As I Predicted Here, Louisville Courier Journal Strains Beyond Credibility To Endorse Jack Conway. Read About It, If You Want, And BARF. Next Up? Steve Beshear.

(Jack Conway, kissing the wrong end of the horse.)

Editorial | Endorsements 2011: Re-elect Jack Conway as attorney general

This is another in a series of endorsements in races for Kentucky statewide offices contested in the Nov. 8 general election.

When Kentucky voters go to the polls on Nov. 8, they will have an opportunity to choose between two bright and energetic young people who are seeking the office of attorney general.

Todd P’Pool, 38, the Republican candidate, grew up in the Western Kentucky coal fields, where his family has worked for four generations. A graduate of the University of Kentucky law school, he became the first Republican elected to a countywide office in Hopkins County since the Civil War era when he was elected county attorney in 2006. He was re-elected to that post last year, and has been praised for his ability to cross party lines in a county where Democrats account for 70 percent of registered voters.

Mr. P’Pool has attempted to nationalize this race, no doubt since surveys indicate President Obama is unpopular in the commonwealth. He criticizes health care reform and says he would have joined other states’ attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. He’s also critical of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, especially its regulation of the coal industry. Neither of those positions is in the public interest.

His opponent, incumbent Democrat Jack Conway, 42, is a Louisvillian who attended Duke University and George Washington University law school in Washington. At the age of 26, he became deputy secretary of Gov. Paul Patton’s cabinet, working just below the secretary, Crit Luallen, now the state auditor. The two of them forged a close working relationship that has worked to the benefit of the state on key issues over the past four years.

His term as attorney general has been impressive by any standard. He has saved taxpayers several hundred millions of dollars fighting high Medicaid drug costs, unjustified utility rate hikes and price gouging by the oil companies. He also saved money by resisting pressure to join the right-wing legal attack on health care reform, which he has, quite admirably, supported. Mr. Conway has been a strong advocate for transparency and openness in public meetings and records. And he has waged an effective campaign against illegal drug trafficking and production.

Despite a disappointing campaign for U.S. Senate last year, when he was swept up in a Republican tidal wave that sent Rand Paul, the Republican, to Washington, Mr. Conway remains one of the ablest public servants in Kentucky. We enthusiastically support his re-election.