Pol Watchers

Chandler says 'it's time' to withdraw from Iraq

By Ryan Alessi
ralessi@herald-leader.com

After making his first whirlwind trip through Iraq over the weekend, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said the United States should begin to withdraw troops now and force the Iraqi government to stand on its own.

”As long as we continue to fund this thing and as long as we continue to provide security, there is less incentive for the Iraqi government to do the things they need to do to control the country,“ Chandler told the Herald-Leader. ”I think we need to leave them with as stable a situation as we can but we need to lift off from the country as soon as possible.

”I think it's time to start withdrawing,“ he added, although he acknowledged that any such shift in policy isn't likely to occur until the next president takes office in January.

He also said he's increasingly concerned with the mounting cost of U.S. occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, which works out to roughly $330 million per day.

”It's a shocking amount of money and at a time when we're concerned about our ability to compete in a global economy,“ he said.

Chandler, a member of the House appropriations committee's subcommittee for State Department and foreign operations funding, traveled to Ramadi and Baghdad on Saturday with four members of Arkansas' congressional delegation and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York.

In addition to meeting with troops and surveying the region, the group met with Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, who is commanding general of the multinational force in Iraq.

Chandler praised U.S. troops for being ”heroic“ in quelling sectarian violence that has flared up since U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003.

”It's unbelievable what they have had to deal with — wearing all this equipment in the heat and in dangerous circumstances where you don't know who is friend or foe,“ said Chandler, who was outfitted with a heavy flak jacket for protection in what he said was 120-degree heat during his trip.

Chandler said a surge of an additional 20,000 troops last year — which he spoke against on the House floor — clearly helped conditions.

”We've done a wonderful job really in bringing more security to the country,“ he said. ”You cannot dispute the fact that it is connected with putting more troops there.“

But he said U.S. efforts might have reached the ”point of diminishing returns.“

”We've given them breathing room to stabilize their situation, and I'm not sure for the money we're spending that we can accomplish a great deal more than that,“ he said. ”Essentially we're borrowing from the Chinese in order to pay for a war that, if you look at the final outcome, it's really questionable whether we gain a thing from it.“

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Chandler and Lunsford haven't talked about endorsement

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler says he and U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford have buried the hatchet after a sometimes vicious 2003 primary in the governor's race.

But Chandler said he's not ready to make any announcement about an endorsement until he and Lunsford, who is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, sit down and discuss it in the coming weeks.

"We'll come to that. We haven't talked yet. But we will," Chandler said.

"You all are not getting an announcement on that subject today," he told reporters at the state Capitol building after an announcement about the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. It was Chandler's first time back at the buildling since leaving the attorney general's office in December 2003.

Chandler and Lunsford squared off in the spring 2003 Democratic primary for governor, which ended with the two exchanging harsh TV ads. Lunsford ended up dropping out of the primary the weekend before the primary, which Chandler narrowly won over House Speaker Jody Richards. Later, Lunsford endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher over Chandler, who lost the November election but bounced back in February 2004 when he won the congressional seat that Fletcher left when he became governor.

But Chandler said he and Lunsford have moved pas that.

"Oh yeah, we don't have any problems," he said.

Also, Chandler won't be participating in the political speaking portion this weekend's annual Fancy Farm picnic festivities in Western Kentucky. He said he has a scheduling conflict with some other congressional business.

- Ryan Alessi

Chandler gets mixed feedback on Obama endorsement

By Ryan Alessi
ralessi@herald-leader.com

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler’s decision Tuesday to back Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential primary has touched off a brush fire of mixed responses from constituents over the last 48 hours.

Denis Fleming, Chandler’s chief of staff, said what started as an avalanche of 300 to 500 critical calls — including some “racially insensitive” statements — on Tuesday shifted to more supportive responses on Wednesday.

“I don’t think we were under any illusion that the endorsement would be immediately accepted by everyone. Our hope is that the decision will withstand the test of time and we hope prove itself to have been the correct one,” Fleming said from Chandler’s Washington office.

On Wednesday, staffers kept a tally of the phone calls: 154 favorable to 89 negative ones by 4 p.m. And the roughly 200 e-mails the offices received were “about evenly split,” Fleming added. 

Part of the uptick in positive responses could be explained by Obama’s grassroots mobilization. Hillary Bullock, a volunteer organizer of Lexington-area Obama backers, said e-mails were dispatched to more than 600 local supporters “asking them to give his office a call and thank him for his endorsement.”

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the liberal Web sites DailyKos and ActBlue have raised money for Chandler in response to the negative feedback he received.  As of Thursday morning, ActBlue reported raising more than $19,000 from more than 640 donors.

What’s certain is that Chandler’s pick of Obama, who is trailing New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in most early polls of Kentucky Democratic voters, has sparked conversation and debate across Chandler’s central Kentucky congressional district.

