Crunchy political bits from a Jack Conway for Attorney General strategy session at his HQ in Louisville, KY. Read on below the fold if you are interested in KY-Gov or any other KY races.
Jack Conway
http://jackconway.org/...
Jefferson County strategy session
5:44pm
Candidate Jack Conway speaks... Introduced by Joni Jenkins (D). Conway ran for Congress in KY-03 and narrowly lost, but built a strong following in the district. Attorney General (AG) is a statewide race, but Jefferson County (Jeffco) will play a key role, in both fundraising and in turning out a massive Democratic (Dem) vote.
A big Dem turnout in Jeffco helps Beshear (D) for Gov, who does not have a strong Jeffco base. Conway can, in effect, help capture the Gov office for Dems by winning big in his AG race in Jeffco. Jeffco accounts for 16-17% of the statewide vote total. In 2003 KY Auditor Luallen won Jeffco by 26K votes and won the state by 15K. Jeffco put her over the top. In the 1998 Baesler vs Bunning race, Baesler lost the state by 6.7K votes. Jeffco turnout was only 16% or 213K votes. If Jeffco turnout had been better by a couple points, Bunning would have lost.
Conway has a goal to raise a million dollars. This is a lot for an AG race, but well within Conway’s fundraising skills, and he has the connections, experience, and goodwill to make it happen.
Conway is running against Stan Lee, an extreme activist right-wing ideologue who has a reputation for pandering to the worst of the right-wing base. It is vital that such an extremist is not elected to a powerful state office like AG.
5:57pm
Drew Jenkins speaks... Drew covers some of the Jeffco numbers I mentioned above, and discusses plans for volunteer canvassing, picnics, yard signs, Dem clubs, and other events. The plan is to run Jeffco as if this is a congressional race since the county is so vital for victory.
Meeting was well-attended, with Jeffco PVA, Congressman Yarmuth's people, union folks, state party folks, grassroots activists, etc. Around 2-3 dozen folks in the room, most representing organizations.
Make sure to visit http://jackconway.org/... to check out the campaign and get involved.