26. A Report on the Candidates, with additional information

I guess since it is known that I am "into" politics, I have to make some comment on the final deadline for statewide elections which came and went yesterday with, as Secretary Grayson called it, "more of a whimper." I went up to the Capital yesterday, a tradition I have done for perhaps twenty years now, which would make it five times. I can remember being there in 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003. I can't honestly remember being there in 1987. I may not have been as I was already committed that year to a candidate for governor, that candidate being Wallace Wilkinson.

At a formal dinner held in the Executive Mansion the night Martha Layne Collins was swore in as governor, me, my mother, my Aunt Dorothy Hedger, and my Aunt Frannie Marlowe, sat across the table from Wallace and Martha Wilkinson, both of whom would later become candidates for governor. I had known of Wallace when I was a student at the University of Kentucky my freshman year of college. By the end of the night, Wallace had convinced me, as well as my mother, that he was going to be the next governor, and invited us then and there to be supporters of his. We did, and he did.

I always liked Governor Wilkinson, although I know lots of folks didn't. And I still have those "Wilkinson '91" stickers they put out in late 1990 in anticipation of Martha's run. She, of course, didn't win, and Brereton Jones did. I had not supported Jones in the primary and wasn't that big a fan of his in the fall. But, as I have every inauguration since 1963 (as a three year old with, again, my mother and my aunt Dorothy, who at the time lived immediately next door to the VFW Hall on 2nd Street), I attended the inauguration of Kentucky's newest Commander-In-Chief. Unlike 1983 and 1987, when I managed to be a part of the festivities, I did not have an assigned seat in 1991. Nonetheless, knowing the routine, I got myslef inside the Capital as the halls were cleared to begin the procession out the front doors and down the steps with that majestic view of Frankfort laid out before you (now crowned in the distance with the figure of the Glass Castle housing the Transportation Cabinet, newly built across town, abstractly so as to be shaped like the Commonwealth, much like the Wendell H. Ford State Democratic Party Headquarters does, if viewing it from the correct perspective.

There, inside the rotunda, the only person I really knew was the outgoing governor, Mr. Wilkinson. He called me over and asked where I was sitting. With my response of not having a seat, he said to follow him. I thought he meant he was going to find me a seat - somewhere. His intentions were more specific. He pinned a button on me and told me to proceed out with his family and assured me that a seat would be found along the way somewhere. He, of course, was right. As we made our way toward the front, I passed a lot of active Democrats who I knew had played a role in Jones' elections, and who I also knew knew that I had not. They weren't happy, but at that point there was little they could say. I sat in the thrid row as part of Wilkinson's family, which was, to say the least, pretty cool. Frankly, it was a much better seat than I had had when the wife of a cousin of my grandmother was sworn in four years earlier.

That brings us to this year's entries for governor. I've stated here and elsewhere my support for Irv Maze, a good friend of long standing, and by extension, of the man who chose Irv to be his running mate. There are six others besides the State Treasurer Jonathan Miller seeking to be the successor of Ernie Fletcher, including two other Republicans. Every one seems to have a problem with each of the others in some way, with the exception of good old Charlie Owen, who praised every single one of them in some way in an interview last night with Ryan Alessi, the very able writer with the Lexington Herald-Leader, which is quickly becoming the real statewide political newspaper, usurping a role the Courier-Journal once held, before it became Gannett's One Great Newspaper in Louisville about 21 years ago.

So, I won't go into the Democratic governor's race. I've stated where I stand and know that the next fourteen weeks will be interesting to all involved. It is important that whatever enemies we make between now and Primary Day in May, we don't create divides so large that they can not bridged back over in anticipation of November's race against the Republican.

Crossing over to the Dark Side of the Aisle, I believe Governor Fletcher will be renominated and frankly, I am hoping he will be. He is the tainted candidate; he is who we want to run against - the devil we know and all that. I think his incumbency will be rewarded by the small cities and counties other than Louisville and the anti-abortion Catholics in northern Kentucky. Once you are outside of Northup's sphere of influence in the Louisville area, and whatever leftover appeal Bunning has from his service to the 4th CD, Fletcher - that is Governor Fletcher's office will carry him. Certainly Jeff Hoover helps to a point, but only so far, and certainly not nearly as far as most probably think.

House members aren't nearly as well known outside of the districts (1/100 of the Commonwealth) as they think they are. Look at the running mates of the Democratic candidates - Miller has Maze, a heavily populated county official; Beshear has Mongiardo, who has ran an almost successful statewide campaign; Lunsford has Stumbo, a statewide office holder; Henry has True, a heavily populated county official; Speaker Richards has Brown, a twice-elected statewide office holder. There is not a House member among them and there is a reason for that. Mr. Hoover's relative representation, however good it might be in the eyes of the Republican Primary voters, is not of the caliber of these Democrats. That isn't to say it is equal to or better than his Republican opponents. But people are voting at the top of the ticket. Ernie Fletcher was elected several times in central Kentucky before being elected statewide as governor. Northup can not match that record. And most recently, she lost.

