucky, West Virginia, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana -- that still have primaries on the calendar.

McAuliffe said driving up the number of voters who show up in those states, especially ones that favor Clinton in early polls, such as Kentucky, West Virginia and Puerto Rico, is a big part of the strategy.

"This is why Kentucky is critical for us. We not only have to have a very good win in Kentucky but a very good turnout," McAuliffe told Kentucky reporters on a conference call Thursday. "I firmly believe ... by the end of this process, we will have moved ahead in the popular vote."

- Ryan Alessi

 

Combs wins re-election as chief judge of appellate court

FRANKFORT —  Sara W. Combs has been re-elected chief judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals for a second four-year term.

In 2004, Combs became the first woman and the first judge from Eastern Kentucky’s 7th Appellate District to be elected to the role of providing administrative oversight to the 14-member  Court of Appeals.

Combs, of Stanton, was the first woman to serve on Kentucky’s Supreme Court.  Then-Gov. Brereton Jones appointed her to that position in 1993.

 
After she narrowly lost her election to retain a seat on the state’s highest court, Jones appointed her to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals in 1994.  She won election to the court in November 2004 and was re-elected in 2000 and 2006.

“I am truly honored that my colleagues on the Court of Appeals would name me chief judge,” Combs said.

--Jack Brammer

UPDATED: Kentucky presidential donor database

If you've been wondering which presidential candidate your neighbor supports, feel free to browse our updated database of Kentucky donors to presidential candidates.

The database includes donations made through March, which are the latest figures available.

The four remaining candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties have collected more than $690,000 from Kentuckians since January 2008. Barack Obama pulled in 51.7 percent of that amount, making him the top fund-raiser.

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Obama and Republican John McCain pulled in a combined $231,000 during March.

- John Stamper

Beshear taps former gov candidate for Board of Ed

Gov. Steve Beshear tapped former Republican governor candidate Billy Harper along with the father of former University of Kentucky basketball player Ravi Moss and three others to serve on the state Board of Education.

Harper, president and CEO of Harper Industries, Inc. in Paducah, finished third in the 2007 GOP gubernatorial primary. A long-time education advocate, Harper served earlier this decade on a key educational advisory group that made two dozen recommendations for the direction of the Kentucky public school systems.

He will serve as an at-large member of the board for a term that expires April 14, 2012. He replaces David Rhodes.

Others Beshear named to the education board are:

• Austin W. Moss of Hopkinsville. Moss will serve until April 14, 2010 and represents the 1st Supreme Court District. He replaces former board chairman Keith Travis, who resigned last month. Moss is vice president of human resources at Jennie Stuart Medical Center and is the father of former UK walk-on Ravi Moss.

• Stephen B. Neal of Louisville. Neal, the executive director of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, will serve through April 14, 2012 as an at-large member. He replaces Bonnie Lash Freeman, whose term expired.

• Dorothy "Dorie" Z. Combs of Richmond. Combs, an education professor at Eastern Kentucky University, will serve through April 14, 2012. She previously served on the board from June 2002 to April 2006 and will serve as an at-large member replacing Janna Vice, whose term expired.

• Brigitte B. Ramsey of Falmouth. Ramsey, a public policy analyst for the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, will serve as an at-large member through April 14, 2012. She currently serves on the Pendleton County Board of Education. She replaces David Webb, whose term expired.

The 12-member board is charged with setting the governing regulations of the 174 public school districts across the state.

- Ryan Alessi

Day on the trail: Chelsea, dairy farmers and Bonior

Both Democratic presidential campaigns are feverishly working here in Kentucky. Here's a digest of what the next day or so brings:

U.S. SEN. BARACK OBAMA

Obama snared an endorsement Thursday from former campaign manager of John Edwards' presidential bid, David Bonior.

"As I look at the presidential race as it stands today, I see one candidate who has proven he can bring the kind of change to Washington that will mean more jobs, better pay for American workers, and health care for every single American. That candidate is Barack Obama," said Bonior, a former congressman, in a statement.

Later Thursday, the "Women for Obama" group will kick off its election activities at Obama's Louisville campaign headquarters.

Obama, himself, is slated to be in Oregon Friday and won't attend the Kentucky Democratic Party fund-raiser in Louisville that night.

U.S. SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton will campaign in Richmond and at the opening of the campaign's Frankfort headquarters Thursday afternoon.

