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Kentucky's Real Lesson for Conservatives
American Thinker.com ^ | November 7, 2019 | Sally Zelikokovsky

Posted on 11/07/2019 7:05:02 AM PST by Kaslin

The lesson Republicans and conservatives should take from the Kentucky gubernatorial race is not whether Trump showing up is a net positive or negative or whether the GOP put enough money or effort into the race or whether Bevin should have been the candidate in the first place or whether he was likable. The true lesson lies in the overwhelming success of Kentucky's down-ballot election results for attorney general, agriculture commissioner, auditor, secretary of state, and treasurer, where Republican candidates demolished Democrat candidates by margins of 221,125; 276,319; 204,960; 64,562; and 300,935 votes, respectively. (With the exception of the gubernatorial race, where the Libertarian candidate took 2% of the vote, the Libertarian candidates did not make a difference.)

If Bevin is certified the loser, it will come down to the fact that tens or hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, who had no problem voting for other Republicans this year and Bevin four years ago, decided to stay home or cast their votes for Democrat Andy Beshear or the Libertarian candidate, John Hicks (who garnered 28,442 votes).

They, not Matt Bevin, are the Kentuckians to blame for the election of Andy Beshear. He hasn't changed. He is the same rough-around-the-edges, somewhat obnoxious carpetbagger he was when he ran four years ago and remained during his tenure as governor of Kentucky and when he was put on the ballot to be re-elected. He made enemies trying to fix the things he was elected to fix — things Republicans and conservatives find important like budgets and unfunded liabilities. Like him or not, he was their guy.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: ky2019
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To: JusPasenThru

The big city drop wasn’t particularly late. The individual precincts get reported very fast after the polls close at 6 pm, and are known to both sides and then the aggregate gets to the media and networks when it usually does, about 730. That put Beshear around 30,000 ahead. The later votes were especially from the Western part of the state (a time zone later), but also from some VERY strong GOP counties (Russell, Laurel, etc) which cut that down and almost caught Bevin up (he is down about 5,000). It was more the reverse, with some GOP areas coming in late and almost pulling Bevin through.


21 posted on 11/07/2019 7:50:34 AM PST by BohDaThone
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To: Kaslin

Bevin was DOA... damn amazing Trump nearly pulled him over the finish line.. he was down over 17 points just a few shorts weeks before the election... 1 Rally from Trump nearly pulled him over the finish line.

But, hey, Trump is in “Trouble”.... Okay there MSN... Okay (rolling eyes)


22 posted on 11/07/2019 8:03:53 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: lakecumberlandvet

About 100,000 KY voters did just that. They voted GOP for everyone but Bevin. Bevin lost by being a moron.

He was the perfect “Conservative Inc” candidate. He forgot all about his job to represent the voters and decided instead to impose his “Conservative” dogmas on them instead. Predictably, as voters usually do when a “Conservative” attempts to rule, rather then govern, they fired him for it.

Both “Conservative Inc” and the Libertine party have the same fatal flaw. They keep thinking they can impose their ideological dogmas on the voters. No, ultimately voters hold the trump cards. You have to lead them to your political position, you cannot simply impose it.


23 posted on 11/07/2019 8:09:28 AM PST by MNJohnnie (They would have to abandon leftism to achieve sanity. Freeper Olog-hai)
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To: JLAGRAYFOX

He didn’t lose from fraud... Every other statewide republican got around 100k more votes than Bevin...

He lost, he wasn’t a great candidate, he was down in every poll, nearly 17 points not that long ago.. its a damn miracle he came within a few thousand of winning.

He angered and alienated too many voters... pure and simple


24 posted on 11/07/2019 8:10:06 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Theodore R.

A bad candidate who alienated and angered too much of the electorate, is what cost Bevin the election.. every other republican on the statewide ballot got what? 100k more votes than him... don’t blame the libertarian.. blame the bad candidate.

Hell, he was down something like 17 points in the polls just a few weeks ago, damn miracle he got as close as he did, 1 rally from Trump and nearly pulled his pathetic butt over the finish line.

He didn’t lose because 28k folks voted for a 3rd party candidate, he lost because he alienated and angered too much of the electorate.


25 posted on 11/07/2019 8:13:31 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Alberta's Child
If the Democrats were going to bother going through that whole exercise of carrying out election fraud, don't you think they would have made sure all the other Republicans running for statewide office would have lost, too?
NO! Because they know some apologist like you will come along to make it look legit. They're smarter than you because they know how to pick and choose which ones are most important knowing the likes of you are out there making excuses for them

Democrats NEVER lose close elections EVER.

You're the one that should be thinking...only this time with some logic.

26 posted on 11/07/2019 8:14:26 AM PST by lewislynn (STOP SUPPORTING CHINA AND ANTI-AMERICAN GLOBALISTS! DO IT NOW!)
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To: Kaslin

A large part of the votes was for medical marijuana. This is a huge issue many are missing.

The medical marijuana vote is going to happen.


27 posted on 11/07/2019 8:18:04 AM PST by TianaHighrider (God bless President Trump)
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To: Kaslin
where Republican candidates demolished Democrat candidates by margins of 221,125; 276,319; 204,960; 64,562; and 300,935 votes, respectively

And how did that happen with (supposedly) low Republican turnout? They elected a Rat governor (low turnout) but demolished the down-ballot races. Doesn't pass the smell test.

28 posted on 11/07/2019 8:19:28 AM PST by Spirochete (GOP: Gutless Old Party)
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To: lewislynn
If the Democrats really wanted to steal an election in Kentucky they would have stolen the Attorney General's seat.

