(crossposted at Barefoot and Progressive)
I’m thrilled to report that the next Senator from the state of Kentucky has just announced his candidacy this morning. Our state’s 11-year nightmare of Jim Bunning is about to end in November 2010, and here is the man that will end it.
Meet KY Attorney General Jack Conway.
.
As you can see in his announcement video on his site, Conway will have his official in-person rally to kick off his campaign Monday in Louisville. I can’t go into all of the details now, but let’s just say that Ben Chandler, Crit Luallen, John Yarmuth, and about every big KY Democrat past and present whose name isn’t Steve Beshear will be there. And a “surprise guest”.
Now, let me discuss the primary battle that we face here in Kentucky over the next year.
There are those who say that since Kentucky is a conservative state, we have to settle for a conservative Blue Dog Democratic candidate in order to compete for the Senate seat. Dan Mongiardo is the Blue Dog that some are pointing to, as he co-sponsored the Rovian anti-gay amendment here in 2004, he constantly shills for the abomination that is mountaintop removal mining, and he has no problem speaking at NRA conventions in between Glenn Beck, Karl Rove and Mitt Romney bashing Democrats who will “take away their guns”.
Let me say, in no uncertain terms, that the PPP poll that came out yesterday absolutely killed that meme. DEAD.
Not only are the much more progressive Jack Conway’s approval ratings higher than Dan Mongiardo’s (Conway at 40/21, Mongiardo at 41/34), but Conway performs better in a head-to-head match-up against Bunning, winning 42%-33%.
We don’t need a Blue Dog to beat Jim Bunning. Jack Conway is a progressive Democrat with integrity that can whip Jim Bunning any day of the week.
But let’s say that KY Republicans like Mitch McConnell are able to successfully force Bunning out of the race and replace him with the much more formidable KY Sec. of State Trey Grayson. Even in this scenario, the PPP poll shows Jack Conway beating Grayson by 4 points. Mongiardo? He loses to Grayson by 4 points.
Again: we don’t have to settle for a conservative Blue Dog in this race. We have Jack Conway.
Kentucky progressives are already stepping up and showing that we don’t have to settle for the lesser of two evils in this race. The Facebook group I started “Kentuckians Against Homophobia, Mountaintop Removal, and Dan Mongiardo” has more members than the Mongiardo for Senate Facebook group. We know that Bunning is vulnerable, and we don’t have to settle for another Ben Nelson or Blanche Lincoln.
Please check out Jack Conway’s campaign website, and please consider throwing some turkee his way. We have a great candidate with a great shot of taking another big seat away from the Party of No in November 2010.