Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
As Democratic governors have become an endangered species across the South, Kentucky, where Republicans have held the governor’s mansion for just four of the past 44 years, has been a conspicuous exception. Democrats still have important demographic advantages in the states that often determine presidential elections, but the party is struggling in power centers outside Washington that influence policy and steer congressional redistricting. While the federal government and states like Maryland and Oregon had struggled, rolling out their public exchanges, where qualified individuals can choose among subsidised health insurance plans, Kentucky’s system operated smoothly from the start. It’s not because Republicans beat Democrats, it’s because once again Democrats beat themselves.
Bevin campaigned on a pledge to reduce Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion.
“We went from “repeal, repeal, repeal” to ‘repeal and replace, ‘” said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
The Salt Lake City mayoral race featured a tight race between two-term incumbent Ralph Becker, one of President Barack Obama’s appointees on a climate change task force, and former state lawmaker Jackie Biskupski. While they’ve managed to construct a strong coalition in presidential years, it’s conservatives who have been more motivated to turn out to the polls during both midterm and off-year elections.
Still, Tuesday’s contests across the country are being scoured for signs of the electorate’s mood less than three months before the lead-off Iowa caucuses.
For Democrats, results in Kentucky, Virginia and elsewhere were part of a troubling pattern.
Republicans won the races for governor, auditor, treasurer and agriculture commissioner.
Conservatives across the country issued a stinging rebuke to President Obama and the Democratic Party Tuesday night.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, is making specific campaign appeals to the Hispanics, blacks and young voters who helped propel Obama to victory. Money flowed into the races from a pro-gun control group backed by New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg. He spent $2.2 million, and substantial spending by Americans for Prosperity, the National Rifle Association and Republican State Leadership Committee.
The governor’s race wasn’t the only setback for Kentucky Democrats.
Meanwhile, what are the consequences for Louisiana if St. John Bel gets his way and implements Obamacare? McAuliffe failed in his campaign to put Virginia’s legislature back in Democratic hands. Bevin ran as an outsider after being unsuccessful in challenging Senator Mitch McConnell in 2014, but this time the voters chose chosen differently in this race, and Bevin is the victor in the political race and is the new Kentucky governor. Pay attention. These elections are where your next Louie Gohmerts and Joni Ernsts come from. Bevin blatantly refused to answer a question from Lexington Herald-Leader political writer Sam Youngman, to which another reporter noticed and confronted him.
“Whether you voted for me or whether you didn’t vote for me, this is your Kentucky, this is your America. There is something happening”. The Fiscal Office expressed concern that because DSH payments to hospitals are included in the legislation, “savings associated with Medicaid Expansion are likely to be diminished significantly”.
“It was so crushing”, Democratic strategist Danny Briscoe said of the loss, “you wonder how they can survive next November”.
