In the race to replace Kentucky's "Crazy Uncle" Jim Bunning in the United States Senate a new poll is out. It has found that Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo and radical eye doctor Rand Paul with significant leads in the Democratic and Republican primaries. Besides the top four of Mongiardo, Conway, Paul and Grayson no other candidate seemed to garner much support.
The Kentucky Senate race was getting quite boring. Leave it to eccentric, Looney Tune Jim Bunning to heat things up. One would like to think that the outgoing Senator who was shunned by the McConnell machine because he is a can or two short of a six pack decided to shake up this race but then you realize that well, Bunning is a can or two short of a six pack. However, his callous, uncaring and hypocritical "stand" earlier this week against the nation's unemployed has indeed ignited the Kentucky Senate race, which quite frankly was becoming a yawner.
Ah, we remember the most hilarious civil war that broke out between Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning which toppled the crazy uncle of Kentucky politics and recruited another McConnell "golden boy" akin to disgraced Governor Fletcher in Trey Grayson. But, enter fringe right-winger Rand Paul into the mix and you have the makings of a brand new Republican civil war in Kentucky to laugh at.
One thing we have known in Kentucky for a long time now whatever political stripe you are is quite simply, Jim Bunning is the crazy uncle of Kentucky politics. His antics have been well documented, forcing Mitch McConnell to use his machine to force the walking embarrassment to a disgraced party out of the race in favor of someone he hopes can actually win against either strong candidate the Democrats can field. Well, now we are finding out that if a Repubican is elected in Kentucky we will not only lose a crazy uncle, but gain a crazy nephew.
You know with all the troubles partly caused by the Republicans being the "party of no", America is in a sour mood. Nothing good is getting done in Washington because so many Democrats are wanting to be "bi-partisan" and so many Republicans just think the road to Congressional control is to make Democrats look bad. Now, many of them are predicting Senate control after the 2010 elections. However, even with the toxic environment for incumbents this will be a long road for Republicans.
Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
Doctor Dan Mongiardo, Kentucky's Lieutenant Governor, has announced that he is running for the Democratic nomination for the Kentucky Senate race, to take on whoever wins the Republican nomination to challenge for the seat that Senator Bunning (R-Big$$$) has announced he is giving up.
Lots of politics to unwrap in that paragraph, which I'll leave to the political wise-guys. The Sunday Train today is about Dr. Dan's Rail Plan.
As far as I can tell, Dr. Dan's Rail Plan has four main parts, and regular readers of the Sunday Train will recognize much from each of the four parts:
Support for expanding Kentucky's existing and potential Amtrak routes into 110mph Emerging Higher Speed Rail corridors
Support for regional rail services to complete the above state rail map
"Hybrid Light Rail" to provide cross-metropolitan local rail services, principally to Louisville
Heavy investment in complementary local transit, including bus rapid transit and a high frequency driverless monotrain system for Kentucky.
With all the hoopla made by Republican looney-tunes who demand even nuttier candidates than they already have one expects a very lively primary season. However, it is not only the Republicans who are promising to have a lively primary season. In a couple of states at least including my own of Kentucky primaries are firing up and getting ugly. Then of course, there is always the chance of new primaries if Democrats stab their Progressive bases in the back.
I have been so tangled in the healthcare fight that I failed to mention we had a new Senate poll in Kentucky yesterday by Survey USA and it brought with it some hard realities in this race. It is going to be a very close primary on the Democratic side and it promises to be one tough race in the fall of next year.
Boy, was I wrong. When I met some of Rand Paul's supporters and Rand Paul himself at Fancy Farm I actually thougth that they were halfway reasonable folks. I did not agree with them on anything but they did not seem as maniacal as many Republicans. Well, I guess I am not a very good judge of character.
It appears as if another serious candidate for retiring Senator Jim Bunning's seat will emerge today. Rand Paul, son of former Presidential candidate Ron Paul who himself developed an almost cult-like following with very deep pockets will be announcing his candidacy during the maniacal spewings of Glenn Beck today.
With the big two candidates, Jack Conway and Daniel Mongiardo running they have sucked up most of the oxygen in the Democratic Senate primary. In a way it is understandable they have name recognition and have provided plenty of fireworks so far. But the fact of the matter is they are not the only Democrats running for this nomination. I have spoken some on Darlene Price and will again soon. However, at Fancy Farm I met another candidate for our Democratic noimination for Senate in Kentucky I did not know about. I want to introduce everyone to Maurice Sweeney.
Here is my roundup of the Democratic fireworks at Fancy Farm from Kos and Progressive Blue.
Ah, Fancy Farm. A throwback to the old days of politicking when candidates could not use huge dollars to run 30 second ads and actually mingled with the voters. Political careers have been made or broken for well over a century in the blistering August heat of Western Kentucky. Although the weather was unseasonably cool this year, the two main competitors for Kentucky's Senate seat provided plenty of fireworks.
As I suspected Jim Bunning will not run for re-election in 2010. This opens up the field for Kentucky Republican "golden-boy" Trey Grayson. However, Rand Paul, son of the former Presidential candidate may run in the primary too.
Unfortunately one of the major players in the Kentucky Democratic Senate Primary was in Paducah today and I was not able to attend. Daniel Mongiardo came here to talk about his opposition to Cap and Trade. After losing the second quarter fundraising race he sought to cement some support among Western Kentucky voters who may be worrying that some of the cheaper electric rates in the nation may be going up.
We have had a whole lot of new viewers and new users in the last several days. Welcome everyone, and thanks for reading!! For those new to the site, usually on Tuesday we take a look around the country at candidates and campaigns for the 2010 election that are of particular interest to Progressives all across the country. As always, we encourage anyone who knows of a great candidate we may have missed in the comments. We cannot get them all, but we want them all recognized.
Doctor Dan Mongiardo, Kentucky's Lieutenant Governor, has announced that he is running for the Democratic nomination for the Kentucky Senate race, to take on whoever wins the Republican nomination to challenge for the seat that Senator Bunning (R-Big$$$) has announced he is giving up.