Democrats NEVER lose close elections EVER.

You have no idea what you're talking about. I live in a legislative district in a deep blue state where the state's Republican legislative leader was predicted to lose his seat after damn near getting beaten two years ago.

Remarkably, the GOP actually GAINED seats in this election ... and it two days after Election Day for a final result to be declared in my legislative race because the margin is so close -- with the Republican all but assured of being declared the winner. His margin of victory in this race was so close that it may end up being smaller than the number of voters who were standing in line with me in my polling place.

29 posted on 11/07/2019 8:25:24 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: Kaslin

I think the message should be: When you get elected, be ethical and above board when doing the things we elected you to do.

The Teacher’s pension bill was a GOOD bill. Yea, the teachers weren’t happy about it. But, they never voted for Bevin to begin with. Trying to sneak the bill through under the cover of darkness turned a lot of supporters OFF.

Still though, these results are HIGHLY suspicious. Just hard to believe THAT MANY people will vote D at the top, then turn around and vote for EVERT R candidate.


30 posted on 11/07/2019 8:30:52 AM PST by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them!it)
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To: BohDaThone
The big city drop wasn’t particularly late.

The FINAL Louisville numbers were very late. Both Lou and Lex published significant data relatively early. But, Louisville held about 25% of theirs until the VERY end.

It was suspicious timing.

31 posted on 11/07/2019 8:32:41 AM PST by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them!it)
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To: Kaslin
Unadulterated blame the voters garbage. The kind of screed Hillary supporters were so fond of in November, 2016.

And this article doesn't even make sense on its own terms.

The author is totally all over the place. In the beginning he says:

"The true lesson lies in the overwhelming success of Kentucky's down-ballot election results for attorney general, agriculture commissioner, auditor, secretary of state, and treasurer, where Republican candidates demolished Democrat candidates by margins of 221,125; 276,319; 204,960; 64,562; and 300,935 votes, respectively."

OK. So the true lesson is that the down-ballot results were overwhelmingly good for republicans. But then in the very next sentence he writes:

If Bevin is certified the loser, it will come down to the fact that tens or hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, who had no problem voting for other Republicans this year and Bevin four years ago, decided to stay home or cast their votes for Democrat Andy Beshear or the Libertarian candidate, John Hicks (who garnered 28,442 votes).

Sorry but the true lesson just one sentence earlier was about the success of the down-market races, which the people who stayed home had nothing to do with. By definition, they are not part of the true lesson. And the people who voted for the Libertarian only account for about 10% of the split votes.

The true lesson is that the author's candidate deserved to win the race for the office that he was entitled to hold, but then he lost, and now the author is mad at the voters because it's all their fault.

32 posted on 11/07/2019 8:37:44 AM PST by edwinland
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To: Kaslin

If only we could sic the equivalent of the Pinkertons on the teachers unions.


33 posted on 11/07/2019 9:30:00 AM PST by Clemenza
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To: ifinnegan
Why was Bevin and only Bevin close enough for vote fraud to be effective?

I haven't looked at the data, but I believe the theory is that there were thousands of ballots with only marks for the Dem candidate for governor, the rest of the ballot being not marked.

If that's true, that would answer your question.

34 posted on 11/07/2019 10:18:13 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: Kaslin

Many, many Republicans in KY didn’t vote in this election from what I understand. They seem not to have liked Bevin.


35 posted on 11/07/2019 10:22:21 AM PST by Crucial
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To: JusPasenThru

I am not saying you are wrong. In fact..you and the other good folks that question my inputs may also be correct via your & their assessments.

It is just strange to me that the Democrat “vote fraud” activity, if it occurred, would zero in on just on man, Matt Bevin...rather then attacking to destroy the entire rest of the GOP ticket!!!

But... I can also see that Matt Bevin created his own problems with teachers & libertarians, etc. And..if that was the main cause of his loss, why did the GOP state leadership fail to run another candidate for the Governor slot, knowing that Bevin was a badly flawed candidate!!!

My main reason for being forward about voter fraud is the way that the two heaviest Democrat counties failed to report any number of vote reports, until the eleventh hour...which is always the tell tale sign of vote fraud!!!

However...at the end of the day...I will abide by the decision of the voting authorities in Kentucky. But...I still believe that Matt Bevin should make life as miserable as he can for the entire Democrat Party in Kentucky.


36 posted on 11/07/2019 11:30:20 AM PST by JLAGRAYFOX (Defeat both the Republican (e) & Democrat (e) political parties....Forever!!!)
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WTF did Bevin do to ANGER Conservatives?

I read something about Teacher's Union??!! WTF did Republicans stick up for Teacher's??!!!!

37 posted on 11/07/2019 11:34:34 AM PST by KavMan
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To: Kaslin

Someone from Pennsylvania does not do well in the South, even after years of training. Our memories are too fresh of when yankees were forced on us.


38 posted on 11/07/2019 12:09:22 PM PST by Midwesterner53
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To: Kaslin

Good article. Enough with the virtue signaling. Kick ass.


39 posted on 11/07/2019 12:46:35 PM PST by gogeo (The left prides themselves on being tolerant, but they can't even be civil.)
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To: MNJohnnie
They voted GOP for everyone but Bevin. Bevin lost by being a moron.

Who lost? I'd say the voters who will live under a RAT governor.

40 posted on 11/07/2019 12:51:49 PM PST by gogeo (The left prides themselves on being tolerant, but they can't even be civil.)
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