The Rural Democrat

BlueGrassWiki: Now this is a good idea

Everyone that reads this little blog please help these guys out and support this project. I am going to take a little break this weekend ,starting NOW!, and will leave this thread up all weekend to make sure everyone sees it. Unless something kick ass happens of course.

BlueGrassRoots

The immediate goal of BlueGrassWiki is to provide all the information Kentucky Democrats need to be involved in the party's reorganization process this April.  Essential to that goal is providing as much contact information we can for the individual counties. 

After the party reorganization, we hope to use BlueGrassWiki to help the county parties and activists hoping to get involved find each other.  As a repository for collective knowledge and wisdom, many other potential uses exist for a wiki devoted to Kentucky Democratic politics--uses we will be exploring as BlueGrassWiki grows.

But for now, WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Building a wiki is not a two-person effort—it takes a village.  Kentucky has 120 counties—more than any other state except Texas.  We need to create pages for each county (it’s easy) and enter in some basic information (also easy) to help Kentucky Democrats find the information they need to get involved.

Please, help us complete the initial phase of BlueGrassWiki's development ASAP!  The party reorganization is less than two months away.  Read the "How to Wiki" page to discover how easy contributing to a wiki is. 

Bruce Lunsford may have to answer for this one

UPDATE: Lunsford is a resident of everywhere and rich and thats why I did not get excited.

I normally do not even consider sourcing from a rightwing extraordinaire like Brett Hall, but after Mark Hebert of WHAS11 in Louisville mentioned this, it is only appropriate. Hebert agrees that Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Bruce Lunsford may have some splaining to do seeing that documents uncovered by Hall show Lunsford's actual place of residence to be Chicago, Illinois NOT Kentucky. So it can be argued, and I am sure some Republican somewhere is preparing to do so, that Bruce Lunsford's candidacy may be bogus or he lied on legal documents in Arizona, either way he could be screwed. But rich people always manage to squirm out of things like this, so I am not getting excited about this one quite yet.

House Speaker Richards playing for the other side?

I have just received an interesting email from a well placed source that reminded me of a very important fact; Jody Richards has never supported casino gaming until this year. If he indeed has, I can not find an example of it. And they had an interesting theory that Richards is actually playing up to the anti-casino lobby thus destroying the amendment by acting like a 3 year old who drank to much Pepsi yesterday.

Larry Keeling's latest thread on the issue seems to support this ridiculous but intriguing theory. Ridiculous meaning; how could Richards expect to get away with it? Keeling says that Richards' Tuesday tirade will likely result in the previously pro-casino house headcount of 51 members to drop into the low to mid-40-s thus effectively destroying any possibility of the casino question hitting the ballot.

I don't know if I buy this or not, but knowing how politicians sometimes operate, it would not surprise me.

Alright Page One Smart Ass: You carry RPK poo times two

And again Page One, who apparently dared us, to say they are, yet again, carrying the poo bucket, the chamber pot, the crap barrel, the piss bottle, the droopy diaper, and portal potty for the RPK by repeating Steve Robertson's stank on a so called left leaning weblog. But it is about the hits baby.

Page One

So, hop to it! Start calling us a Republican mouthpiece for publishing a political attack on our ineffective Speaker.

Documents reveal McCain campaign misleads on Kentucky ballot

The shady world of public financing federal elections has apparently snagged a presidential candidate in Senator John McCain. The DNC filed a complaint with the FEC yesterday. Does this come back to haunt the probable Republican nominee? Throw in an unethical relationship with a lobbyist and it starts to add up. These hits hurt his chances and I suspect they will keep coming.

Kentucky Democratic Party

WASHINGTON, DC - Facing questions about whether the campaign leveraged eligibility for public matching funds to gain access to the ballot in several states, the McCain campaign yesterday sunk to a new low. For days the McCain campaign has been playing fast and loose with the facts surrounding McCain's FEC violations. On a call with reporters yesterday, the McCain campaign erroneously stated that the campaign was getting on the Kentucky ballot by collecting signatures. [Wall Street Journal, 2/27/08]

The Democratic National Committee today released documents that show the McCain campaign did not file for the Kentucky ballot by collecting signatures, but by demonstrating that he had qualified for the ballot in at least 20 other states. One of the states the campaign cited was Delaware. As the DNC revealed yesterday, McCain qualified for the Delaware ballot by citing the FEC's approval of his application for matching funds, thereby avoiding the need to collect signatures.

"Not only does John McCain think that he can violate the law by leveraging public funds for private fundraising, but his campaign is clearly willing to mislead in order to cover their tracks," said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "How can the American people trust John McCain when he is unwilling to admit he's wrong and follow the law?"