“I was kind of surprised he didn’t wait for the primary here on the 20th before he made that judgement to see who his constituents were for,” said Wenona Houston, a retired nursing home office manager from Lexington. “If everyone had went for Obama that would be one thing, but he didn’t wait to see that, and that makes me angry.”

Houston was among the hundreds who called Chandler’s Lexington office to complain on Tuesday. She said she told a woman answering the phone there that “I would never vote for Chandler again if he went through with this.”

Houston said she picked Clinton months ago and called Chandler’s office to urge her congressman to back Clinton, too.

Chandler will serve as one of nine superdelegates from Kentucky at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. Houston said the biggest problem she had with Obama is his handling of the controversy surrounding his former preacher, Jeremiah Wright.   

“I am concerned about the angriness that this Wright guy exhibited,” Houston said.

Obama, on Tuesday, repudiated Wright’s most recent comments that the government fostered the spread of AIDS among African-Americans, calling his former preacher’s rhetoric “divisive.”

Fleming said some of the initial responses Chandler’s office received were racially insensitive, although he declined to describe any specifics. “They were plainly inappropriate,” he said.

Chandler says Obama's message is best for nation

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said that after months of intense and mounting pressure, he decided to ignore any political risks and back Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency.

"I've listened to the man. I have met with him and, like many of you, I am excited by his message of change for the future," Chandler told about 40 Obama supporters Tuesday morning in Louisville.

He praised Obama as "a man of great integrity and intellect" and of "quiet strength."

As one of the key sought-after Democratic superdelegates, Chandler's decision holds more weight than a normal endorsement. He and Kentucky's other eight superdelegates can pick a candidate during the August Democratic National Convention regardless of the outcome of the state's May 20 primary election.

He is the fifth of Kentucky's nine superdelegates to make a pick, with U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton snaring endorsements from three of them and Obama picking up Chandler and fellow U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville.

"Let me tell you what it's like on the floor of the House of Representatives to be an uncommitted superdelegate. It's not a lot of fun," Yarmuth said when introducing Chandler on Tuesday. He recalled recently standing on one side of Chandler on the floor ready to urge him to pick Obama with two congressman backing Clinton ready to pounce from the other side.

Chandler, the grandson of former Kentucky governor and U.S. Sen. Happy Chandler, compared the move to his grandfather's endorsement during the hard-fought 1960 Democratic primary of a young Catholic Massachusetts Senator, John F. Kennedy.

That was an endorsement "against all odds" and the will of other Kentucky Democratic leaders, Ben Chandler said.

Chandler conceded that he is taking some risk by backing Obama, who is trailing Clinton in the polls in Kentucky. But he cited Obama's popularity among young voters as a key reason why he chose to announce his support. 

"Now is not the time to be timid. It's instead a time to be bold and support a candidate who can transform our future," he said.

Chandler has a strong political pedigree in Kentucky and wide name recognition left over from his 2003 run for governor.

He said he made his announcement in Louisville at the request of the Obama campaign, which saw an opportunity to have news of Chandler's endorsement penetrate the Indiana media market. Hoosiers go to the polls for their Democratic primary next Tuesday.

As for Kentucky, Chandler said he hasn't talked to the campaign about what he will do to stump for Obama in his central Kentucky congressional district. But he acknowledged that Obama, who is trailing in some polls by 30 points, has much work to do.

"He understands it's uphill," Chandler said of the candidate. "It's going to be a difficult slog for him here in Kentucky."

- Ryan Alessi

Chandler endorsing Obama

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Lexington, has scheduled an 11 a.m. news conference Tuesday in Louisville to support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois for president.

Chandler is a superdelegate who can cast his vote at the August Democratic National Convention for the presidential candidate of his choice regardless of whom Kentuckians choose at the polls in the state’s May 20 primary election.

Obama is facing U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York to be the Democratic presidential nominee to run in the November general election against the presumptive Republican nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Chandler’s  news conference will be at Jefferson Park at 6th and Liberty streets in downtown Louisville near the PNC Building.

Another Kentucky superdelegate, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, already has voiced support for Obama.

Three of the other eight known Kentucky superdelegates -- Lexington attorney Terry McBrayer, Owensboro businesswoman Moretta Bosley and Harrodsburg banker JoEtta Wickliffe -- have publicly pledged support to Clinton.

Three other prominent Kentucky superdelegates -- Gov. Steve Beshear, Party Chairman Jennifer Moore and Vice Chairman Nathan Smith -- have remained neutral, and are expected to do so until after the May 20 primary.

A ninth superdelegate will be chosen at the state party’s June 7 convention.

--Jack Brammer

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Jennifer Chandler among appointees to agency

By Jack Brammer
JBRAMMER@HERALD-LEADER.COM

FRANKFORT -- The state agency that doles out money to local governments has hired Jennifer Chandler, the wife of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, and added 16 other appointed officials Wednesday, including Bell County's Democratic Party chairman.

