PYRRHIC VICTORY IN JEFFERSON

Here's the blow by blow in Jefferson County reorganization. Two weeks ago conservative activists won most of the LD caucuses and slots available for county party. The big prize came yesterday, though, with another 22 slots at stake in one vote.

Lake Forest attorney Craig Maffet had jumped in the race two weeks ago seeing the process may actually be fair, but it was anything but. Outgoing Chair Jack Richardson had been told some time ago by his closest allies he had to leave, as even the most loyal members of that faction would not vote for him. Ostensibly, a young intern for a Metro Councilman, Brad Cummings, has been tapped by this group as their choice for chair, but, the actual voting takes place in May by all new committee members. There may be a huge surprise when that happens; I'll get back on that when I learn more.

I might also touch on what has been called the South End/Country Club division by Mark Hebert. That's wildly misleading. There are two very loose alliances- an Old Guard, that's roots go back to the party machine in the 1960s (back when there really was a machine that could deliver), and the modern conservative activist alliance that grew up in the 1990s. Both sides are led by East End professionals and rely on activists from blue collar neighborhoods to man their campaigns. There is also a lot of switching sides, sometimes within the course of the week. (This is Kentucky, after all)

Jack Richardson first came to the chair as the candidate of the conservatives, ticked them off and switched sides; then ticked off the Old Guard and ruined much of what they had going, and now leaves having united the party in mutual contempt.

So having lost the first round, the Old Guard had one play left; seeing Chris Thieneman was on the all-important nominations committee they passed a secret vote of removal in the current Executive Committee. The event was secret so they could kick out several observers there who know party rules. They then lied to the membership that this was required by party rules, when nothing of the sort was ever contemplated by any GOP national, state, or local rules. There is no power by any Republican committee to remove a convention delegate. Only a convention credentials committee can do that and the county conventions credentials committee took Thienemans side. (The Old Guard refused to even make a contest there, knowing they had no case)

But, since they controlled the arrangements committee, the Old Guard made sure they had a police contingent on hand to simply overrule the elected members of the body, removing Chris Thieneman and then inserting a person who was not elected to the nominations committee. That was just enough to tip the balance.

The vote on the convention floor when the nominations report finally came up, after 15 resolutions from that committee (There is an active Libertarian party here and they managed to get 5 members elected to resolutions, allowing their issues to the floor, some of which were approved, like gun rights, and some not, like untaxed gold transactions.) was very close, prevailing by only 12 votes on the tally. Most observers agreed the report would have failed, but the Old Guard threatened to not have their nominations members make a deal and submit a compromise slate. That was enough to motivate the fence-sitters wanting to leave to vote Yes, just for that reason.

In the end though, this was most definitely the last round-up for the Old Guard. They had to put many respected, non-controversial people on their slate to the new county committee just to have any chance of winning; most of their younger allies are not interested in continuing the feuding and they have made themselves political poison to any Republican candidate for office.

The political landscape in Jefferson County will look very different by the end of this year.