She got approx. 52,000 votes for the $9 million? that she donated and spent. That's about $175 per vote. I hate to have missed out, but that wouldn't have been enough for me to vote for her anyway.

Her commercials caught my eye early on and I was interested, but the few times I’ve heard her talk was horrible. Mediocre talking points that seemed to be stolen and answers that lacked any substance. My guess is her rallying cry of parents and schools was her trying for the Youngkin route. She was lukewarm and Kentucky spat her out.

I’m happy with Cameron. People I’ve talked to who know him have said he is a nice guy and is legitimately a down to Earth fellow.

242k Democrats voted for Gov primary
268k Rebublicans voted for Gov primary

175k Democrats voted for Ag Comm primary
262k Republicans voted for Ag Comm primary

Slim margins. I hope for a repeat of the last election with Beshear: Cameron gets over 100k more votes (823k for his seat) than Beshear did (709k for his seat)

A very pathetic turn out of 14.4%.  We see people say "the election was rigged" but when 86% of people don't even bother to vote...the fault lies on the people who did not vote.  The same applies for the 2022 mid-term elections.  Only 47% of registered voters bothered to vote across the US. Losing races in PA, GA, AZ...etc wasn't from fraud, it was because over half the voters stayed home.  When turn out is 80%+ then claims of ballot harvesting and fraud would have some merit.  

Statewide Info:
Registered Voters: 3,468,537
Ballots Cast: 500,902
Voter Turnout: 14.44%

If you want to see the breakdown of how your county voted here is a link.  Just click your county on the map.  https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/liveresults/?id=2

If you want to know how your specific precinct voted, after clicking on your county there is a link at the bottom of the page for Precinct File.  Click that to download it.  You want to do a search for your precinct number as it is a long document.  If you don't recall your precinct number you can find it through this link for absentee voter info.  https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/vic/

Cameron received more votes in 2019 for AG than either Beshear or Bevin did running for Governor

Having said that Cameron should run his campaign as though he is behind Beshear in the polls.  In other words full steam ahead

If he does not there is a good chance Beshear could pull out a squeaker again and win.

Camerons speech last night was great, I agree that he should remain at "full speed ahead."  I think and hope he will.

The disparity in number of votes then and here has not been lost on the liberals. I have come across a few posts/comments noting more republicans voted than democrats in the primaries

That is pretty common, the party of the incumbent has fewer people turn out.  In 2019 the Dems cast around 392,000 votes in Governor's primary and Republicans cast around 259,000.  

Not unusual. There are more registered Republicans than democrats in Ky. The democrat candidate for Governor was not in question, while the Republicans had a three way race. People came out to settle that question. The real question will be which party has the greatest turnout in November?

Maybe.  I  think he can beat Beshear if he runs a good campaign.  But the main reason the last two Governors have been defeated is by their own actions

Fletcher had issues messing with the state merit system and surrounded himself with yes men which caused him to make some poor decisions in some areas


Bevin also made some bad decisions and again surrounded himself with yes men who gave some bad advice

He also got into a spat with the teachers and state employees to a lesser extent which cost him the election

One lesson Republican Governors can draw from this for the future is not to overtly take on state employees or teachers

It is a losing proposition and state employees is a big voting block in this state.

You have to be more subtle on your approach dealing with them

Fletcher and Bevin really didn't do anything different from what the Democrat Governors do, the media amplified the stories and acted as if they committed terrible crimes.  Beshear came in and one of his first acts was fired the entire Board of Education and replaced them with 100% Democrats who were his allies.  That pissed the teachers off as well but the media swept it all under the rug and I bet most people have forgotten by now.  If a Republican had done that it would be front page news with calls for impeachment.

No doubt that Democrat Governors did the same in the past.   But Republican Governors ought to know they will be watched with a fine tooth comb on these areas

The side benefit from the Flecther issue is that even dem governors stay away from trying to do things to merit employees now.  


But both Fletcher and Bevin made some dumb political decisions during their administration and of course don’t get the benefit of a friendly press.

I have brought this up before but here is a good example from Bevin:

Bevin appointed Tilley as Justice Secretary. Tilley was a liberal democrat. And he appointed him over the most conservative cabinet in state government

Tilley was hated due to his left wing policies and his appointment of a lot of left wing democrats in a supposedly Republican right wing government

This ended costing Bevin a lot of votes from this cabinet who would ordinarily vote Republican

The current Justice cabinet under Beshear is to the right of Tilley and Bevins Justice cabinet which is saying something

And Tilley is currently under indictment for Rape in Fayette county.   A great choice huh.  



