506. Is 2009 really an Election Year?

Politically, the answer is apparently yes. These every-fourth-year-with-no-races drives some of us batty. We were raised in the days when Kentucky had an election every six months, and here and there, occasionally more frequently. I remember one year when my friend the late Jerry Kleier, a former State Representative and Alderman, appeared on the ballot three times in one year - once for a Special Election, then for a Primary, and then in November for a full term. Those were the days.

Since the adoption, in the early 1990s, of an amendment to Kentucky's 1891 Constitution, against which I voted, Kentuckians have been granted the luxury - or dread - of an off-year every fourth year. We are presently dead in the middle of one of those anomalies and for many of us, it is getting unbearable.

Fortunately - or not, the 2010 elections have already begun, something which usually doesn't happen until much later. I'm sure the rhetoric at Fancy Farm in a few weeks will make it seem like the next General Election is merely three months away as opposed to a year and three months hence.

In Kentucky, next year will bring races for our junior United States Senator. Both parties will have Primaries - the goal of every one being the replacement of Jim Bunning, a northern Kentucky conservative Catholic Republican who seems to have overstayed his welcome. While the two Republicans who have been raising money aren't saying, both are aiming for a non-Bunning primary. On the saner side of the aisle, the two Democrats are Attorney General Jack Conway and Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo. While both supporters and opponents of each of them will claim otherwise, there doesn't seem to be too much separating the two. If there is, one of them hasn't yet said enough for anyone to know. I am for Conway, an attorney from Louisville whom I've known for over a decade since his days working with Denis Fleming in Governor Patton's office in the mid 1990s. There are reasons I am for Conway and one reason, and honestly only one reason, in particular that I am not for his opponent - the latter's sponsorship and support of SB245 in the 2004 General Assembly of an amendment to Kentucky's 1891 Constitution, an amendment I opposed with my vote, an amendment which outlawed Civil Unions of any kind, among other things, here in the Commonwealth. However, I will support either of them over the incumbent.

Other state-related offices include the 100 members of the House of Representatives and 19 members (or one-half) of the State Senate. Democrats are eyeing a takeover of several of those seats, including the 38th District here in Jefferson County, running along the southern border and presently represented by Republican Dan Seum, who at one time, prior to the gift of a tie from United States Senator Addision M. McConnell, Jr., was known as Democrat Dan Seum. Seum is opposed by Martin Meyer, the son of the man who held the seat prior to Seum's first being elected back in the 1990s. Other districts on the radar include Dan Kelly's in the Catholic counties of south-central Kentucky, Gary Tapp's seat just east and south of Jefferson County, and maybe Bob Leeper's seat in Paducah. Leeper is the Mayor John V. Lindsay of Kentucky, having held his seat as a Democrat, a Republican, and (currently) as an Independent, just as Mayor Lindsay did in New York City back in the 1960s.

Also on next year's ballot will be many local offices across the Commonwealth, including the passal of Constitutional officers required for each of Kentucky's 120 counties - offices such as County Sheriff, County Attorney, and County Clerk. Here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, there doesn't seem to be much interest in "voting the ins out." Chances are good that all of the County-wide officials will retain their posts. The one post which seems to be hanging in the balance is that of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Mayor, an office presently held by its only possessor since the inception of our Metro Government, an experiment which hasn't exactly worked out the way its proponents had argued it would back in 2000 - another one of those many NO votes I have cast.

Last Thursday, there were five Democrats known to be interested in the job, along with a few Republicans. Now there are four as Craig Greenberg, whom I would have supported, has withdrew his name. Since my guy dropped out, I'll try for once to heed my friend Drew Shryock's words and "keep my powder dry" a little longer than usual to see what, or more importantly, who shakes loose between now and the filing deadline in January.

We will also be having local elections for one-half of our Metro Council members, those who represent odd-numbered districts. Two of the incumbents already have opposition and three more might.

So much for 2009 not being an election year.

[2:35am, 07/07/09: This entry has been edited since its first posting at 9:14pm on 07/06/09]