Louisville Courier Journal: Governor [Steve] Beshear Isn't Offering A Vision [For The Future].
Governor Beshear isn't offering a vision
Hasn't explained agenda for future
Written by Joseph Gerth
When he was running for Louisiana governor in 1983, legendary and infamous Democrat Edwin Edwards quipped, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
Democrats would have you believe that with just five weeks before the Nov. 8 election and a 31-point lead in the latest public poll, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is nearing Edwards’ territory.
A win of such proportions would, in most circumstances, be considered a mandate.
But a mandate to do what?
Beshear hasn’t laid out an agenda for the next four years.
He continues to hide from his opponent, Senate President David Williams.
He’s turned down debate after debate. He even refused a joint appearance before the Lexington Herald-Leader’s editorial board.
His campaign ads have been bereft of new ideas, focusing on feel-good talking points, a few things he did in his first term and the reasons you shouldn’t elect Williams.
One of the few times he appeared on stage with Williams, he wrapped himself in the flag and refused to engage him on issues.
And the “issues” section of his campaign website doesn’t address the future, only the past.
There are a couple of old ideas Beshear hasn’t been able to push through the General Assembly because of opposition in Williams’ Republican-controlled Senate, including expanded gambling and raising the high school dropout age to 18. But Beshear really hasn’t talked about those things much during this campaign.
Williams likes to say that Beshear has no ideas and no vision. Beshear hasn’t done much to prove him wrong.
The polling suggests that Beshear’s big lead has as much to do with Williams’ unpopularity as anything Beshear has done. Beshear also has a high level of personal popularity.
Williams, whose “negatives” are considered astronomical for a politician who has won a contested primary — only 30 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of him, according to The Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll released Sunday — has been laying out an agenda.
Overall, 38 percent of poll respondents view Williams unfavorably while 17 percent view him favorably.
That really shouldn’t be surprising following nearly a dozen years as the head of the Kentucky Senate, untold occasions when he came across as heavy-handed in his leadership, his opposition to expanded gambling while folks in the two biggest cities overwhelmingly favor it, and repeated editorials critical of him in the state’s two biggest newspapers.
Add to that fact that Democrats portrayed him as a hypocrite after it was learned that he had lost and won thousands of dollars gambling, and you can see why it’s a tough race for him.
A tough race based on issues.
He’s talking about education and economic policy. While some of the ideas are new, many of them are rehashed proposals that have failed to make it through the Democratic-controlled House on numerous occasions in the past.
He is pushing for a law that opponents say would gut decades-old efforts to integrate Louisville schools, and he favors so-called right-to-work legislation that union activists say would roll back years of advances in pay and workplace safety.
But they are, at least, ideas.
Beshear is scheduled to debate Williams next week in Richmond and again Halloween night in Lexington.
At this late stage, it looks as if Williams’ paths to victory are limited. Even his running mate, Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, acknowledged as much in August when he was asked by cn/2 about poor polling that showed Williams down 29 points.
“We’ll see if those numbers start to move in the next month or so. Then, maybe, it’d be time to get worried,” he said.
It might be time for Beshear to talk about issues, if he wants a true mandate.
The only mandate he has now is to not be David Williams.
Hasn't explained agenda for future
Written by Joseph Gerth
When he was running for Louisiana governor in 1983, legendary and infamous Democrat Edwin Edwards quipped, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
Democrats would have you believe that with just five weeks before the Nov. 8 election and a 31-point lead in the latest public poll, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is nearing Edwards’ territory.
A win of such proportions would, in most circumstances, be considered a mandate.
But a mandate to do what?
Beshear hasn’t laid out an agenda for the next four years.
He continues to hide from his opponent, Senate President David Williams.
He’s turned down debate after debate. He even refused a joint appearance before the Lexington Herald-Leader’s editorial board.
His campaign ads have been bereft of new ideas, focusing on feel-good talking points, a few things he did in his first term and the reasons you shouldn’t elect Williams.
One of the few times he appeared on stage with Williams, he wrapped himself in the flag and refused to engage him on issues.
And the “issues” section of his campaign website doesn’t address the future, only the past.
There are a couple of old ideas Beshear hasn’t been able to push through the General Assembly because of opposition in Williams’ Republican-controlled Senate, including expanded gambling and raising the high school dropout age to 18. But Beshear really hasn’t talked about those things much during this campaign.
Williams likes to say that Beshear has no ideas and no vision. Beshear hasn’t done much to prove him wrong.
The polling suggests that Beshear’s big lead has as much to do with Williams’ unpopularity as anything Beshear has done. Beshear also has a high level of personal popularity.
Williams, whose “negatives” are considered astronomical for a politician who has won a contested primary — only 30 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of him, according to The Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll released Sunday — has been laying out an agenda.
Overall, 38 percent of poll respondents view Williams unfavorably while 17 percent view him favorably.
That really shouldn’t be surprising following nearly a dozen years as the head of the Kentucky Senate, untold occasions when he came across as heavy-handed in his leadership, his opposition to expanded gambling while folks in the two biggest cities overwhelmingly favor it, and repeated editorials critical of him in the state’s two biggest newspapers.
Add to that fact that Democrats portrayed him as a hypocrite after it was learned that he had lost and won thousands of dollars gambling, and you can see why it’s a tough race for him.
A tough race based on issues.
He’s talking about education and economic policy. While some of the ideas are new, many of them are rehashed proposals that have failed to make it through the Democratic-controlled House on numerous occasions in the past.
He is pushing for a law that opponents say would gut decades-old efforts to integrate Louisville schools, and he favors so-called right-to-work legislation that union activists say would roll back years of advances in pay and workplace safety.
But they are, at least, ideas.
Beshear is scheduled to debate Williams next week in Richmond and again Halloween night in Lexington.
At this late stage, it looks as if Williams’ paths to victory are limited. Even his running mate, Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, acknowledged as much in August when he was asked by cn/2 about poor polling that showed Williams down 29 points.
“We’ll see if those numbers start to move in the next month or so. Then, maybe, it’d be time to get worried,” he said.
It might be time for Beshear to talk about issues, if he wants a true mandate.
The only mandate he has now is to not be David Williams.
Labels: General information
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 10:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home