All Entries in the "KY-6th" Category

Kentucky House approves plan to redraw congressional districts

PDF: House plan for congressional districts

By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state House split mostly along party lines Tuesday in approving a bill to redraw the boundaries of Kentucky’s six congressional districts.

Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House protested that House Bill 2 was designed to protect Democratic U.S. Reps. Ben Chandler and John Yarmuth.

The bill now goes to the Republican-led Senate, where it is expected to undergo major changes.

“Absolutely, the Senate will change the House version to make the new map more like the current map,” said Senate State Government Chairman Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown.

If the Senate changes the House plan “in a positive manner, we certainly will take a look at it,” said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. “If the Senate chooses to change it in a political manner, I doubt it would meet very much success over here. We would just have to do without a plan.”

Plan would put Hal Rogers’ home county in two congressional districts

PDF: House plan for congressional districts

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A state House committee voted along party lines Thursday to split the home county of Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers of Somerset into two congressional districts as it redraws the boundaries of Kentucky’s six districts.

The plan contained in House Bill 2 also moves Boyle, Garrard and part of Jessamine counties from Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District to south-central Kentucky’s 2nd District.

It also makes Northern Kentucky’s 4th District a more urban district and moves Daviess County from the 2nd District to the 1st District.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, acknowledged after the House State Government Committee approved the bill that it is likely to change before becoming law.

“I assume it will go through some vigorous debate and likely transformation,” he said.

Proposals to redraw Ky. congressional districts would bring big changes

By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

PDF: View the proposals

FRANKFORT — Two new proposals to redraw the boundaries of Kentucky’s six congressional districts could mean major changes for Central Kentucky voters.

Both plans appear to benefit Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, who represents Lexington and many surrounding counties in the 6th Congressional District.

The proposals — one pushed by the Democratic-controlled House and another by unnamed members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation — would move Republican-leaning Jessamine and Garrard counties out of Chandler’s district, replacing them with counties that lean more Democratic.

Republican Andy Barr, a Lexington lawyer who narrowly lost to Chandler in 2010 and plans to challenge him again in 2012, said Tuesday that the emerging plans amount to “incumbent-protection gerrymandering for a weak incumbent.”

Chandler urges support for Obama’s jobs plan

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said Wednesday that he supports President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan, although the Republican-led House is not expected to vote on the plan soon, if ever.

Chandler, D-Versailles, said he approves of the plan’s mix of payroll tax cuts for businesses, infrastructure spending and aid to local governments to avert the layoffs of teachers and emergency workers. He said the plan would offer $1,330 in tax relief to a typical Kentucky household and save or create 12,000 jobs in the state.

“There is no time to waste,” Chandler said in a prepared statement. “Congress must act now to create jobs, strengthen our middle class and expand our economy.”

Chandler, who is expected to face a tough re-election battle in 2012, did not return calls seeking comment.

Chandler, Barr raise big money for 2012 U.S. House race

FRANKFORT – Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler raised $228,727 in the last three months for his re-election campaign while a Republican challenger, Andy Barr, reported taking in $197,213 in the first three weeks of his campaign.

The candidates for Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District have filed their campaign finance reports for April 1 through June 30 with the Federal Elections Commission.

Barr, a Lexington attorney, announced his candidacy for next year’s race on June 9 and started his fundraising then. He narrowly lost to Chandler in last year’s race.

The latest campaign finance reports show Chandler, a Woodford County attorney who has been in the U.S. House since February 2004, with $561,419 on hand.

Barr reported $202,988 on hand. He said he had “a little left over from the 2010 campaign” to add to his latest fundraising.

The Barr campaign said the report exceeded his fundraising for any quarter during the 2010 primary election. He had not yet declared his candidacy in June 2009.

– Jack Brammer

Chandler blasts GOP Medicare plan favored by Barr

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler told a group of senior citizens Friday that he opposes “dismantling” the $500 billion-a-year program as he claimed some Republicans have proposed.

“I feel some in Congress want to basically give our seniors a discount coupon and a get-well card,” Chandler said in a speech to about 120 at the Lexington Senior Center on the 45th anniversary of Medicare.

Chandler, a Versailles Democrat who probably faces a tough re-election race next year, took aim at a proposal by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, dismissing it as a voucher system.

Republican Andy Barr, a Lexington attorney who lost to Chandler in last year’s 6th Congressional District election by only 648 votes, has already announced his candidacy for next year’s race.

Barr said in a phone interview that Chandler’s campaign strategy “is to scare senior citizens.”

Census: A lot of Kentuckians will get a new congressman

By Bill Estep – bestep@herald-leader.com

A lot of Kentuckians are going to get new representatives in the U.S. House because of significant shifts in the state’s population.

The eastern and western ends of the state lost population between 2000 and 2010 while the middle third grew, according to U.S. Census figures released this week.

Three of the state’s six congressional districts fall short of the necessary population, while the other three are over it.

The national average for a U.S. House District will be 710,767.

However, the target number will vary by state; dividing Kentucky’s population of 4.3 million by six seats means a population target for each district of about 723,000.

Changing his ways, Rogers helps lead GOP effort to cut spending

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers is undergoing a makeover of sorts.

Widely known for steering federal dollars to projects in his district, the Somerset Republican and House Appropriations Committee chairman is now helping lead GOP efforts to trim fat from the federal budget.

He’s joined by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, himself no stranger to earmarks, and together the two Kentucky lawmakers are wielding enormous sway in the debate over cutting billions in federal spending.

“The American taxpayers have lost confidence in the way Washington is managing their money, and Chairman Rogers is working to repair this by cutting spending and stopping the overreach of government bureaucracy,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

As recently as this week, Rogers was pivotal in helping craft and get passed a two-week federal funding stopgap to stave off a looming government shutdown. The measure slashes $4 billion from the federal budget by nixing funding for several education, highway and agricultural programs, among others.

Chandler removed from House spending panel

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, has lost his seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, at least for the foreseeable future in the 112th Congress.

On Friday, Chandler said he was squeezed off the committee — which decides all federal spending — when Republicans took over the House this week and claimed the majority of seats on the panel. Congressional committees reflect the makeup of their respective chambers when it comes to party lines.

“I was No. 25 in seniority out of the 37 Democrats, so I was probably going to make the cut when they redid it,” Chandler said. “Then (House Speaker John) Boehner decided to downsize the committee from 60 to 50 members. So everyone got fewer seats. You can see how that panned out.”

Chandler blames Obama, Pelosi for Democrats’ losses in election

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@herald-leader.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said last week he partially blames the Obama administration and U.S. House leadership for Democrats’ election losses and his extremely narrow re-election.

“If not there, where else does the responsibility lie?” said Chandler, D-Versailles, who had endorsed Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election. “You’re talking about the loss of 60 or something seats held by capable public servants. There had to be something going on at a level above them. If that isn’t the lesson, I don’t know what is.”

In a wide-ranging Herald-Leader interview last week, Chandler said Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have focused on the economy before attempting to reform health care.

“I think it was a serious strategic error on the part of the administration to take on health care when the public was agitated about the economy,” he said.