KENTUCKY REIGN KEEPS POURING DOWN

KEEPING GOP AT BAY WILL REQUIRE FINESSE: For once, Democrats will sweat an election (Charles Wolfe, May 26, 2003, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Kentucky's Democratic ticket enters the fall campaign doing something it hasn't done in a generation. It's running scared.

Republicans have a ticket that seems formidable for the most part. At the top are squeaky clean Ernie Fletcher and Steve Pence, thumping the drum for change after eight consecutive Democratic administrations.

It is not just the governorship that Republicans covet and have been denied for more than 30 years. Not one of the undercard offices (attorney general, auditor, agriculture commissioner, treasurer or secretary of state) has been won by a Republican since 1967.

But now the Republicans are emboldened, and Democrats hear footsteps. Not only do voters feel obvious ambivalence about the Democrats, the Democratic candidates have a message problem as well.

After 32 years in power, persuading voters to keep them in power for 36 years is going to require some finesse. Witness state Treasurer Jonathan Miller, the only constitutional officeholder eligible to run for re-election this year.

Miller said at a Democratic "unity rally" last week that the November election will "decide not only what happens over the next four years but over the next four decades."

Asked to elaborate, Miller said: "If Republicans win the governor's mansion, we're going to see a one-party dominance. Prospects of that would be very bad for Kentucky and very bad for our children's future."

Saying that if the GOP is elected they'll be popular enough to hold power for decades doesn't exactly seem like finesse... Posted by Orrin Judd at May 30, 2003 8:37 AM