All Entries in the "Republican Party" Category

Former Kentucky Democratic Party chief mulling possible bid for U.S. Senate

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Former Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Bill Garmer said Friday he is considering running for the U.S. Senate next year if Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes declines to enter the race against Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell.

“A lot of people have talked to me about the race,” said Garmer, a Lexington lawyer, in a telephone interview. “But Alison is the center of discussion. In my mind, if she wants the nomination, she has my support. She is one of the bright stars in the Democratic party and she wants to serve Kentucky. I would be the first in line to support her.”

Asked if he would consider running if Grimes decides not to run, Garmer said, “that sounds like a lawyer’s question but that would be fair.”

Grimes said April 23 that she is pondering whether to run for the U.S. Senate next year against McConnell. She said she would “take the time to reflect with my family, my supporters on how I can best continue to serve the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

Kentucky House redistricting plan would create new district in Lexington

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="466"] Proposed Kentucky House redistricting map[/caption]

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

PDF: Proposed House redistricting map

FRANKFORT — House Speaker Greg Stumbo unveiled proposed new boundaries for House districts Tuesday that pit incumbents against each other in six districts and creates seven districts with no incumbent, including one in Fayette County.

The House State Government Committee approved House Bill 2 on a party-line vote Tuesday afternoon, with Democrats voting yes and Republicans voting no. The Democratic-led House may vote on the bill Wednesday.

All but one of the incumbents who would have to battle each other are Republicans.

The new Fayette County district is 88, located in the southern part of the county.

Proposed districts that pair incumbents include:

Democrats make major changes to Kentucky pension overhaul bill

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Democrats on a House committee made major changes Tuesday to a proposed overhaul of Kentucky’s ailing pension system, raising the hackles of Republicans.

The House State Government Committee sent a revised Senate Bill 2 to the full House for consideration on a 17-1 vote. Ten Republicans did not vote.

The latest version of SB 2 would allow future state workers to remain on a defined-benefit pension plan. Senate Republicans has proposed shifting future workers to a hybrid 401(K)-style plan that offered a defined contribution from the state and a guaranteed minimum return on investments.

Committee Chairman Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, said House Speaker Greg Stumbo will present a plan to pay for the policy bill to the House budget committee later in the day.

Stumbo has said the funding plan would rely on money from expanded Instant Racing at horse racetracks, a new Keno game operated by the Kentucky Lottery Corp. and allowing lottery games to be played online.

Mitch McConnell lampoons Democratic efforts to find a challenger for him

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign released its first video ad Tuesday, a parody highlighting the difficulty Democrats are having trying to recruit a viable candidate to run against him.

The video is on the newly-launched website www.obamaskentuckycandidate.com. The Republican campaign says it plans to use the website to track Democrats’ recruiting process.

The nearly three-minute video features clips of Democratic President Barack Obama that have been edited to make it appear he is searching for a candidate to run against McConnell.

Prospects identified include actress Ashley Judd, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, former U.S. ambassador to Sweden Matthew Barzun and Ed Marksberry of Owensboro, who already has said he will run. The video also features clips of Gov. Steve Beshear, Attorney General Jack Conway, former Auditor Crit Luallen, Auditor Adam Edelen, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville, and Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson, all of whom have said they’re not interested in challenging McConnell.

“We all know President Obama and his liberal allies have made Senator McConnell their number one target,” Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “We thought we would have a little fun with the problems they’ve had finding someone to carry President Obama’s banner in Kentucky.”

The YouTube video was released to McConnell supporters in an email Tuesday morning and posted on Team Mitch’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Daniel Logsdon said the video shows that McConnell doesn’t want to talk about his long voting record in Washington.

“The only thing he can do is make fun of serious people who are trying to help Kentuckians,” Logsdon said. “He can’t point to any accomplishments.”

Logsdon said the Democratic Party “will have a strong challenger for him in 2014.”

Asked who that might be, he said “that process is in the works.”

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Tuesday that Judd should contact Gov. Steve Beshear about the race.

“When we discussed this with the governor last week, he indicated that he’s not had that contact yet,” Stumbo said.

He said he hoped Judd would also talk to other Democratic leaders in Kentucky.

“I think there are some things that we could suggest to her that may help her as she formulated her campaign,” Stumbo said.

Meanwhile, Nicholasville Tea Party activist David Adams said Louisville businessman Matt Bevin is looking at the Republican primary for U.S. Senate as a Tea Party candidate.

Adams said the Tea Party in the state “may have multiple candidates to run against McConnell.”

Bevin said in a statement that he has made no final decision about the race. He said he has met with “various individuals and groups who have expressed their frustration with their current representation in Washington and have encouraged him to consider entering the race.”

