Soon to be the lone Democrat in Ky.'s delegation, Yarmuth to meet at White House...

cn|2 Pure Politics ^ | 11/28/2012 | Nick Storm

[Republican Wildcat]

Soon to be the lone Democrat in Ky.'s delegation, Yarmuth to meet at White House to discuss appointments

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville told Pure Politics he is meeting this week with White House officials to go over potential federal appointments in preparation for being the lone Democrat in Kentucky’s congressional delegation.

The election loss of U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler of Versailles leaves Yarmuth as Kentucky’s only member of Congress in President Barack Obama’s party. That will mean he will take on more responsibility in facilitating judicial and U.S. Attorney appointments, as the Courier-Journal first reported.

Yarmuth told Pure Politics on Tuesday that he would be meeting with the White House this week to decide how to handle federal appointments without a Democratic Senator and no other Democratic congressman.

This is the second time in Kentucky’s history that only one Democrat has served in the federal delegation — Chandler in 2005.

“I guess I have to speak up a little louder for the things that Democrats believe in, but just in terms of day-to-day activities I guess I’ll be more involved in federal appointments than I otherwise would have been,” Yarmuth said.

On the political front, Yarmuth said he stands by his assertion that actress Ashley Judd could be a top Democratic contender to challenge on U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014.

Judd’s grandmother Polly Judd praised McConnell for his work in Kentucky, and House Speaker Greg Stumbo told WFPL Judd’s position on mountaintop removal coal mining would make her a difficult candidate for Kentuckians to support. Pure Politics also offered an analysis on the potential challengers to McConnell in early November

Yarmuth said he feels Judd would be “very strong opponent for Senator McConnell and would have a chance to beat him.” But Yarmuth went on to say that Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes would also be a strong candidate to run against McConnell in 2014.

“I don’t necessarily have a preference as to who it is I just want us to have a very strong candidate,” Yarmuth said after a public event on Tuesday.

http://mycn2.com/politics/yarmuth-still-supporting-judd-but-feels-there-s-room-for-grimes-to-run-against-mcconnell - Video at link

[sickoflibs]

RE :”I’d like McConnell to retire as well. But he won’t.”

I been meaning to mention this subject.

Back in 2009 McConnell said on camera that his #1 objective as minority leader was to make O a one term POTUS.

Think about this. There is no defense for keeping him in that position in the new congress(Senate) now based on his own words. By his own public words he is a complete and utter failure,

And I hold Senate Rs in complete contempt if they do vote him in again. It means they are about nothing and are determined to be the loser party.

I hate this type of phony dishonest brash talk.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Re: the coal counties in the Perkinses' old KY-07, 2012 was the first real sign of movement I've seen towards the GOP, and it cannot be discounted that if the Democrats don't nominate an elitist, pro-gay-marriage, pro-abortion, virulently anti-coal black Chicago Democrat next time they will return to the Democrat fold. After all, John Kerry actually did better in many of those counties in 2004 than Gore did in 2000, perhaps due to John Edwards's populism.

It should be noted that not every county in the region is ancestrally Democrat: Martin and Johnson Counties stayed overwhelmingly Republican through the New Deal and until today (although Clinton did very well there and even carried Martin in 1996 and Johnson twice thanks to Perot), and Lawrence County has leaned Republican through the years (with a few exceptions).

Here's the 2012 map (with proper Republican Blue and Communist Red). Only Elliott County voted for Obama in Coal Country, but he got under 50%, as compared to the 61% he got in 2008 and the 70% that Kerry got in 2004:

Here's the 2008 map, with four coal counties going for Obama:

Here's 2004, when Kerry carried all but one of the ancestrally Democrat counties in the region (Morgan County, where he got 48%, 4% better than Gore):

And here's 2000, with Gore doing very well in the SE KY counties along the VA and TN borders (many of those were in Rogers's CD even before 1992, right, DJ?), but not as well as Kerry would in the core Coal Country counties:

Just like the fact that every single county in WV voted Republican for president this year (perhaps the only time it's ever happened, although Lincon may have done it in 1864, WV's first presidential election; even in 1972, when Nixon had a larger margin in WV than did Romney, McGovern carried Logan County 51%-49%) does not mean that Demcorats can't win House races in WV (as proven by Nick Joe Rahall, who won once again in the WV-03), KY Coal Country abandoning Obama in 2012 may be an ephemeral realignment, or no realignment at all. If we can stick those coal counties that voted for Kerry in 2004 in the same district as Lafayette (which keeps getting more Democrat), Frankfort (ditto--Franklin County was one of only nine (IIRC) to vote for McCain in 2008 and Obama in 2012) and Democrat parts of Louisville, it will allow us to draw five safe GOP House districts for perpetuity. 5 out of 6 is 83%--I'll take it.

[GOPsterinMA]

Yes.

[GOPsterinMA]

“Bohemian Rhapsody”

“Gay Spock”

Hmmm...

[Impy]

I doubt he’ll be primaried, at least by anyone who could beat him.

