172. Gonzales leaves the Executive Branch; the Legislative Branch comes to Southwest Jefferson County

Gosh. Where to start?

Gonzales has left!

Like Governor Ernie Fletcher, former (as of September 17) United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was a man way in over his head. Unfortunately, he had the strong support of another man with the same problem, the president. That's the good news. But, like President Richard Nixon's famous quip of 1962 (which six short years later turned about to be false), we won't have Gonzales to kick around anymore. Silver linings and clouds are typically connected.

Here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepoint 606, our congressman is making good on a promise to open the South End's first congressional district office, to be inaugurated today in the Southwest Government Center on Dixie Highway. The government center itself, located due east of Milepoint 619 on the Ohio River, is a reminder of the days when attention was regularly being paid to both the south and southwest sides of the county.

That end of town was represented by folks such as Dottie Priddy, Jim Dunn, Archie Romines, Al Bennett, Bill Quinlan, and Tom Mobley in Frankfort. In the days before Merger, southwest Jefferson County was represented on the old Jefferson Fiscal Court by Glenn McDonald and later Darryl Owens. Our County Judge was Louis J. "Todd" Hollenbach, III, father of the current Democratic candidate for State Treasurer, and our County Attorney was my former boss J. Bruce Miller. All of these folks were Democrats.

In those days, due to a tax-raising referendum passed by the voters in 1970, much was accomplished for the area. The floodwalls and levees along Mill Creek and further out Dixie Highway on Pond Creek were built, as was the Southwest Hospital, the Southwest Campus of Jefferson Community College, and the Southwest Government Center where Congressman Yarmuth is today adding a congressional district office. In 1977, Judge Hollenbach lost to a newcomer, Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr., who had previously ran and lost a race for State Representative. McConnell won the judge's race, and to his credit, he too paid some attention to the area. He spent large sums of money getting the Riverport up and running and added thousands of acres to the Jefferson Memorial Forest, land upon the knobs between I-65 and Dixie Highway, which form part of the inner rim of the Knobs/Muldraugh's Hills section of Kentucky's geological map.

Over the years, Reagan Democrats allowed a few Republicans to be elected in this area - some moderates such as Lindy Casebier and Bill Lile and others more idelogically to the right such as Doug Hawkins and Danny Seum - Seum starting out as a libertarian-leaning Democrat. But, overall, the area has remained under Democratic control, both in Louisville and in Frankfort. And with the election of John Yarmuth last year, in Washington, DC as well. A large group of folks came together to help elect John, swaying more than a few of those Reagan Democrats back into the Democratic column. Of course, George Bush, the Iraq War, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney also helped John's election. And while he didn't win the South End, his numbers proved he has a large number of friends in that area. Metro Council members Vicki Welch, Dan Johnson, Bob Henderson, Rick Blackwell, Mary Woolridge, and Judy Green, along with State Representatives Joni Jenkins, Ron Weston, Tim Firkins, and Charlie Miller all helped in their individual constituencies. Foremost among the elected officials in this area was the help provided by Democratic State Senator Perry Clark. He worked and walked the area for John, and talked up the South End with radio commercials. And, in the end we won, as did the people of this part of Kentucky's Third District.

At the beginning of this entry I asked "where to start?" Now, I've decided on where to end. Here.