Since the DNC filed its complaint with the FEC on Monday, the McCain campaign has tried to mislead the public by claiming they were withdrawing from the matching funds program in the same way the Dean campaign did in 2003. In fact, unlike McCain, the Dean campaign received FEC approval for withdrawing from the system. McCain's campaign has also refused to admit that the FEC's approval of his application for matching funds helped the campaign secure a private loan and get on the ballot in some states, even though their ballot applications clearly demonstrate that qualifying for matching funds helped them avoid signature collection requirements in Ohio and Delaware.

To view John McCain's application for the Kentucky ballot, click here: http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/McCainKentuckyBallotApplication.pdf

The McCain campaign's application for the Delaware ballot, which relies on his qualification for matching funds, is available on the DNC website at: http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20071116_McCainCF.pdf

To view McCain's application for the Ohio ballot, click here:
http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20071002_mccain_ltr.pdf
http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20080104_mccainfiling.pdf
http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/mccaindistdelatlargeexample.pdf

The FEC's December 2003 letter to the Dean campaign approving his request to withdraw from the matching funds program can be viewed here: http://www.democrats.org/page/-/pdf/20080226_deanfecpermission.pdf

John McCain has refused to acknowledge that the FEC has not approved his request to withdraw from the matching funds program.

Kentucky Casinos Alive

The House Speaker Jody Richards version of a constitutional amendment that would allow casino gaming in Kentucky has passed the Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. It is a good thing that the legislation made it out of committee, but what kind of reaction does this legislation receive on the house floor?

Hopefully it is received in a positive manner and gets off the house floor quickly because the Republican controlled Senate will likely be a hoot of a show once it gets there. I am waiting on some new poll results in regards to voting and allowing casinos in Kentucky, I have yet to see new data in a while. Why?

The Richards version of the proosal allows up to 9 casinos and MAY allow a few at racetracks. Certainly no gaurantee for the tracks. Do they oppose this or support it? Looks like they will MAY oppose it.

Pol Watchers

approved a version that calls for nine casinos, of which as many as five “may” be at horse racetracks.

The horse industry has opposed that version. Industry representatives say that they could be shut out by all free-standing casinos.

House Speaker Jody Richards Stacks the Deck

House Speaker Jody Richards (D) has stacked the proverbial deck on the Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee as he has booted Rep. Dottie Sims (D) off the committee for voting for the other faction's proposal, she responded to her dismissal as "move akin to "communism.". Richards replaced Sims with two key allies.

Rep. Rob Wilkey (D) and Rep. Larry Clark (D) kicked Richards' in the teeth earlier in the day by getting their, horse track friendly, casino proposal brought o the committee for a vote.

Now Richards is making a move that can be considered cheap and childish, but he is the House Speaker and seeing that Richards is really trying to muscle the horse tracks out of the casino business, it is not surprising he would stoop to this level. Now that Richards has managed to alienate many in the house, I expect Stumbo to begin maneuvering. He has drawn a line in the sand with the horsie bunch and that might not be such a good idea.   

Governor Beshear tell House Leaders "to get their act together"

Lifted from Pol Watchers. Statement from Governor Steve Beshear (D) "The entire leadership of the House of Representatives has on numerous occasions publicly and privately committed to me to work in a unified manner in passing a Constitutional Amendment allowing the issue of limited expanded gaming to be placed on the ballot. Today's actions, as well as inactions evidenced in the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, very clearly demonstrate that House leadership remains deeply divided. House Leadership should remember that more than 80% of Kentucky voters want the right to express themselves on this amendment. Such a disagreement also seriously threatens the people's right to decide for themselves whether or not they favor capturing the hundreds of millions of new dollars now being lost to other states. These are dollars that could be available to us for education, health care and other vital services. I publically call on them to get their act together quickly. Only with their unified support will this amendment stand a chance of passage." Some tough words from the head man. Will this make any difference what so ever? I doubt it, Beshears people should have recognized this a long time ago and now I am afraid the administration is setting themselves up for a pounding.

Casino Amendment Feared Dead?

Rep. Rob Wilkey and Rep. Larry Clark stomped on the so called House Speaker this morning and managed to get their version of a casino amendment to the committee for a vote. And it failed in the Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. Does this destroy the possibility of a casino amendment making it to the ballot? Richards and others clearly do not want the horse tracks to have any perceived power of casino gaming in Kentucky. Seeing the horse tracks already have establish gaming, it seems a bit foolish to attempt to cut them out or add any additional restrictions. I guess the meeting at the mansion failed to bring together the splintered Democratic house leadership.

Will a Casino ReWrite - Right the Ship?

Alessi has some good coverage in regards to the meeting at the mansion between key Democratic house leaders and the governor. Beshear announced last night that the constitutional amendment will get a face lift. He went on to say that the Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee will submit a do over of his original legislation. Does this take the ball away from the governor and clearly shift the bully pulpit to the house chambers? The Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee is a divided bunch and it will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes out of this committee meeting. Now the politics of this whole thing has changed forever. The house faction that pushes through their proposal will be the fathers and mothers of that legislation. Does that hurt or help the possibility of it passing?