Political BLOG |
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Joe Arnold
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October 2007 ArchivesKentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson says he's been worried about Ernie Fletcher's coattails dragging him down on election day. But Grayson believes his ad campaign will give him better name recognition with voters and, perhaps, help him avoid democratic straight ticket voting. ...With Governor Fletcher trailing Steve Beshear in the polls, I decided to see how a Beshear landslide might rank among the past 36 years of gubernatorial elections. ...Steve Beshear has a 23 point lead over Ernie Fletcher in the latest Courier-Journal Bluegrass State poll. ...Steve Beshear has widened his lead over Ernie Fletcher and appears headed toward a double digit win in the Kentucky governor's race. Here's my story from Tuesday when I followed Fletcher and Beshear on the campaign trail. ...Governor Fletcher may have tipped his hand that he thinks the election might be over. It may have happened before and during the governor's news conference on Peabody Energy on Monday. ...Governor Fletcher's campaign is accusing Steve Beshear's campaign of making illegal calls to state employees. ...I know it made headlines, including a big story on our station, but there really wasn't much news out of today's announcement from Governor Fletcher and Peabody Energy Corporation. ...The home county of Ernie Fletcher and Steve Beshear is giving big money to the challenger, according to an analysis by Fletcher's former press secretary. ...The only person who was ever charged with a crime in the Paul Patton-Tina Conner scandal has lost her legal appeal. ...The Lexington Herald-Leader is reporting that Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is trying to earmakr federal money to a defense contractor that's the focus of a bribery investigation. ...Although candidates from Louisville can't seem to win the governorship, candidates from Kentucky's largest city always seem to do well in the down ticket races. ...It looks like there really is a chance that being a republican candidate in Kentucky this fall may be enough to get one beat. ...The first public poll on the Louisville library tax referendum shows supporters far outnumber opponents. But the biggest number, in terms of impact, is the undecideds. ...Steve Beshear crushed Ernie Fletcher in fundraising over the past 15 days but doesn't have much more that Fletcher left in the bank for the closing days of the election. ...Another employee of Greg Stumbo has been arrested, this time for allegedly stalking a female co-worker. ...It looks like Peabody Energy is finally going to pull the trigger and announce that they plan to build a coal-to-natural gas plant somewhere in Western Kentucky. ...Ernie Fletcher and Steve Beshear are both is Louisville today, Fletcher at a prayer breakfast attended by about 75 people, Beshear at a rally at a union hall tonight (about 200 people). Here's my story. ...The AFL-CIO and Governor Fletcher's former press secretary have new polls out that tell us what we'd expect a poll from those respective groups to say. ...A series of recommendations which are about to be issued by a Lexington task force on immigration has apparently sparked a firestorm of controversy. ...The Lane Report's October issue shows Secretary of State Trey Grayson locked in a dead heat with Democrat Bruce Hendricksen. ...State lawmakers haven't been allowed to ask Frankfort lobbyists for campaign donations to their own campaigns since the post Boptrot ethics reforms. Now lawmakers can't ask lobbyists to contribute to their political parties either. ...As part of our televised debate Sunday night, we asked Survey USA to poll some hot button issues for us, so we might use some of the results during the gubernatorial debate. Here are some of the results: ...A new article in Roll Call suggests that Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio won't be the political battlegrounds that they were in 2006. ...I don't know about you, but my intrusion on to Mark's political blogosphere looks scary to me. ...Is the library tax increase proposal a way to bail the city out of growing health care and pension costs? ...Here's some more of the information and breakouts on the Survey USA/WHAS-TV poll released today. UPDATE: Video of story I did at 5 on Tues. ...The new Survey USA/WHAS 11 poll is not kind to Governor Fletcher's reelection chances. ...I know comedian Stephen Colbert isn't serious about running for president, but there is a pretty funny possibility out there if he manages to file proper papers. ...This story that I did last week didn't make it to our web page, so I thought I'd share the guts of it with you web surfers. ...First, an apology to Governor Fletcher. As you watch the debate you'll see I challenged his recollection of the fate of the "Boni Bill" during the 2007 legislative session. ...Former Deputy State Transportation Secretary Dick Murgatroyd has been gone from the Fletcher adminstration more than two years. But today he was hit with ethics charges in connection with his actions while he was in Frankfort. ...Kentucky finally has its first female african american judge, courtesy of an appointment from a Republican governor. ...I'm trying to figure out why Greg Stumbo is happy with a ruling from a Franklin Circuit judge, allowing the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to go forward with an investigation of his office. ...Well isn't this a stick in the eye of the Transportation Cabinet? ...We need your questions for the debate Sunday night between Ernie Fletcher and Steve Beshear. ...If you want to watch one of Al Smith's last hostings of KET's Comment on Kentucky, you can watch live in Louisville this friday. ...It appears lots of folks who gave money to the candidate who promised to "clean up the mess in Frankfort" in 2003 have decided to give money to the candidate who's pledging to "stop the corruption" this time around. ...The Old State Office Building, where hundreds of political deals were cut in the old Transportation Cabinet offices, has been refurbished and is about to reopen. ...A Survey USA/WHAS-TV poll of Kentuckians shows they would narrowly pick Fred Thompson or John McKain in a head to head matchup with Hillary Clinton. ...Jim Carroll of the C-J has more on the continuing controversy surrounding the criticism of Graeme Frost, the 12-year-old boy who democrats used to help boost their case for passage of the S-Chip bill. ...Former Fletcher administration official Erwin Roberts reports raising more than $100,000 since he filed to run for the 3rd District Congressional seat currently held by John Yarmuth. ...President Bush's job approval rating among Kentuckians sits at a low 41%, according to the most recent Survey USA/WHAS-TV poll. ...Sen. Richie Sanders made it official today, he's quitting at the end of his term in 2008. ...Boy, alot of you are really interested in Senator Mitch McConnell's answers to my questions about his office's role, or non-role, in the whole Graeme Frost controversy. ...Senator Mitch McConnell's job approval rating has dipped to its lowest point since Survey USA began tracking his ratings more than two yeas ago. ...It appears State Senator Richie Sanders may call the 2008 Legislative Session his last. ...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was in Louisville on Sunday night and Monday, talking to students in the McConnell Scholars program. ...The Frankfort State Journal is reporting that the man whose information started the merit hiring investigation of the Fletcher administration, will not be forced to answer questions from Transportation Cabinet attornies. ...I'd been working on a story about a former Monroe County P.V.A. who was convicted on a corruption charge, getting a promotion in the Fletcher administration. ...