GOP Upchurch wins special House election

By Jack Brammer

jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT –Republican Ken Upchurch of Monticello won a special election Tuesday night to return to his former state House seat from south-central Kentucky.

Upchurch, who represented the House’s 52nd District from 1999 to 2011, defeated Democrat Harvey Shearer of Monticello in the special election to fill the unexpired state House term of Republican Sara Beth Gregory.

Ashley Judd thanks American Crossroads for the publicity

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

The conservative Super PAC American Crossroads released an advertisement Wednesday on YouTube that mocks the political stances of actress Ashley Judd, who is considering a run for U.S. Senate next year in Kentucky.

In the video, a narrator labels Judd an “Obama-following, radical, Hollywood liberal who’s right at home here in Tennessee … uh, I mean Kentucky.”

Karl Rove, a former senior advisor to President George W. Bush, is a co-founder of the group attacking Judd, who has been coy when asked about possibly challenging Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014.

“Ashley thanks Senator McConnell, Karl Rove and their negative allies for all the attention as she considers her future political plans, although a decision hasn’t been made yet,” a spokesperson for Judd said Wednesday in an email.

Kentucky business group gets behind industrial hemp bills, but hurdles remain

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce joined a growing chorus of high-profile supporters on Friday who want to let Kentucky farmers grow industrial hemp, but the effort continues to face an uphill battle.

Bills have been filed in the House and Senate that would license farmers to grow the plant — a close cousin to marijuana — if the federal government lifts its ban on the crop. Such proposals have failed to gain traction with lawmakers in previous years, but sponsors of the two bills said they believe the measure has a better chance this year.

The board of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce voted Friday to support the proposal and Republican Agriculture Commissioner James Comer has spent much of the past year aggressively lobbying state and federal leaders to lift the ban on hemp as a way to stimulate rural Kentucky economies.

Half of Kentucky’s congressional delegation — Republican U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie and Andy Barr, Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth and Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul — have also supported efforts to legalize growing hemp.

Still, skeptics remain.

Conservatives warn Mitch McConnell they’re watching him closely

By David Lightman
McClatchy Washington Bureau

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell got his first big challenge from the right Wednesday, as the conservative group ForAmerica launched an ad questioning whether the Kentucky Republican is a true conservative.

McConnell, the leader of the Senate’s 45 Republicans, is up for re-election next year. He negotiated a deal with Vice President Joe Biden last week to avoid the fiscal cliff. The package included tax increases on the wealthy and delayed automatic spending cuts two months.

“As negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff were intensifying,” the ad says, “conservatives called on McConnell and congressional Republicans to hold the line on tax rates and demand cuts to spending as they had promised.”

Instead, ForAmerica says, “when the deadline was looming, McConnell called Vice President Joe Biden and signed off on a deal with the White House that included tax increases and virtually no spending cuts.”

Kentucky House elects first woman to leadership post

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

FRANKFORT — The 2013 General Assembly began on a historic note Tuesday with the election of the first woman to House leadership.

State Rep. Sannie Overly, D-Paris, was elected majority caucus chairman by her Democratic colleagues. Overly defeated Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, who has held the position since 2008.

“It’s a humbling experience,” Overly said of being the first woman elected to leadership. “I am looking forward to uniting our caucus and maintaining our majority through 2014 and beyond.”

Overly was the only challenger who managed to oust an incumbent in leadership races on the first day of the 30-workday legislative session. House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark of Louisville survived a challenge by Rep. Arnold Simpson of Covington, and Majority Whip Tommy Thompson of Owensboro turned back a bid by Rep. Johnny Bell of Glasgow. House Speaker Greg Stumbo of Prestonsburg and House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins of Sandy Hook were unopposed.

Tuesday was largely ceremonial with the swearing in of new House and Senate members and the election of leaders in both chambers.

Kentucky Republicans heap praise and scorn on McConnell for fiscal cliff deal

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

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell is getting heaps of praise and piles of scorn for his leading role in brokering a deal to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, raising questions about how the compromise will affect his 2014 re-election bid.

Ted Jackson, a Republican consultant from Louisville, said he was proud of McConnell for averting tax hikes on most Americans and putting Republicans in a better position to negotiate in the weeks ahead on spending cuts.

“He showed tremendous leadership and courage,” Jackson said. “He stood up and was a leader and in my opinion that transcends any arguments about whether we caved. We didn’t have anything to fight with.”

McConnell, the Republican Senate leader who has represented Kentucky since 1985, negotiated with his old Senate colleague, Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, to get a deal that was approved by Congress and sent to President Barack Obama for his signature late Tuesday night. The compromise killed planned income tax hikes on most Americans and postponed deep federal spending cuts. It raised income taxes on families making $450,000 or more.