In the other races, I had the chance yesterday to meet and speak with the lady who came to Frankfort to file for governor but ended up filing for Secretary of State, in a scenario very much like that of John Brown, III the first time he filed for the same office in 1995. While he wasn't trying to file for governor, other aspects of Ms. White's filing were similar. For the record (and I have so stated in one of the posts on my blog), Mr. Brown was an excellent Secretary of State, updating that office electronically and professionally and he should be and has been commended for the work he did while in office.

MaDonna White is a professor at Daymar College, a proprietary college based in Louisville with a variety of campuses here and there including one in Middlesboro, the city-in-the-crater in southeastern Kentucky. She and I are graduates of the same high school, the now-closed Durrett High School, which campus has been taken over by the relocation of Louisville Male from Brook and Breck to Preston Highway and Durrett Lane. I do not know much else about her, other that what me and the ten or so people who hung out yesterday at Secretary Grayson's heard in her post-filing interview. She is a very articulate person, a political novice, and, as the only woman in a three person race, has a chance of being our Party's nominee. I know nothing more about her than this, but she may be someone folks interested in this race may want to get to know.

Our next Treasurer will likely be Mike Weaver. I've been mentioning his name now and then - even moreso after Jack Wood filed for this office. Mark is correct that Todd Hollenbach - "Little Todd" to Louisvillians, but technically Louis J. Hollenbach, IV - will draw a number of votes here in Jefferson County. I've known Todd since we were both young teenagers from his father's campaigns for Jefferson County Judge. His father's loss for county judge to Mitch McConnell occurred the year we both turned 17. Todd is a great guy. But, he hasn't had the type of statewide coverage which the Weaver for Congress campaign just paid for in the 2006 cycle. Running in the 2nd CD forced Weaver to advertise in several of Kentucky's media markets, moreso than any other candidate in any other congressional district. That coverage - that access to a large number of Kentucky's voters - should be his entree to the Treasurer's office.

Jack Conway should have no problem becoming both the Democratic nominee for and the voters' choice as the next Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Lousiville attorney (and friend) Brent Ackerson described Jack as being able to moonwalk into the office. But that would take energy. Jack winning the nomination, at least, should be a given. Who his November opponent will be I do not know. Philip Kimball has ran for office several times in Jefferson County and has probably built up some name recognition here, maybe enough to get himself the Republican nomination. He is rather quirky, kind of like an old-fashioned law school professor, bumbling his way through the lecture, although everyone knows he is a very knowledgeable man. Remember, four years ago the Republicans gave us Jack Wood as a nominee, whom Porfessor Kimball would have probably flunked out of his class.

Cawood Ledford would have no problem answering the repeated question "Will Richie be playing in the next game?" He will. Richie Farmer did draw opponents, including a Mr. Stosberg, a resident of Devil's Hollow Road, out past Choateville in Franklin County. Choateville is an old neighborhood named for some of my relatives. I've spoken before, in a very early post, of Rachel Scott Brawner Lewis, my mother's mother's mother. Her mother, that is Rachel's mother, was Annie Choate Brawner Collins, of the Franklin County Choate family. Her grandson Bill Louis Collins, is married to the former Martha Layne Hall, of Bagdad, Kentucky. I am a great-great grandson of hers. Farmer also drew two Democratic opponents, a Mr. Neville of Pleasureville in Shelby County, and a David Lynn Williams, who I believe is one of Kentucky's perennial candidates, in much the same way as Tommy Klein used to be here in Louisville.

Although I can't say you read it here first, since I posted a great deal of this in another blog earlier today, I will let you know that I have endorsed Crit Luallen for Auditor and predict her easy re-election in the fall, far easier than her first one in 2003.

As I said above, when all of these primaries are over, what is important is that, for the Democrats among us, we should band together to retake the Mansion, and maybe in the process accidentally defeat Secretary Grayson and Commissioner Farmer.

In other news, the Weather forecasters, whose performances this year has been lacking, earlier today predicted several inches of snow for Louisville starting tomorrow. They have since backed off this bold idea, reducing the expected snowfall to "one or two inches." Damn.

Finally, now that the deadline for running in this year's elections has come and gone, you'd think we'd be talking about this year's elections. Remember above where I said Charlie Owen had nice things to say about all the candidates? Much of today's chatter has centered on Charlie and his comments and his possible re-entry as a candidate for next year, 2008, against Mitch McConnell. Always thinking ahead.

Today's marks the end of the first month of 2007. My how time flies.

Jeff Noble