Maybe Ashley should have run after all. I'm sure more than 46.28 of Kentucky's registered voters would show up for a wildcat princess vs Louisville turtle election. She might not have ditched Mitch, but I bet she wouldn't have gotten coldcocked by 15 points, either. Four or five at the most!
How do you take a tight race against a wildly disconnected career politician--one ripe for unseating--and manage to lose so spectacularly? Put it in the capable hooves of the state Donkey party and the audacity of hope becomes suicidal discouragement in due course.
It's hard to stomach that in a race as important as this, an election with 3,150,000 potential voters was won with only 810,000 votes. In other words, the winner was favored by only 26% of the electorate. How bad do the candidates have to be that just 46% of registered voters bother?
Turns out pretty bad. As vulnerable as McYertle has been, the history of foot shooting is impressive in the Lundergren line. Truely, Allison didn't fall far from the weeds.
Instead of pointing out the fallacy of Mitch's War on Coal rhetoric, Ms. Grimes doubled down on the smokescreen. Instead of standing for the half a million Kentuckians now covered by healthcare, Ms. Grimes waffled on the subject over and over again. And instead of showing a humane face on immigration reform, she actually out-McMudded the turtle himself and called him out for being too taco friendly!
Again, my dollar says Ashley would not have run that campaign. But Ashley isn't part of the state Democratic establishment. That crew has proven pretty slow on learning a valuable lesson.
The lesson, for the umpteenth time, is democrats running as republicans don't win. If your candidate can't offer anything better than "I'm not my opponent", you'll never win another election. Nor do you deserve to.
This morning I heard a state democratic heavyweight say the loss wasn't a blow against the state party. Denial is the swimming pool of the delusional and the Kentucky democrat. Eventually that puddle dries up.
But as some puddles dry, others get fresh moisture from new sources. And if all politics is local, then there's more to be optimistic about. For one thing, it'll be great to be represented in the statehouse by someone who isn't under several federal indictments. Let's hope future representative Harris keeps his nose clean.
And in my own backyard, right here in the best little dysfunctional adventure tourism capitol of the state, we have an exciting new mix in city hall. I see new and returning city council members who want to move our little place forward, to help it meet it's potential. I'm very excited about that.
Finally I see a mayor who returns with new challenges, but now has the experience of a term to better meet them. I know he's endeared himself to many locals for lending a hand and to many visitors for some darn good fishing tips.
Nothing I'd like better than to congratulate him with a cold brew at a fine restaurant right here in Elkhorn City. Hey, don't mock me! I started this thing with Ashley...think I'm still kinda dreaming!