Governor Ernie Fletcher says one entry on Steve Beshear's campaign spending report proves Beshear recognizes same sex marriages, which are barred in Kentucky. ...It looks like the investigators in the Attorney General's office want to stop an investigation of their tactics. ...Here are some quotes from U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell today on Al Gore, Fletcher and allegations that one of his aides prompted the GOP's criticism of a 12-year-old boy. ...Steve Beshear has a new TV ad on the air which is designed to counter the bashing Fletcher is giving him on the Kentucky Central issue. ...The two candidates for Kentucky governor squared off for the first time since the release of that secret report on Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company's problems. ...Political reporters see alot of funny news releases. Some are intentionally funny, some are just so ridiculous that one has to laugh. ...The Democrats trotted out a 12-year-old boy named Graeme Frost to give their response to President Bush's radio address over the weekend. ...Another Republican state senator could be facing a serious challenge next year. ...That $5.3 million that Steve Beshear reported in contributions today includes a big chunk of non-cash, in-kind contributions from the Kentucky Democratic Party. ...An independent 527 committee continues to do the dirty work on Governor Fletcher that we haven't seen in ads from Steve Beshear's campaign. ...David L. Who? That's what Kentucky Democrats must be saying because their party leaders have certainly forgotten that they have a candidate for Agriculture Commissioner. ...Two republican former state lawmakers from Jefferson County announced their endorsement of Steve Beshear for governor today. ...Governor Fletcher has narrowed the margin in the governor's race, but not much. ...
There may be a logical explanation, but it appears that the Republican Governors Association is using the exact same video for one of its TV ads that Governor Fletcher used in one of his TV ads in the May primary. ...Unless the Beshear folks have been purposely inflating their fundraising numbers over the past few weeks, it appears that Steve Beshear will easily outraise a sitting governor. ...Governor Fletcher has launched another TV ad bashing Steve Beshear over the Kentucky Central Life Insurance liquidation. ...Kentucky's Personnel Secretary Brian Crall has stuck a finger in the eye of one of his governor's closest allies, Bill Nighbert, as well as one political nemesis, Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Jonathan Miller. ...I couldn't figure out why any presidential candidate (including John Edwards) would visit Kentucky for something other than a fundraiser. The Huckabee campaign must have just figured out they wouldn't get much mileage out of coming to a college campus in a state that will likely play no role in the outcome of the party nominations. ...Minnesota Public Radio has created a quiz that is designed to tell you which presidential candidate has views closest to your own. You can find it at a Quad Cities TV station's web site. ...Lowell Reese of Kentucky Roll Call says there's evidence that Kentucky Auditor Crit Luallen may be looking past her reelection campaign. ...After reading all of the versions of the Kentucky Central Life Insurance report stories that I could find, it appears to me that the Lexington Herald-Leader's story is the toughest on Beshear. ...The 12-year-old investigative report on Stites and Harbison's conflict of interest in the Kentucky Central Life Insurance liquidation has produced no "smoking gun" that Steve Beshear did anything wrong. ...Steve Beshear's attempt at humor rubbed a Glasgow reporter the wrong way and she wrote about it in the Glasgow newspaper. ...I still think of him as a young radio reporter. But for folks on both sides of the political aisle, Scott Jennings has become so much more. ...The Kentucky Enquirer's Pat Crowley has talked with Steve Beshear about the expected release of that secret report on Kentucky Central Life Insurance. ...Isn't this a hoot? Former sportswriter Billy Reed is now on the staff of Attorney General Greg Stumbo. ...Attorney General Greg Stumbo has won the first round in what's expected to be a long legal battle with Marathon Oil over the attorney general's price gouging lawsuit against Marathon and Speedway SuperAmerica. ...Kentucky's House and Senate leaders voted today to stop any investigation of the Director of the Legislative Research Commission, Bobby Sherman. ...Caroline Pitt Clark, the newest member of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, is seeking an ethics ruling on cases involving her former law firm. ...We all make mistakes, but in a story I just aired about an Office of Education Accountablity investigation of the Jefferson County school system, I referred to former school board member Patrick O'Leary as JOSEPH O'Leary. ...Steve Beshear has been hording his cash for one reason.......to combat the expected onslaught of attack ads from Governor Fletcher. ...If it's the "Senator from Clairol," as Rush Limbaugh derisively calls John Edwards, coming to western Kentucky, it's the "Governor from weight loss" coming to Danville and the Republican "Congressman from withdrawal" is coming to Ft. Mitchell. ...The former state employee whose binder full of e-mails and documents started the investigation of Governor Fletcher's hiring practices is now volunteering for Steve Beshear's campaign for governor. ...As reported here first several weeks ago, former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev will be speaking in Louisville this wednesday. ...The WestKyPolitics website has more information on John Edwards' visit to Columbus later this week. ... |
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