Independent KY gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith is making a call for people to submit ads for his campaign. So if you’re into Team Gatewood and want to make a hundred bucks or so, follow that link.
You probably can’t do any worse than his 2007 ad. Though you should totally ask for that cardboard cut out to see if you can use that again. And get Dea a cowboy hat.
David Williams says: be very afraid!
In today’s Courier-Journal, former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson threatens to infect all of Kentucky with his record on economic development, education and government management.*****
“Steve Beshear’s mission is to infect all of state government and all of Kentucky with Jerry Abramson’s liberal tendencies, record of mismanagement, and failures on job creation. Every voter should take a hard look at Abramson’s record and wonder if they want that sort of leadership in their community.”
I’m just thankful that unofficial Williams spokespersons haven’t been warning about Jew infiltration of Kentucky, and there’s no history of anti-Semitic rhetoric involving Jews “infecting” people.
Last July, labor unions seemed like they might not be willing to lift a finger for Steve Beshear this year. After furloughing state workers and explicitly ignoring the KY AFL-CIO’s warning not to choose Jerry Abramson as his running mate (whom labor is not fond of at all), many wondered if they would just sit out 2011 and teach Beshear a lesson.
Then in February, Wisconsin happened. And Ohio. And Michigan. And Indiana. And Florida…
By this Spring, the thought of Labor sitting out and allowing another Scott Walker, Rick Scott, John Kasich or Rick Snyder to take over the Governor’s Mansion in Frankfort seemed much less likely.
And then, David Williams decided to start going on national conservative talk radio shows to advocate for Kentucky becoming a right to work state, and profess his great admiration for Scott Walker:
I’ll go ahead and take a guess that this was the last straw. Despite the furloughs, and despite AFL-CIO’s disgust toward Abramson, there’s no way that labor unions are going to sit back and let Kentucky become another piece in the puzzle for the national GOP’s strategy to destroy labor unions in America.
I called the KY AFL-CIO today, who told me that they have endorsed Beshear/Abramson, though they didn’t expand on it and have no statement out on the internet tubes. And judging from the Kentucky/Indiana chapter of AFSCME’s twitterfeed, they have no intention of sitting this one out:
But will the furloughs still have a lingering effect with the support of state workers? I can’t rule it out, but I doubt it. First of all, as Joe Gerth pointed out in his column on this matter two weeks ago, the furloughs were implemented in the first place by David Williams in the 2010 budget. And while Beshear held onto furloughs longer than Williams, he also announced recently that due to an increase in state funds, he doesn’t expect to implement them anymore. Additionally, we are talking about 30-34,000 state workers who were actually furloughed. Put those three factors together and it doesn’t seem likely that Beshear will face a huge backlash that hurts him badly.
Well, those factors plus a man named Scott Walker and the national GOP quest to bust every union from here to eternity.
So this Fall you should expect labor unions, both statewide and national, to be here in Kentucky supporting Steve Beshear all out, along with plenty of state workers. And I wouldn’t rule out Scott Walker getting some form of thank you card in the mail from Steve Beshear.
David Williams’ campaign manager has an urgent warning for the voters of Kentucky: The Beshear/Abramson campaign funnels money to baby killers!
“Abramson didn’t become mayor of the most liberal city in the state by accident,” said Luke Marchant, Williams’ campaign manager. “He funneled taxpayer money to the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood.”
He funneled it! Sure, Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform abortions in Louisville, or anywhere in the state of Kentucky for that matter (and 3% of its budget goes to abortion services nationwide), by why pass up a great opportunity to dive down into the gutter with the repugnant national GOP strategy against women’s health, right?
Yes, and it’s only June.
Oh, but Joe Gerth also talked to unofficial Williams campaign spokesperson Larry Forgy. Larry didn’t expand on his theory about Jerry Abramson’s evil plot to swing the election by bringing in Big City Jew Money, but he did mention the fact that Beshear’s probably going to die and leave Kentucky with a sodomite/abortion/gun-grabber loving governor (fyi, also Jewish):
Former GOP gubernatorial nominee Larry Forgy has repeatedly said that Williams and Farmer should attack Abramson on “the three Gs” — guns, God and gays. And he adds abortion to the list.*****
And he said that voters won’t want to place Abramson in a position where he may inherit the governor’s office if Beshear dies, or put him in a position where he could easily run for the office four years from now.
“Now, Steve (Beshear) is a cancer survivor. He appears very healthy to me, but the fact remains Jerry may become governor by one or another means,” Forgy said.
Good stuff, Larry. You always give us something to think about.
Plenty more on Jerry in the Gerth piece, including Abramson saying he was mayor of “Jefferson County”, and how all this stuff he paid for as “Jefferson County Mayor” without anyone knowing was “used for legitimate governmental purposes”. Both are some ridiculous spin, but I’ve already allotted my 4 paragraphs of excerpts, and I wouldn’t dare want to get off message from the God, Guns, Gays and Gynecology talking points of the Williams campaign.
Last week the David Williams campaign said that Steve Beshear’s pension plan would lead to “Massive Job-Killing Tax Increases“. This was based on a study by two economists who said that pretty much every state in America faces a similar fate when it comes to pensions.
I will first note that some economists and experts label these economists’ findings on pensions as “unduly alarmist”, “unrealistic”, “flawed” and “exaggerated”. But we’ll get to that another time, real soon. No one doubts that there’s a problem here that needs to be addressed (Beshear isn’t), but the scope and method of fixing it varies.
But speaking of methods, what I really want to focus on now is the pension plan that David Williams counters Beshear with, and specifically ask this question:
Where does David Williams propose finding the $8 billion that his pension plan would cost?
FRANKFORT – Kentucky taxpayers would owe nearly $8 billion more over the next 15 years if the legislature approves a Senate Republican bill to move new state workers into 401(k)-style retirement plans, according to a financial analysis released this week.*****
The analysis by Georgia-based Cavanaugh MacDonald Consulting shows that the state would have to pay about $6 billion more over the next 15 years for pensions for non-hazardous duty and hazardous duty state workers and Kentucky State Police, which has a separate pension fund.
Retiree health insurance would cost nearly $2 billion more under the proposed plan, according to the analysis.
*****
By 2023, taxpayers would owe $609 million more for non-hazardous-duty pensions under the Senate Republican proposal compared with the current plan, according to the analysis.
State Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton and chairman of the House State Government Committee, said the analysis makes him less inclined to support the bill.
Cherry said the defined-contribution plan could be disastrous for state workers, leaving many dependent on welfare and other state assistance when they retire because they might not have enough money in their retirement funds.
*****
Cities and counties, however, would be affected, according to the analysis. Like the state, they would have to pay more toward workers’ retirement the next 15 years under the proposed plan.
So if Governor Williams passes his pension plan, where is all of that money going to come from over the next 15 years? Massive job-killing tax increases? Or maybe he’ll just try to cut education again to pay for this, though cutting $8 billion might be tricky for him.
Hey, but even if Williams needs $8 billion in job-killing tax increases to fund his pension privatization plan, the retirement income security of workers has to be so much better with a stable 401(k), right?
Anyway, I’m sure Williams will eventually fill us in on where this $8 billion will come from.
Larry Forgy, proud defender of Kentucky from Big City Jew Money and a key political ally of David Williams, just sent us an urgent email asking us to warn the citizens of Hazard, Kentucky:
Personally, I find that picture hard to believe. The Google Machine tells me that there is no Sushi Bar in Hazard.
Just 5 more months of this crap, Kentucky.
Larry Forgy, the guy who served as David Williams’ unofficial spokesman late in the primary campaign, is doubling down on Fear of The Jews.
Yes, Larry Forgy is sticking to his guns on his theory that Jerry Abramson is calling in the Big City Jews to Kentucky so they can swing the election for Steve Beshear. Steven Spielberg! Barbara Streisand! Hedge fund managers! George Soros!
Forgy: I said that because I believe it. Because my friends in Washington and other places say, that the die is cast with George Soros and Moveon.org, all of those people, they know the same thing I just told you. This is the big race in the nation until 2012, and there is a lot of Soros money, Steven Spielberg. I wouldn’t even be surprised if even Barbara Streisand came off the bench.*****
Forgy: I wasn’t playing the religion card. (shocked face)
Alessi: Well, you mentioned the Jewish donors from New York?
Forgy: Well that’s who George Soros and the people so involved in these hedge funds and so forth, where this money’s coming from. It’s only a statement of fact.
No, that’s not playing the religion card at all, how dare you suggest that, Ryan?
