Kentucky Voter Turnout Numbers Spark Debate

[rocktivity]

ABC News.com: Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said today that voter turnout numbers in the state of Kentucky were the aspect of Tuesday’s election contests which surprised him the most..."(T)he Kentucky primary drew more votes for the Democratic loser than for the Republican winner. That would not have been my prediction about that primary given how much it was hyped on the Republican side...."

Although the vote total statistic is correct, it is not the whole picture. Registered Democrats in Kentucky outnumber Republicans by 573,139 voters...Turnout...was actually higher in the Republican contest...

"Tim Kaine...doesn’t know very much about Kentucky politics,” Paul adviser Jesse Benton told ABC News. “In November, elections in Kentucky come down to independent voters and substantial numbers of registered Democrats who vote Republican...Kentucky went 57-to-41 percent for John McCain over Barack Obama..."

Does Benton does have a point? Can Jack Conway actually pull this out, or is our gloating over Rand's gaffes amount to whistling past the graveyard?

:shrug:
rockivity

P.S. Here's where you can contribute to Rand's opponent Jack Conway and Blanche Lincoln's opponent Bill Halter, even if you don't live in their states.

[era veteran]

1. Be Vigilant, remember Mitchie & Baseball boy

The DNC must spend some money in KY this time.

[mzteris]

2. when I lived in KY, people used to say,

"there are two parties in KY, Democrats and Democrats."

Of course that was a while back....

but some people still see themselves as "Democrats", but when it comes to parsing what they "believe", they're not real Democratic values. They're more the "old south type" of Democrat. Which, in my book, isn't a Democrat at all.

[get the red out]

3. A lot of factors at play.

It disgusts me to no end to say this, but unlike the President, Jack Conway is Caucasian and his name does not sound “funny” to Kentuckian’s ears. So the Rand Paul campaign’s take on the Presidential vote isn’t the whole picture either. That being said, the Churches will probably campaign hard for Rand Paul due to their only “values” being hatred of women’s reproductive rights and their hatred of gay people being even stronger than that. So I really worry about the “values (of hate)” voters. The so-called “social issues” are what has absolutely enslaved Kentuckians to the Rethugs, people give up their freedom of thought over that crap. But then again, Governor Beshear won in a landslide a few years ago. So we can still get our backs up and vote against a really bad Republican candidate (and Rand Paul really makes Ernie Fletcher look good.)

It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and I believe we got the best draw, Conway against Paul. Neither Democrat would have beaten Trey Grayson, and I don’t think Mongiardo came off as anything but a Republican pretending to be a Democrat, so that would have been Rand Paul running against Trayson’s doppelganger in November.