Al Cross On "Why Steve Beshear Hasn't Let Up In Race For Re-election."
Why Steve Beshear hasn't let up in race for re-election
Written by Al Cross
If Steve Beshear is such a shoo-in for a second term as governor, why is he acting as if it’s a close race and running a television commercial that says nothing about him or real issues but attacks Republican challenger David Williams?
Let’s allow our minds to wander.
Perhaps the Democratic governor has run out of worthwhile things to say about himself. His record is mainly one of caretaking in the worst economy since the Great Depression, not one of achievements that could push Kentucky out of mediocrity. TV ads about budget savings and tax incentives for new jobs can only go so far, especially when unemployment remains high.
And maybe Beshear is implementing a lesson learned. Two weeks ago, when he started an ad that purported to compare his and Williams’ records, C-J political writer Joe Gerth said Beshear was following the example set by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the pair’s 1996 race, when the senator had a relatively comfortable lead but ran ads attacking Beshear and making fun of his name.
On Election Day, as GOP ticket-leader Bob Dole was narrowly losing the state to Bill Clinton, McConnell ran up the score on Beshear and scored Kentucky Republicans’ greatest statewide victory up to that time. It helped discourage major opposition to him in 2002, when he again set a record for his party’s success in Kentucky.
A re-elected Beshear could not run again in 2015, but he clearly wants his running mate for lieutenant governor, former Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson, to succeed him. That’s probably why he’s had Abramson spend so much time in Western Kentucky, so the urbanite and that politically pivotal region can get better acquainted — and Abramson can learn to like, or at least tolerate, talking about roads and coal.
But what is surely more important to Beshear right now is the political landscape of a second term. He is not so much following McConnell’s strategy as the maxim of another GOP senator from Louisville, the late Thruston Morton, who said when he was Republican national chairman that “The purpose of politics is to form a government.”
...
Williams has vexed Beshear, so the governor may have personal reasons for wanting to run up the score, but a more likely reason is that he believes the bigger his victory, the stronger his influence will be during next winter’s legislative session and beyond. He is known to have told supporters that he wants a mandate to be strong in a second term.
Beshear has yet to prove that he would know what do to with a mandate, the best example being his failure to deliver on his main campaign promise in 2007, expanded gambling at the state’s racetracks — unless you count the “instant racing” slot machines now at the one on the Tennessee border, more an accomplishment of legal fiction and compliant courts than executive leadership. ...
Beshear probably has several reasons for keeping his foot on Williams’ neck and avoiding candidate forums, but one could be that he still considers Williams a threat — if not to his re-election, to his wish for a mandate and the expectations game he has created for himself.
Beshear has said he will support President Obama for re-election, and voters are very unhappy with the president and lots of other things right now. It’s hard to say just how volatile the electorate is, but we might take a lesson from West Virginia, where the Democratic acting governor has lost most of the lead he once enjoyed against the Republican nominee for a special election a week from Tuesday. If the Republican wins a come-from-way-behind victory there, with the help of ads from the Republican Governors Association, it will be a warning to Beshear.
Written by Al Cross
If Steve Beshear is such a shoo-in for a second term as governor, why is he acting as if it’s a close race and running a television commercial that says nothing about him or real issues but attacks Republican challenger David Williams?
Let’s allow our minds to wander.
Perhaps the Democratic governor has run out of worthwhile things to say about himself. His record is mainly one of caretaking in the worst economy since the Great Depression, not one of achievements that could push Kentucky out of mediocrity. TV ads about budget savings and tax incentives for new jobs can only go so far, especially when unemployment remains high.
And maybe Beshear is implementing a lesson learned. Two weeks ago, when he started an ad that purported to compare his and Williams’ records, C-J political writer Joe Gerth said Beshear was following the example set by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the pair’s 1996 race, when the senator had a relatively comfortable lead but ran ads attacking Beshear and making fun of his name.
On Election Day, as GOP ticket-leader Bob Dole was narrowly losing the state to Bill Clinton, McConnell ran up the score on Beshear and scored Kentucky Republicans’ greatest statewide victory up to that time. It helped discourage major opposition to him in 2002, when he again set a record for his party’s success in Kentucky.
A re-elected Beshear could not run again in 2015, but he clearly wants his running mate for lieutenant governor, former Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson, to succeed him. That’s probably why he’s had Abramson spend so much time in Western Kentucky, so the urbanite and that politically pivotal region can get better acquainted — and Abramson can learn to like, or at least tolerate, talking about roads and coal.
But what is surely more important to Beshear right now is the political landscape of a second term. He is not so much following McConnell’s strategy as the maxim of another GOP senator from Louisville, the late Thruston Morton, who said when he was Republican national chairman that “The purpose of politics is to form a government.”
...
Williams has vexed Beshear, so the governor may have personal reasons for wanting to run up the score, but a more likely reason is that he believes the bigger his victory, the stronger his influence will be during next winter’s legislative session and beyond. He is known to have told supporters that he wants a mandate to be strong in a second term.
Beshear has yet to prove that he would know what do to with a mandate, the best example being his failure to deliver on his main campaign promise in 2007, expanded gambling at the state’s racetracks — unless you count the “instant racing” slot machines now at the one on the Tennessee border, more an accomplishment of legal fiction and compliant courts than executive leadership. ...
Beshear probably has several reasons for keeping his foot on Williams’ neck and avoiding candidate forums, but one could be that he still considers Williams a threat — if not to his re-election, to his wish for a mandate and the expectations game he has created for himself.
Beshear has said he will support President Obama for re-election, and voters are very unhappy with the president and lots of other things right now. It’s hard to say just how volatile the electorate is, but we might take a lesson from West Virginia, where the Democratic acting governor has lost most of the lead he once enjoyed against the Republican nominee for a special election a week from Tuesday. If the Republican wins a come-from-way-behind victory there, with the help of ads from the Republican Governors Association, it will be a warning to Beshear.
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posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:51 AM
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