COAT TAILS:

GOP going for a Kentucky sweep (Jim Drinkard, 10/30/03, USA TODAY)

A Louisville Courier-Journal poll Sunday showed that the race, virtually a dead heat a month ago, now favors Fletcher by 9 percentage points over Democratic contender Ben Chandler, the state's attorney general. Voters appear sympathetic to Fletcher's call, repeated in a flood of TV ads, to "clean up the mess in Frankfort," the state capital.

Fletcher has embraced Bush, whose approval ratings have slipped but remain at 61% here, higher than his 53% rating nationally. The president is due to fly into the state on Saturday for turnout-boosting appearances in Paducah and in London, a Republican stronghold in southeast Kentucky.

"We called his bluff," Fletcher says of Chandler. "We said, 'You want to nationalize this election? We'll stand our national leaders up against yours.' "

Kentucky is one of three states with elections for governor in November. The other two:

-Mississippi. Republican lobbyist Haley Barbour holds a narrow lead in polls over incumbent Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.

-Louisiana. Republican candidate Bobby Jindal is running an aggressive race against Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco. The GOP currently holds the seat.

They're all tough races, but if the GOP can pull out one to add to CA they'll have had a great Fall. More than one and the Democrats are in big trouble.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 30, 2003 11:07 PM