It’s also unlikely he’d be replaced as leader unless he really effs up these next two years.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Oh, and I forgot to comment on this erroneous statement in the article:

“This is the second time in Kentucky’s history that only one Democrat has served in the federal delegation — Chandler in 2005.”

It is true that starting on January 3, 2005, and until January 3, 2007, KY only had one Democrat in its congressional delegation (Ben Chandler). But how can they say that it was the only time that it had happened, when Ken Lucas had been the only in KY’s congressional delegation from January 3, 1999 (when he was sworn in to the House as Congressman Baessler and Senator Ford departed) until February 17, 2004 (when Chandler was sworn in after winning a special election)? That was over five years of a single-Democrat state delegation. And it ended less than 10 years ago: how could the author—who claims to be so knowledgable regarding KY politics—forget about that?

[Impy]

Yeah that bastard Lucas took Bunning's seat as Ernie F took Baeslar's. (and then clowned him in 2000 when he tried to take it back hahahahaha)

And then that swine Chandler had to go and win Ernie's seat before we got Bunning's back. LAME.

I think beating Chandler was the only House race we won that I wasn't sure we would.

Compared to several I was sure we would that we did not. ;/

Another tibit from the CD POTUS numbers, Romney kicked ass in Bachmann's district by 15 points as she barely won. A much worse disparity than West's district (carried by Romney). It's a shame to see her so weak.

[DoughtyOne]

I think you’re on solid ground there. My personal belief is that his actions on a number of issues have been less than stellar, and that he needs to step down due to that.

Yours is certainly one of those instances.

Part of the reason we can’t gain traction, is because we have disastrous leaders in both the House and the Senate.

We need some young blood willing to take it to the Left and not back down. We’re still playing stick ball level, and they’re playing at professional baseball level.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I do believe the realignment is real in those areas. The national Dem party has become so viscerally hostile not only to coal, but to the cultural values of this region. 2000 was seemingly a fluke given the historical preferences, 2004 was a validation that even though usually Dem, they will support a GOP incumbent, but 2008 was a trend and 2012 was a pretty clear-cut realignment. While they may be more sympathetic to a White Dem, I think the horses are out of the proverbial barn.

WV was moving back towards the GOP at the legislative level in the early ‘70s, but Watergate halted the progress (as it did in most other Southern states), but we’re now more deeply enmeshed there than in 1972. Only the power of incumbency for the Dems there and in parts of KY keep them in office, and that is crumbling. I think once the GOP goes above majority status in the KY House & WV House, which may happen in the next cycle, the near-perpetual Dem lock on the statewide offices will finally fall across the board.

[AuH2ORepublican]

I don’t think that 2004 showed movement towards the GOP in eastern KY: 4 counties went from Gore to Bush, but 6 others went from Bush to Kerry. There was a bit of movement towards the GOP in 2008 but the biggest movement was in 2012. I don’t know if it’s a case of the dam bursting or just a temporary, Obama-caused blip. I wouldn’t throw out that 2004 election map yet, since that could be the paradigm we’re facing 4 years from now.

And the biggest problem will continue to be at the local and congressional level, not at the presidential level. The RATs won’t be nominating an Obama type for Congress in Coal Country, and a lot of those counties still will be voting Democrat reflexively for non-presidential races.

[Republican Wildcat]

In 2010, Chandler (D) barely won re-election by just a few hundred votes to Republican Andy Barr. The Democrats’ influence in the Kentucky House redrew the 6th Congressional district to supposedly be more favorable to Chandler by putting more traditionally Democrat leaning counties into the district and moved more conservative counties out. A Republican State Senator, Alice Forgy Kerr (Chandler’s opponent in his first election to the Congressional seat) even called it the “Ben Chandler Lifetime Employment Act”. However, Chandler lost the new counties to his district that were supposed to be helpful to him and he lost the election to Barr in the rematch - that is evidence to suggest you have the right analysis on that. Barr and the NRCC did a bang up job on making coal an issue - not just appealing to the new Eastern Kentucky counties in the district, but also explaining how it affects the broader economy and other industries jobs as well - including car sales, grocery sales, etc. so that the coal issue also would relate to the people in the core central area part of the district that coal would not have normally been an issue that would be effective. Really quite an impressive strategy. It was a very effective campaign and should have been the way the national campaign was run. If Obama had been run against nationally the way he was in the 6th congressional district I believe it would have been far more effective - Simplifying the issues and showing people how it directly affects them and their families. See some examples below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ITXhzjOUhC8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hv2XuO2XIds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uTgbMaxA0hw

[AuH2ORepublican]

I think that Forgy exaggerated quite a bit in her assessment of the redrawn CD. The McCain percentage was reduced by only 1%, from 55% to 54%, so it barely moved the scales. Had the Republicans not controlled the state senate, then the Democrats would have been able to do something more effective (although it still wouldn’t have made Chandler 100% safe), such as adding the Democrat (or marginal) coal counties of Wolfe, Menifee, Rowan, Elliott, Carter, Morgan, Magoffin, Breathitt, Kntt and Floyd and excising heavily Republican Jessamine, Garrard, Lincoln, Boyle, Mercer, Anderson and Estill Counties.