State Republican Party Chairman Steve Robertson questioned the hiring at the Governor's Office for Local Development, or GOLD, "during what the Beshear administration has described as one of the worst fiscal times in the state's history."

"I would expect under the circumstances more belt-tightening from this administration," said Robertson, adding that Chandler has been hired for a new position.

Matt Sawyers, GOLD's chief of staff for Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear's administration, said he expects the office will end up with fewer non-merit employees than the number during Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration.

Earlier this month, the Beshear administration dismissed more than 20 appointed officials in the office.

Sawyers said Jennifer Chandler will start her job as executive director of the office of state grants in early February at an annual salary of $72,250.

He said her position "was not filled under the previous administration." He did not know whether it was newly created. She could not be reached for comment.

Ben and Jennifer Chandlers' primary residence is in Woodford County. When Congress is in session, Ben Chandler returns to Kentucky most weekends. He represents the Sixth Congressional District, which includes Lexington and most of Central Kentucky.

Bell County Democratic Chairman Leo Haggerty started working in GOLD Wednesday for $50,000 a year, Sawyers said.

Haggerty will be stepping down from his political post in Bell County, Sawyers added.

Haggerty, who helped select the Democratic Party nominee earlier this month for an open state Senate seat in Eastern Kentucky, could not be reached for comment. He declined to say during the selection process whom he supported.

GOLD distributes $150 million over the course of the state's two-year budget cycle in grants for downtown development, recreation facilities, public housing, government technology and water and sewer needs.

These GOLD appointments are political jobs that are not covered by the state merit system, which protects other state workers from political influence.

PHOTO CAPTION: Democrat Ben Chandler, with his wife, Jennifer, in 2004, celebrating his victory over Republican Alice Forgy Kerr. Photo by Pablo Alcala | Staff

Rothenberg: Kentucky House seats safe for now

If the Rothenberg Political Report is right, Kentucky's 2008 U.S. House races will be a bore.

The political newsletter says all but one of Kentucky's six House seats pose "limited risk" for the incumbent party.

The only exception is in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District, where first-term Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth faces a challenge by Republican Erwin Roberts, a former aide to Gov. Ernie Fletcher. The Louisville race is in Rothenberg's "Democrat Favored" category.

- John Stamper

McConnell has more in the bank than NRSC

The seven members of Kentucky's congressional delegation who are up for re-election next year hauled in more than $2 million over the last three months, according to reports filed last week with the Federal Election Commission.

The most prolific fund-raiser in the bunch was U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader. He took in $1.25 million between April 1 and June 30 and has $5.7 million in the bank heading into next year's election.

To put that in perspective, McConnell has more cash on hand than the National Republican Senatorial Committee -- the organization aimed at helping all Republican Senate candidates. That group shows less than $4.3 million in its account.

As for the others, Republican Rep. Geoff Davis of Northern Kentucky, has raised $656,788 since April 1 and has $424,560 on hand.

Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville kept a similar pace with $603,189 raised in three months and $455,979 in the bank.

Yarmuth, so far, is the only incumbent to draw a challenger. Erwin Roberts, a Republican and former state personnel cabinet secretary, raised more than $43,000 in his first month as a candidate.

Among the prominent donors to Roberts' campaign were Lt. Gov. Steve Pence, former Commerce Cabinet Secretary Jim Host and former GOP state Rep. Gerry Lynn of Brandenburg.

Here's how the rest of Kentucky representatives stack up:

• Fourteen-term U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican who represents Eastern and Southern Kentucky, has more than $1 million in the bank.

• Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler of Versailles has more than $830,000 on hand.

• Republican U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield of Hopkinsville is close behind with $825,000.

• Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis of Cecilia, who survived his first serious challenge in a decade last year, has just shy of $250,000.

- Ryan Alessi

Where's Chandler been?

While Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler has made headlines from Washington this week, he was conspicuously absent from a few key events in Kentucky recently.

Chandler didn't attend last month's groundbreaking for the new University of Kentucky Medical Center building that bears the name of his grandfather, former governor and U.S. Sen. A.B. "Happy" Chandler. The congressman, that week, was half a world away attending a NATO Parliamentary Assembly trip through Portugal, Morocco and Tunisia, said spokeswoman Stephanie Pepper.

And last weekend, Chandler missed the annual KET Summer Celebration fund-raising event at Lexington's Donamire Farm. Chandler was with his wife, Jennifer, who had just had surgery, said Pepper, who was quick to add that Chandler "remains a huge supporter of KET and public broadcasting in general."

This week, Chandler made news when he introduced a bill in Congress that called for a review of the Federal Aviation Administration's safety research -- an outgrowth of the continuing examination of air travel stemming from the crash of Comair Flight 5191 in Lexington last August.

- Ryan Alessi