Congressional delegation, Beshear, Williams, Galbraith hit Fancy Farm
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Sunday, August 07, 2011, 3:30 p.m. – Amid the sounds of bluegrass music and the smell of fresh barbecue, the humidity wasn’t the only thing thick in the air under the pavilion at the Fancy Farm picnic. Candidates for the state’s constitutional offices gathered to promote their candidacies at the state’s premier political theater.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL
The theater actually began before the first speech: Gatewood Galbraith, independent candidate for governor, pulled his chair into the middle of the aisle separating the Democratic left and Republican right sides of the stage. And in the best Fancy Farm tradition, a coin toss determined which side he would join for the remainder of the event. The Republican side won the toss.
CONGRESSIONAL FIREPOWER. With no campaigns of their own this year, the state’s congressional delegation was free to unleash their partisan fury on the Democratic side of the stage, focusing mostly on the governor’s race.
Sen. Mitch McConnell took the podium to an immense wave of cheers from the Republican side of the pavilion, accompanied by jeers from the Democratic side. He shushed the crowd and requested a moment of silence for the soldiers killed when a helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.
Following the brief pause, the jeers and cheers resumed as McConnell pulled out all the partisan stops.
He chided the Beshear campaign over allegations non-merit state workers were being asked for campaign donations. “Steve likes his state workers like his martinis – shaken down and not heard.”
SEN. RAND PAUL
He took shots at Attorney General Jack Conway, praising him for taking a break from digging through the college records of his opponent, Todd P’Pool in order to attend the picnic.
McConnell linked Beshear with President Barack Obama, citing both had claimed to improve the economy. Citing the fact that unemployment is at a 25-year high, McConnell asked the crowd “is everyone out here better off since Obama-Beshear
took over?
“We need a governor who will stand up to Barack Obama, not endorse him,” McConnell said, prompting a crescendo of boos and applause that escalated when McConnell mentioned Williams by name.
Sen. Rand Paul opened his remarks by welcoming members of the Indiana Teamsters Union – many wearing yellow t-shirts — who he said were at Fancy Farm to support Conway.
U.S. REP. ED WHITFIELD
Paul also said Tennessee residents were in the audience to support the Beshear campaign. “They love Steve Beshear because he keeps sending jobs to Tennessee,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield’s took the stage to tell a story comparing Huey Long to Barack Obama that prompted Democratic chants of “Boring! Boring!” Whitfield voiced his support for Kentucky coal and linked the Democratic candidates with the Obama’s administration’s moves that are seen in Kentucky as anti-coal.
‘LET THE GAMES BEGIN.’ Marshall County Judge-Executive Mike Miller called the candidates for governor to the center of the stage for the coin toss to determine speaking order and to “let the games begin.” The crowd was already fired up, with Republicans chanting a “David Williams!” cheer while Democrats answered with their own “Is a jerk!” Beshear won the coin toss to speak first.
GOV. STEVE BESHEAR
BESHEAR-ABRAMSON. With a double-digit lead in the polls, a smiling Gov. Steve Beshear took the stage to loud chants of “four more years!” His speech avoided any mention of campaign issues.
Beshear said he had just returned from a weeklong trip to visit troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. With his voice punctuated by emotion, he told the crowd that his heart was not into the usual fiery, partisan Fancy Farm speechmaking
“Today my heart and mind are not in partisan politics; my heart and mind are thousands of miles away with our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Beshear’s speech set the tone for all the Democratic candidates, who were asked by Beshear to keep their comments positive. Beshear’s comments even steered clear of mentioning his opponents in the November election.
Former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson used his time to praise Beshear, citing the governor’s leadership as the reason he joined the ticket. Abramson praised Beshear’s leadership through the years as well as “his love for the state of Kentucky.”
SEN. PRESIDENT DAVID WILLIAMS
WILLIAMS-FARMER. A polarizing figure in the General Assembly, Senate President David Williams polarized the Fancy Farm crowd, earning ecstatic cheering from the right and boos and catcalls from the left.
Williams’ first political salvo was to couple praise for Beshear’s recent visit to the troops with criticism of his failure to visit Fort Campbell to honor Seal Team Six when President Obama visited the military post.
Williams also noted Beshear’s speech steered clear of campaign issues. “Now that the political season has started, if I was Steve Beshear I wouldn’t want to talk about my record either,” he quipped.
A man wearing a Teamsters Union shirt using a bullhorn and chanting, “Stop the war on workers”, interrupted Williams’ comments about Beshear. Williams said nothing, stepping back from the podium as organizers huddled and the man stopped use of the bullhorn.
When Williams returned to the podium he began with an attack on Beshear’s leadership. “Steve Beshear is so weak, he makes Jack Conway look like a tough … well, you know the rest of the phrase.” He took Beshear to task for offering tax incentives to businesses that never got off the ground – including Museum Plaza in Louisville, an electric car plant, a battery plant and others.
AG COMMISSIONER RICHIE FARMER
“Steve Beshear has forgotten the basic rule of government: You cannot tax, spend or borrow your way to prosperity.”
Citing the downgrading of Kentucky’s bond rating, Williams blasted Beshear’s budget management. The lowered rating “means he spent all of your money, he spent all of Obama’s money, and now he’s spending all of your children’s and grandchildren’s money.”
Williams ended his talk by promising his ticket’s support for pro-life and gun rights, and a pledge “to stand up to Barack Obama.”
Williams’ running mate, Ag Commissioner Richie Farmer, told the crowd he was coming to grips with some events in his personal life: his discovery that David Williams “is a pretty good guy! Can you believe that?”
Farmer’s comments were quickly punctuated by chants of “Air ball! Air ball” from the Democratic side of the pavilion.
He linked Beshear and Abramson to the Obama administration, noting that “you won’t see many Obama bumper stickers in Western Kentucky.”
GATEWOOD GALBRAITH
GALBRAITH-RILEY. As the man who says he’s a “perennial candidate because Kentucky has perennial problems,” Gatewood Galbraith began with a blistering attack on Beshear’s speech about his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Galbraith accused Beshear of avoiding working on solutions to problems in Kentucky by going there to “hide behind the bodies of our young men and women in the military,” which he called “false patriotism.”
“I got an honorable discharge from the Marines and I was highly offended by it,” Galbraith said of Beshear’s speech.
Galbraith said candidates who have defeated him in past races haven’t come up with solutions to Kentucky’s problems because they are unable or unwilling to disengage from the partisanship of Frankfort politics.
Of any of the candidates speaking at Fancy Farm, Galbraith was one of the few who prompted cheers and jeers from both Democratic and Republican camps. Galbraith earned a rousing cheer of support when he stated he was against mountain top removal.
“We need coal, but we don’t need that destructive way of gathering it,” he said.
DEA RILEY
Galbraith’s running mate, Dea Riley, said when asked her political party she replies she’s a Kentuckian first and foremost.
Riley said the numerous campaign signs scattered around Graves County and the campaign buses at the picnic grounds were paid for by special-interest money. She took Beshear and Williams to task for failing to boost the state’s economy.
“It’s long overdue that we get these good ol’ boys out of office,” she said. “Gatewood Galbraith has earned your vote, these other guys don’t deserve your vote.”
As the gubernatorial segment ended, Beshear supporters punctuated the pause between speakers with chants of “Four more years! Four more years!”
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