All Entries in the "Mitch McConnell" Category

Beshear seeks meeting with Obama during president’s Cincinnati visit

By Jack Brammer

jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT –Gov. Steve Beshear wants to meet with President Obama when the president travels to Cincinnati next week to urge Congress to approve his $447 billion jobs bill.

“We are reaching out to the White House to see if Gov. Beshear can meet with President Obama to discuss several issues that are of importance to Kentucky families,” Beshear’s director of communications, Kerri Richardson, said without elaboration when asked if there were any plans for Beshear and Obama to meet.

The White House announced Thursday that Obama will travel to Cincinnati Sept. 22 to deliver remarks at the Brent Spence Bridge across the Ohio River that connects Ohio and Kentucky. He will be in the backyard of House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

State Fair attracts candidates; charity ham auctioned for $600,000

By Jack Brammer

jbrammer@herald-leader.com

LOUISVILLE — Candidates for state office swarmed to the state fair early Thursday to meet and greet more than 1,600 people at the 48th annual Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast, where a charity ham was auctioned for $600,000.

Both Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and his Republican challenger, Senate President David Williams, said they were pleased with their campaigns so far. But Williams’ wife, Robyn Williams, told reporters she abhors TV ads by an independent group that attack her husband as a gambler and a big spender.

One ad criticizes Williams for spending $17,000 for an entertainment center with a large-screen TV for his Capitol Annex office in 2006. Outside the breakfast, the Kentucky Democratic Party introduced “TV Man,” a young man who carried a replica of the TV with Williams’ picture.

The ads, paid for by the Kentucky Family Values PAC, are “disgusting,” said Robyn Williams.

Videos from speeches at Fancy Farm 2011

Videos from key speeches at Fancy Farm 2011, including Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Steve Beshear, David Williams and Gatewood Galbraith. All videos by Rich Copley.

Gov. Steve Beshear:

Sen. David Williams:

Political heat turned up at parties’ pre-Fancy Farm breakfasts

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

MAYFIELD – Senate President David Williams told Graves County Republicans Saturday morning that Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has not done enough to create jobs or make Kentucky’s economy more business-friendly.

Williams, speaking at a Republican breakfast at Graves County High School, said Beshear recently made a joke about Williams’ frequent references to Tennessee and how the state has surpassed Kentucky in many key economic areas.
But the Kentucky economy is not a joke, Williams said.

“When you have double-digit unemployment, it’s not a laughing matter,” Williams said.

Williams said he would be a pro-life governor who has a plan to change Kentucky’s tax structure and “get us back in the job-building business.”

Beshear-Abramson campaign touts economic records in new TV ads

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – The re-election campaign of Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and his running mate, former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, started airing two TV ads Monday touting their economic records.

The ads come on the heels of a TV ad by the Republican Governors Association that claims Kentucky’s economy has suffered over the last four years with one of the Top 10 unemployment rates in the nation and that GOP gubernatorial nominee David Williams has a plan to improve it.

Beshear and Abramson are featured in the 30-second Democratic campaign’s new ads. Williams is not mentioned.

Fancy Farm schedules speakers for annual political picnic

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

Candidates for governor, U.S. senators and a “farewell” speech by Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo will highlight this year’s Fancy Farm picnic, which traditionally kicks off the fall campaigns in Kentucky.

Mark Wilson, political chairman for the 131st annual picnic on Aug. 6 at St. Jerome Catholic Church in the small Western Kentucky community of Fancy Farm, released information Wednesday about the picnic’s political speaking program.

Wilson said Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican Senate President David Williams have confirmed they will speak at the picnic about their campaigns for governor.

Wilson also said Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith, who is running for governor as an independent, will be invited to speak if his required candidacy papers have been formalized.

Marshall County judge-executive picked to emcee Fancy Farm picnic

FRANKFORT – Longtime Marshall County Judge-Executive Mike Miller has been selected to emcee the 131st annual Fancy Farm political picnic that unofficially will kick off this fall’s campaigns for governor and other state offices.

Miller, a Democrat, has held the county judge office since 1974.

Mark Wilson, who organizes the political speaking at the free picnic on the campus of St. Jerome Catholic Church in Graves County with his wife, Lori Wilson, said the picnic’s committee tries to alternate between Democrats and Republicans in finding an emcee.

“They’d run me out of town if we picked someone from the same party every year,” he said, noting that, in some years, persons not affiliated with any party are selected to emcee.

McConnell won’t say where he stands on Libya mission

By David Lightman and Halimah Abdullah — McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Republicans are divided over how to proceed on endorsing — or trying to curb — the U.S. mission in Libya, and on Wednesday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell illustrated his party’s political dilemma.

Pressed repeatedly by reporters at a Washington breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, the Kentucky Republican refused to state a position.

“I’ve got a variety of different views in my conference,” McConnell said, referring to the Senate’s 47 Republicans.

Asked for his own view, or even a gut feeling, he wouldn’t even hint at his position.

Williams wants Bowling Green suspects moved to Gitmo

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Senate President David Williams wants two terrorist suspects arrested in Bowling Green to be moved to Guantanamo Bay, saying that the move would ensure the safety of Kentucky residents.

Williams comments come on the heels of a similar request made by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made the request on Tuesday in a speech on the Senate floor. McConnell says that the two men were plotting attacks on U.S. military forces and should therefore be moved to the military prison in Cuba. Holding a trial in Kentucky federal court could attract retaliatory actions by other terrorist groups, McConnell and others have said.

The U.S. Department of Justice has countered that the two men are accused of plotting attacks while they were in the United States. The best place to hold their trial is in the United States in federal criminal court. Hundreds of others have been convicted on federal terrorism charges in federal court. There have been no problems with those trial, justice officials have said.

Republican leaders try to unify party at Frankfort rally

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Republicans tried to heal rifts from Tuesday’s primary elections for state offices and unify party support for November’s general election at a rally Saturday at party headquarters.

The two losing candidates for the Republican primary for governor — Louisville businessman Phil Moffett, who enjoyed widespread Tea Party support, and Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw, who prevailed in the state’s most populous county — were there to stand by party nominee David Williams.

But they said later that their roles in Williams’ fall campaign remain uncertain.