Just a small example of a poor decision

This may be the best assessment of the political situation that I have ever read on ARFCOM.  Stick to these things and don't get distracted by  trying to rebuild the state in one term. There are a lot of Kyians that think Andy saved their lives by shutting down the state. He will be hard to beat.

Well I voted.  That’s one thing I will always do if able.  It may not make a difference , but I now have the right to complain if I don’t like the outcome.  If you didn’t vote, one way or another, you have no grounds to complain.

I agree on all points...

???????

He was right on with his attack on some of the teachers.  The problem is he let them frame it as he was bad mouthing all teachers.  He never tried to fix that narrative and kept bringing up the issues which was seen as an attack on all teachers.

There were at least 2,000 teachers who should have been fired.  This was later in the process.  They called in fake sick days in order to shut the schools down.  That is an ethical violation right there.  Then once the schools were shutdown they used school busses to get themselves bussed to the Capitol. Misusing school resources for personal and political gain.  Then while gathered at the capitol as an identifiable group of teachers they lobbied against him which is illegal, grounds for termination, and unethical.  

That is the type of people that Bevin was calling out; people that didn't think twice about screwing over the students, shutting schools down, stealing from tax payers, and not caring about violating laws or code of ethics "because the ends justify the means".  I forget what the group did that started all of it but that is how they ended up.

His line that kids were at home getting molested because teachers were on strike was the biggest pile of bullshit in history. Then there’s the pension being grossly underfunded and taken from to fund other shit.

There was at least one reported news story in Louisville of that happening.  Of course Bevin made it sound wide spread and then blamed it all on the teachers.  

Bevin's communication was terrible all the way around.  With the media, with people he disagreed with, and even with the state legislators.  He called a special session and demanded they fix the pension system but did not coordinate that effort with the Republicans or provide what changes he wanted to the previous pension bill that he vetoed.

In my entire lifetime in this state there has been only one other time I can think of that teachers stood up for themselves in mass and on both occasions they weren't  the ones that started it. Typically they just go on and do their jobs amd take the shit flung their direction but that jackass threw flames long before legislature was even in session.

And is wasn't just them he flung shit at..he went after mayors, judges, council members, state workers...the list is a mile long and he made it personal which in turn made it personal to their family, friends, and neighbors. It wasn't just teachers that got his ass beat.

FWIW, that poster you are replying to I'm fairly certain is a transplant and has his finger on the pulse of these state so much he thinks my red as blood community is being taken over by fucking Antifa and BLM.....LOfuckingL.

Lived here my entire fucking life.

Rural and city, and I absolutley stand by what I said. That dude has no fucking clue.

My moral and ethical compass still works, so try again. That statement about being wrong is the only thing you've gotten right so far.

A true conservative wouldn't have picked a fight with a group that is middle class and a good chunk of it rural and then get on TV after filling his diaper because he couldnt handle them standing up for themseleves and blame them for rape, rape, drug use, and more rape. A true conservative also wouldn't have turned around an pardoned the people he did.

I'm not shocked in the least, based on what I see posted on here on a daily basis, that some of you fall for these pricks masquerading as conservstives. Some of you live in world of the beatings will continue until morale improves and others, like Mr. Tinfoil, are convinced Willow fucking Hambrick is going load him up on cattle car to some re-education camp. Like I said, LOfuckinL.

Though I don’t 100 percent agree with him on his stance I do think there is some merit to his 2nd paragraph on Bevin making it personal in the different groups he clashed with.  Similar to how Trump did it but that does not go over well at the state level.  

Bevin would say something in a way that had the opposite affect sometimes than he intended.  He would garner sympathy for the individual he was attacking since it would look like he was picking on them.  

And he simply wasn’t very articulate on a lot of things.  

Anyone hearing any news on poll numbers between Cameron and Beshear?

I hear the occasional opinion that's all doom and gloom but nothing official.  Polls are such unbelievable BS anymore they aren't worth much anyway.  I struggle to believe there are enough sheep in this state to put that turd in office again but there are so many that are convinced Andy literally saved them from death during covid.  Then he somehow manages to get the first responder unions to back him and that can't be good.

As long as we keep a supermajority in the lawmakers we should be OK, but I'm concerned we're going to look at this fool for 4 more years.

That is what concerns me.  One Facebook group of Republicans that I was on had 50% of the members praising the tyrant and chastising everyone else who wasn't.  The Republican woman running the group banned me after I called her out for supporting gun control.  She blamed gun owners for King Andy banning rallies at the capitol and did not want to hear otherwise.

Agreed.