Clinton also has a group that includes New York dairy farmers traveling Kentucky talking about Clinton's agriculture and rural America policies.  "Hillary has a proven record of creating and promoting programs that help farmers and rural communities," said Ed King, a dairy farmer from Saratoga County, a rural area in northern New York, who is part of the delegation.

Clinton's campaign launched a "Hats Off for Hillary" drive, which encourages women to donate their Kentucky Derby hats to charity as a way to raise awareness for breast cancer, according to a campaign news release. The drive asks women to drop off their hats at Clinton's Kentucky field offices from now until May 20.

Campaign volunteers also have organized two "Honk 'N Holler for Hillary" efforts during rush-hour this afternoon: one at Harrodsburg Road and New Circle in Lexington at 4:30 p.m. and the other in Covington's Goebbel's Park.

Hillary Clinton will be in Louisville Friday for the state Democratic Party fund-raiser.

- Ryan Alessi

State's superdelegates urged to pick and repick

By Ryan Alessi
RALESSI@HERALD-LEADER.COM

FRANKFORT -- Kentucky's Democratic superdelegates are holding firm in their positions after the North Carolina and Indiana primary results, although one prominent supporter of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said pressure is being applied to that group to end the campaign soon.

The eight known superdelegates Kentucky will send to August's Democratic National Convention remain split: three for Clinton, two for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and three undeclared.

On Wednesday -- the day after Clinton edged Obama in Indiana but lost by 14 points in North Carolina's primary -- one of Clinton's staunchest Kentucky supporters and superdelegate, Terry McBrayer, said a movement is afoot among the "big boys" in Washington to end the battle before the convention in Denver.

Superdelegates, who are state party leaders and elected officials, are at the center of that effort because they can choose to vote in the convention for the candidate of their choice regardless of primary results. The national Democratic Party has 795 such superdelegates, of which more than 250 remain neutral.

"I've gotten calls from everybody on both sides trying to bring some resolution to it," McBrayer said. "There's some power politics going on. There's a lot of effort going on right now inside the beltway."

He said undecided and undeclared superdelegates, especially Democratic members of Congress, are under immense pressure to pick a side, while some others are being asked to switch allegiance.

McBrayer said he won't.

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Kentucky's super delegates

Lunsford's political career hasn't come easy

By Sarah Vos
SVOS@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Bruce Lunsford has lived the quintessential American dream. As a child, he went five years without indoor plumbing and set tobacco in his family's fields.

He worked his way through college and law school and found success in the business world. He's now a multimillionaire, with enough cash flow to dabble in Hollywood flicks, Thoroughbreds and politics.

It's the last that has proven most elusive for Lunsford, who has evolved from an outsider politician to establishment choice.

He has spent almost $14 million of his own money trying to capture Kentucky's governorship but never garnered more than 21 percent of Democratic primary votes.

In 2003, he pitched himself as an outsider, running television ads that portrayed Frankfort legislators as monkeys. He pulled out just before the primary, and then endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher in the general election.

Lunsford spent much of the 2007 race trying to atone for that endorsement.

Now he's running for U.S. Senate, and, this time, he's the establishment choice, recruited by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and, Lunsford says, "very important people" in the U.S. Senate.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has all but endorsed him. Unions who fought him before have lined up behind him.

The reason they give is simple: Lunsford has name recognition and enough money to fund a credible race against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"We took a pragmatic view of the situation," said Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO.

Lunsford, 60, says he'll make a good senator for the same reasons that he's been a good business executive: He hires the right people, and he's persuasive.

But the argument has its dangers. It's also the venue where Lunsford has faced the most criticism.

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Bio of William Bruce Lunsford

Chelsea Clinton to stump in Richmond, Frankfort

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton will return to Kentucky Thursday to campaign for her mother, Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in Richmond and Frankfort.

She will be headlining a discussion called "Our Economy Our Future" at Eastern Kentucky University's Powell Student Center at 1:15 p.m. and then on hand in Frankfort for the opening of Clinton's campaign office in the capital city at 3:30 p.m.

The office will be down the street from the Kentucky Democratic Party headquarters at 340-1 Democrat Drive.

Chelsea Clinton was in Louisville on Saturday for the Kentucky Derby and campaigned in Lexington and Louisville for her mother last month.

- Ryan Alessi