Gay Card Didn't Work for Fletcher
John Cheves has an interesting story in the Lexington H-L about the last minute "gay card' that was played by republicans to try and win a few votes for Ernie Fletcher on Election Day.
The analysis offers a number of reasons from various folks about why the strategy didn't pay off for the Fletcher. But I'm not sure anyone was listening to Fletcher or anyone who was associated with his campaign in the final few days of the campaign. Fletcher could have produced some evidence that Steve Beshear was a mass murderer in a previous life and few voters would have listened. They'd already decided they weren't going to vote for Fletcher again under any circumstances, even if it meant voting for a guy they really didn't know too much about (Beshear).
Comments
It worked to suppress the turnout. I think it was 37% statewide. It may have backfired, however, in Boone County it was only 27%. Has anyone seen an analysis of the gender
voting? Last USAtoday poll had Fletcher losing women something like 67-29. Women don't like negative campaigning. They didn't like the pardon, either.
Posted by: RR | November 12, 2007 7:22 AM
I do not believe we have heard the last of the Gay issue in Kentucky campaigns. This IS Kentucky, and if Bush can win the presidency, we know there are plenty of stupid, easily hoodwinked people out there. Same applies in Kentucky when a candidate for office wins by a large margin in 2003 and again mainly because he played Kentucky basketball. A REAL agribusiness person ran for Ag Commissioner in 2003 and was defeated. Granted that the Dem Ag Comm candidate was a fluke, it is still tragic that we Kentuckians take our voting privileges so lightly. So, in a state where we vote for Kentucky bb players, intimidate black voters at the polls, and where a Creation Museum, however preposterous, continues to make headlines, we can fully expect the Republican Party to scare up the Gay Boogey Man/Woman again in the near future. The Republicans just waited too late and had the wrong candidate this time.
Posted by: Flamecat | November 12, 2007 1:05 PM