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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

KY-Gov: Welcome to the People's Republic of Kentucky

Posted by DavidNYC

Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration is doing a great Glavlit impersonation:

I've gotten a handful of e-mails this morning already that BluegrassReport.org has apparently been blocked to state computers by the Commonwealth Office of Technology. Readers in three different cabinets have e-mailed to tell me they get a "blocked" message when they try to access the site.

Nothing like a little censorship with your breakfast. Welcome to the People's Republic of Kentucky.

This story has gotten more and more amazing all day. Click the link to the BGR to read all of Mark's updates. I just can't for the life of me figure out what the Republican powers-that-be in KY think they have to gain from doing this. Do they sincerely think they can deny this information to government workers? And if this is payback, wow has it ever boomeranged. BGR has gotten a lot of attention thanks to this - it'll only become even bigger and better-known.

Posted at 01:34 PM in 2007 Elections, Kentucky | Technorati

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Comments

And the really good news is that we have at least two (and if things go VERY well three) pick-up opportunities in House races this fall in Kentucky. None of them are going to be easy pick-ups at all, but this kind of crap makes it more and more possible.

Posted by: IndianaProgressive at June 21, 2006 06:31 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Personally, I'm really only a believer in KY-04. Northup is a strong campaigner; meanwhile, KY-02 is the most Republican district in Kentucky. Only four Dem-held seats are more Republican (Pomeroy, Taylor, Matheson & Edwards).

Posted by: DavidNYC at June 21, 2006 06:42 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

If Andrew Horne had won the Democratic primary, I'd be more optimistic about KY-03 than I am with the candidate we ended up with (name????). Lewis in KY-02 will have to make Bunning-esque gaffes to lose that district. I'd give Lucas odds-on chances to win KY-04 in the current climate, but immigration continues to be the wild card. It looks today like the issue will die a quiet death this session, which if true, has to be a huge relief to a Democrat like Lucas. I was reading just yesterday that some major coal mining outfit in east Kentucky was planning to replace its current workforce with immigrants at pennies-on-the-dollar labor costs. Had the Dems been in a position to give a proxy thumbs-up to such practices via passage of the Senate immigration bill, they would have probably LOST seats in 2006. If the issue fades in significance, as it will if Congress quits debating it, the chances of it destroying the Dems' chances is less, but I submit they're still not completely out of the woods.

Posted by: Mark at June 21, 2006 07:44 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Mark and David -- I don't disagree with either of you, but I'll also invite you to come spend some time here in the Ohio River Valley -- or maybe I'm just feeling optimistic today. Across three states (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) you've got a good half-dozen GOP-held Congressional districts potentially in play, here in the heart of red state America. Republicans are discouraged, we've got good candidates (mostly), and have three state parties with: A convicted governor, an indicted governor, and a just-plain-unliked governor.

Yeah, they're tough races in not-very-blue places (except for Northrup's district, and she is tough and sitting on a ton of money) -- but we're not going to win the House back, let alone build any kind of majority in it, just by winning back blue districts in the northeast. We need to be able to win in places like this, and there is no where in the country with this many potentially competitive "red districts" strung together.

Wow -- it's not like me to be that optimistic :)

Posted by: IndianaProgressive at June 21, 2006 08:31 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment