Ralph Long

Holy smokes! It appears that Gatewood Galbraith has just snatched the great Ralph Long out of Bluegrass Blogtopia and hired him as campaign manager for his independent run for governor.

FRANKFORT – Ralph Long, a political blogger and former state employee, will manage the independent campaign of Gatewood Galbraith and Dea Riley in this year’s race for governor and lieutenant governor.

Long, of Lexington, was chief information officer and principal assistant to former state Auditor Ed Hatchett. He has worked in several state and local campaigns and ran for the state House of Representatives in 2004.

Long said he will keep writing his political blog – www.ralphlong.com– but it may have fewer items.

Galbraith, a Lexington attorney, said Long’s “organizational skills along with his experience in state government and Kentucky politics make him a welcome addition to our team.”

Ralph Long is certainly brilliant when it comes to policy in Kentucky, but I have no idea if he has the “organizational skills” to run a statewide campaign.

This is interesting for several reasons. Ralph is fairly identical to me when it comes to ideology, and you know where I lie. I had assumed last year that Gatewood would pull more votes from the Republican candidate than Beshear, but this may not be the case anymore. Prior to hiring Long, Gatewood came out with a pretty bold stance against mountaintop removal, which certainly makes him an option for many liberals/lefties who are absolutely disgusted by Steve Beshear’s “get off our backs” shtick. This only adds to the speculation that Gatewood’s trying to get as many votes from left as he is from the teabaggers.

The thing is, we know that Gatewood is no “pure Lefty”, so to speak. If you’ve ever heard him talk about guns, abortion or the federal government, you know that he’s sounds more like Rand Paul than John Yarmuth. But if you’re a liberal in Kentucky who’s completely fed up with Steve Beshear shilling for the coal industry, are you willing to cast a vote for Gatewood in order to send Beshear a message? Or will the thought of Governor David “Friend of Simon” Williams cause you to hold your nose yet again and vote for Beshear? Or will you skip that race/write in “Daniel Solzman”?

This could certainly get interesting. Like many liberals, I’m undecided. Will Steve Beshear continue to “punch the hippies”, or will he try to earn our vote? If he thinks that he can do the hippie punch for 8 more months, he might be making a major miscalculation.

One thing’s for sure. There’s not a single liberal in the state of Kentucky’s who’s going to vote for David Williams, so don’t buy that garbage.

UPDATE: Here’s what Ralph has to say:

Anyone who has read this blog will know that I really believe in transparency and people doing the right thing. So in that vein I think you all should know that I have taken the job as campaign manager for the Gatewood & Riley 2011 campaign for the Governor’s office.

If you have been reading this blog you know that I have been less than pleased with the performance of Steve Beshear and David Williams. If you want an example of their behavior just look at what is going on in Frankfort today regarding Medicaid funding.

I think that Gatewood Galbraith offers an alternative to business as usual in Frankfort and I have decided that I will do what I can to help him get elected Governor.

Every so often in politics there is a perfect storm, I think that time is now. It’s time to finally get the heavily financed, entrenched career politicians out of the Governor’s Mansion.