Woo-hoo

Three days before our primary, one of the Democratic candidates for governor, Bruce Lunsford, dropped out of the race, citing negative campaigning on the part of his main rival, Ben Chandler. Here's the thing: Lunsford is a businessman whose put $6 million of his own money in the campaign, tried to characterise himself as an outsider who'll change the way the state is run, etc., etc. But he's one more big business guy who just foundered in the political arena.

I wasn't planning on voting for Lunsford because two of my friends were employees of his, and so a family member. I've seen how upside-down their lives became with state investigations, media fallout, shut-downs, etc. It isn't a matter of minor problems in the system. There were deep problems that led to shuffling residents to other nursing homes, financial loss to investors and employees, harrassing tactics, fines, and yes, charges of abuse. Given that Lunsford started the negative campaigning and nothing the Chandler-Owen campaign ran was counter to the experiences of people I've talked to, my opinion is that if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And that's what he did. I'm also not a fan of his plan to bring in casinos and use that to fund local and state programmes. The last governor to bring in gambling (the lottery) ostensibly for education, was Wallace Wilkinson, who was terribly unpopular and whose last years of life were dominated by bankruptcy and questionable business practices. I'm not saying Lunsford is another Wilkinson, but that's one thing that bothered me. I also disliked one of the first campaign ads he ran to the tune of the "Beverly Hillbillies", which seemed stupid at a time when Appalachian groups are up in arms over a proposed Beverly Hillbillies-style reality show. A millionaire saying he's just a "regular guy" setting out for the big city of Frankfort just doesn't wash, especially since he's not from the East and it just seems condescending. Personally I'd fire the guy who came up with that one.

I am kind of annoyed with this seeming trend of wealthy businessmen who seem to want to buy their way into government. Our last mayoral election had a similar case of a popular businessmen who ran up to a point, then dropped out before the election, much to the disappointment of those who backed him. Generally, I think if you're not going to see the race out, you shouldn't run. Granted, I'm glad he did drop out, because there was a very conservative candidate I really didn't want to win, and the three-way split might have made that happen; the one I supported eventually did--although I'm a little disappointed in her service so far [she inherited a budget shortage and I don't think she's interacting well with the council or urban county employees]. I have to admit, I also kind of wish Nader had dropped out of the 2000 election, since I really rather blame the present Republican control of the presidency on him and those who voted for him. Well, and the electoral college. Some day I envision a world where technology is omnipresent, freely accessible, and capable of eliminating the electoral college in favour of a pure democracy. I know it's a pipe dream, but still.

Speaking of the Greens, I was checking out as much as I could gather online about the election candidates, and I found one site listing Wendell Berry (poet, conservationist, champion of farmers) as a candidate for the Green party here in Kentucky. I couldn't find any official listing, on any state or Green party site, but I did find one person discussing that the Green party had been using Berry's name to raise campaign funds and a Berry family member had expressed both denial that he was running and annoyance at those techniques. I'm not sure what the truth is, yet. The Greens don't have a primary, for one thing, so I'm sure all will become more clear in November. But if that is true, I'm awfully disappointed, especially as it's the party that matches my beliefs most. I'll have to find that one website that had the denial on it, so I can post a link here.

Well, that's a lot of politics in one shot. It should be interesting to see how things turn out on Tuesday. I just hope people get out and vote.