Depends what you define as OK. We won't lose our rights over night but people forget the Governor does more than sign legislation.  He hand picks all the Cabinet level leadership.  Those people decide how those budgets are spent, who get moved up in leadership positions, and which special projects will taken on.  He also has his own executive branch budget he gets to spend on initiatives of his choice.  He also gets to appoint interim judges to the courts.  

In politics seniority is key and by letting Beshear decide who gets to advance it creates a ripple effect that could last decades.  One big example, Beshear merged the Department of Labor with the Department of Education and Workforce creating one of the largest agencies in the state.  He then put in a long standing family friend, with a history of corruption and failures, to oversee it.  That family friend now has full access to that budget and gets to appoint all the key positions that open up.  Even if he is replaced by the next Republican Governor the entire agency still has his people in many of the key positions.  Any chance of getting them to expose how the unemployment numbers were manipulated and the failures of the unemployment system under Beshear will be near zero.  

The leadership Republican supermajority bends the knee to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and other large lobbies.  They aren't looking out for our interests or they would have passed a law prohibiting employee vax mandates by businesses.  Instead of supporting the bill prohibiting that the Republican leadership told the Chamber they would kill the bill and did.

Because this part needs repeating.  They even strategically won over some freshmen "liberty" reps that campaigned on medical freedom.  Since there was NEVER a vote - some of these reps received high KY Chamber scores overall... then the chamber strategically picks some of them to speak at events.  Once you kiss the ring...

+1000

Daniel Cameron just announced state Senator Robby Mills from Henderson as his pick for Lt. Governor.  I'm not familiar with him but from what little I found so far he seems like a solid choice for pulling in the rural areas of western and eastern KY.  Serving as a Senate committee chair means he is loyal to the Republican establishment, see above.  



Senator Robby Mills (R-Henderson) represents the 4st District, which includes Caldwell, Crittenden, Henderson, Livingston, Union, and Webster Counties.

Senator Mills serves as the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on State & Local Government. He also serves as a member of the Senate Standing Committees on Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection and Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor.

Additionally, Senator Mills serves as a member on the Budget Review Subcommittee on General Government, Finance, & Public Protection and the Public Pension Oversight Board.

This part is both good and bad.

I'm sure there will be.  This weekend is Fancy Farm.  It isn't really a debate but both sides will be at the same event and speaking.  It should be available to watch online.  Cameron really needs to get on the ball and get his agenda items out there.  Other than emails begging for money and notices of upcoming small town hall events, I do not see any type of buzz or excitement around Cameron.  Fancy Farm is where he needs to launch his campaign ideas and getting regular people talking about him.  

It will be streamed on KET.  The political speaking portion is scheduled to start at 2 p.m.
https://ket.org/program/fancy-farm-14136/#scheduled

-- a write up about Fancy Farm
One of Kentucky's finest political experiences   and, yes, it is an experience   is upon us.

This Saturday, the commonwealth (along with just about anyone with internet access) will get to watch as our constitutional officers and anyone who wants to be a constitutional officer, along with a handful of others, roast each other at a church picnic.  Fancy Farm is a town, population roughly 500, in west Kentucky. It is home to the annual church fundraising picnic held by St. Jerome's Catholic Church. The first picnic was held in the 1880s.

But it's more than a church picnic. The political speaking hosted at the picnic is largely considered the informal kickoff to Kentucky's general election season.  Elected officials and candidates get to dominate the event for a few hours, giving short speeches best described as a cross between stump speech and tryout video for a stand-up comedy troupe.

Speakers:
Gov. Andy Beshear, Democrat, who is running for reelection
Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Republican also running for governor
State Sen. Jason Howell, Republican
State Rep. Richard Heath, Republican
U.S. Rep. James Comer, Republican
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, a Democrat running for lieutenant governor
State Sen. Robby Mills, a Republican running for lieutenant governor
Russell Coleman, a Republican running for attorney general
Rep. Pamela Stevenson, a Democrat running for attorney general
Auditor Mike Harmon, Republican
Allison Ball, a Republican running for auditor
Kim Reeder, a Democrat running auditor
Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican running for secretary of state
Buddy Wheatley, a Democrat running for secretary of state
Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, Republican
Jonathan Shell, a Republican running for agriculture commissioner
Sierra Enlow, a Democrat running for agriculture commissioner
Mark Metcalf, a Republican running for treasurer
Michael Bowman, Democrat running for treasurer

Cameron just released his first ad of the campaign.  Jobs and drugs seem to be his two biggest issues.

Sadly a missed opportunity to reminisce images of KSP placing notices on vehicles on Easter Sunday 2020