Alessi further showed the lack of “Jew Money” showing up in KREF, oddly enough (no Streisand and Spielberg, noted evil Jews).
PS- as you can see early in the interview, Larry Forgy isn’t a fan of Ken Ham’s Giant Dinosaur Boat, which is downright shocking. Maybe he doesn’t like that Ken Ham has Already Compromised to make it compatible with all religions (in words)?
The current clown of the Kentucky Democrats (this is a revolving prize), Commissioner of Agriculture Bob Farmer, apologized yesterday for saying in his stand-up routine that Eastern Kentuckians are a bunch of inbred toothless hicks. (we’ll also note the fact that Kentucky Democrats nominating a non-farmer stand-up comedian for this job because his name is “Farmer” isn’t the greatest rebuttal to the stereotype)
Only he didn’t really apologize. Yes, it’s the old “if you were offended” line:
“I apologize if it offends anyone,” Farmer said in a phone interview. “I don’t want to offend people.”
And it doesn’t help that he followed that remark with this, noting that Republicans found the video and made it an issue yesterday:
“When did they lose their sense of humor, when I got 15 points ahead?” Farmer said.
Yes, so Farmer is basically saying “I apologize if you were offended, but seriously, it was funny and if you’re offended you should get a sense of humor”.
FAIL.
And I reject the premise that Republicans did this because they are worried about Farmer winning. They brought this out so early because they know that Farmer is an embarrassing joke, and they want to tie him as fast as possible to the KDP and Steve Beshear, as David Williams and the rest of the GOP ticket continues to look doomed. The KDP did the smart thing by denouncing Farmer, but this incredibly lame “apology” might wind up giving the story more legs than it would of if he had just said “I was totally wrong and I apologize to all Kentuckians” without the “if’s”.
The issue here isn’t Bob Farmer, because despite the name and Beshear’s advantage at the top of the ticket, he just isn’t going to win this race. The issue is how well the RPK succeeds at tying the embarrassment that is Bob Farmer to the rest of the Democratic Party. Is it desperate? Yes. Can I blame them, based on the situation that is staring the KY GOP in the face come this November? Not really… they’d be stupid not to.
PS- I’ll never get tired of saying “I told you so” about nominating Bob Farmer…
On the heels of David Williams’ campaign announcing a $700,000 fundraiser late last week, the Beshear campaign announced this morning that they’ve been raising a boatload of money, too:
“Today the Beshear-Abramson filed its 30-day post primary campaign finance report. In addition to this required filing, the details of which are attached, I am pleased to announce that the campaign has raised over $1.5 million since the primary for the general election. Kentuckians from every corner of the Commonwealth have shown support for Governor Beshear’s efforts to create the smallest state government in a generation, fight broad-based tax increases and create and save jobs around the state.”
From late-August to November, your television sets will transmit nothing but a non-stop barrage of attack ads from both sides. Brace for it.
The campaign reported $2.9 million in disbursements since the pre-15 filing, with about $500k cash on hand (not counting the $1.5 million they just raised). $2.25 million of that was transferred over to their general account, and $570,000 was spent on their three-week “happy ad” TV campaign buy.
The KY GOP was doing such a good job of scurrying up to that line, but being careful not to cross it.
But grumpy ole Larry Forgy doesn’t like your rules. From the Mr. Brammer:
Lexington attorney Larry Forgy, a Republican who lost the 1995 governor’s race against Democrat Paul Patton, said the only reason Beshear picked Abramson to be his running mate was “to attract New York and Hollywood Jewish money” for the campaign.“There’s no other reason why to pick a big-city, liberal mayor to run for lieutenant governor in a rural, conservative state like this,” Forgy said.
Rabbi Kline said Forgy’s comments are “the most bigoted I’ve heard so far in this campaign.”
Miller called Forgy’s remarks “absurd and offensive. Jerry Abramson is one of the most qualified candidates ever for lieutenant governor. Forgy is playing on stereotypes that rich Jewish folks run the country.”
Well isn’t that just adorable.
Pro tip for Mr. Forgy: the only Abramson money you should be talking about is this and this.
Or, you could just shut your mouth and stay out of Kentucky politics once and for all. How’s that sound, Larry? Besides, John David Dyche can probably pick up the J-Bomb slack for you.
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