(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
'The hate campaign was a failed campaign for the Republican Party.' [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-11-25
This story first appeared on Forward Kentucky.
The Mitch McConnell tactic of “make them dislike your opponent more than they like you” backfired this time.
By BERRY CRAIG
“The report of my death was an exaggeration,” Mark Twain famously replied to an erroneous New York newspaper story about his passing.
The egregious gaffe reminds me of right-wing pundits and politicians who preach the union movement’s funeral. Incumbent Andy Beshear’s victory in the governor’s race suggests that conservative claims of Kentucky labor’s demise are wishful thinking.
On Dec. 12, Gov. Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jaqueline Coleman will be inaugurated a second time on the state Capitol steps in Frankfort.
“Union members and their families came out strongly to support Beshear because he has worked with organized labor and our allies for four years and because he has fought back against the Republican-controlled legislature,” said Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president.
There is no doubt that unions played a big role in Gov. Beshear’s reelection. The state AFL-CIO made history in January by endorsing Beshear for a second term. Never before had the state’s largest labor organization backed a candidate so soon in an election cycle.
“The Kentucky State AFL-CIO is making this historic early endorsement of Gov. Andy Beshear to signify our commitment to re-elect Andy Beshear and demonstrate our resolve to keep Kentuckians safe from the false and harmful policies of our opponents,” said a statement from Londrigan.
A moderate Democrat, Beshear, on Nov. 7, defeated Attorney Gen. Daniel Cameron, an unapologetically hard-right, Donald Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican. The governor’s victory margin was five percentage points.
As election time neared, a widely publicized poll had the candidates tied. But the contest turned out to be less than a nail-biter. Election day polls closed at 6 p.m. Eastern Time in eastern and central Kentucky and 6 p.m. Central Time in western Kentucky. The Cook Political Report and NBC News called the race before 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
Not surprisingly, Beshear romped in union-strong Louisville and Jefferson County. He also won other counties with a significant union presence, notably Boyd (Ashland), Campbell (Newport), Daviess (Owensboro), Henderson (Henderson), Kenton (Covington) Fayette (Lexington) and Warren (Bowling Green).
“It just goes to show you that the workers of Kentucky have Andy Beshear’s back because he has ours,” added Londrigan.
Beshear, according to Bruce Schreiner of the Associated Press, notched “another significant statewide victory in an increasingly red state that could serve as a model for other Democrats on how to thrive politically heading into next year’s defining presidential election....The governor withstood relentless attempts to connect him to Democratic President Joe Biden, especially his handling of the economy.”
“The Republicans can denounce ‘Bidenomics’ all they want to, but all you have to do is look at the largest economic development programs ever begun in the state of Kentucky,” said Kirk Gillenwaters, a United Auto Workers retiree and president of the Kentucky branch of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “Gov. Beshear's economic program is moving us forward and providing good jobs that are going to create job security for the future.”
Far-right, anti-union MAGA Republicans enjoy supermajorities in the state House and Senate. (While Beshear and Coleman were reelected, the GOP swept all five of the constitutional offices: attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and agriculture commissioner.) Had Cameron won, he would have named opponents of organized labor to head boards and agencies that deal with workers compensation, unemployment insurance, worker safety and health and other issues vital to workers, Gillenwaters said.
“We have a labor-friendly governor still in office,” said Jeff Wiggins, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. “Now that we have him for four more years we can concentrate on getting more labor-friendly people in the legislature.”
While Beshear ran on his record, Cameron ran as a take-no-prisoners MAGA culture warrior who demonized the governor and the Democrats non-stop. On Monday, Beshear appeared on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki,” telling the host, “I will say, the way these Super PACS and my opponent went about their campaign was just mean, and it was gross, and it was cruel. And people don’t like that. That is not who we are, and this oughta be a message that you can’t scapegoat people just to get folks angry, and it’s wrong. Right?”
Cameron ramped up his attacks in early August at the annual Fancy Farm political picnic—the traditional kickoff for statewide fall campaigns in Kentucky. Cameron falsely charged that Beshear coddled “woke radicals” and cozied “with anti-Christian hate groups.”
When the governor spoke at Fancy Farm, he rebuked Cameron and his party for “trying to pit us against each other, calling everybody names who disagrees with them, telling you its okay to yell at, even hate, your fellow Kentuckians.” Beshear said he was “ready to prove that’s a losing strategy in the commonwealth of Kentucky.”
Wiggins said the election results proved the governor right. “The people of Kentucky spoke and they said they just don’t like the hate stuff.
“Politics shouldn’t be about hate. It should be about choosing who’s going to do the best job, not who can make the other one look the worst. The continuous Mitch McConnell agenda of always making his opponent look worse than him has got to stop in Kentucky and it’s got to stop in the nation.
“Politics should be all about who we are going to elect to do the best job.”
Gillenwaters agreed. “The hate campaign was a failed campaign for the Republican Party.”
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/25/2207923/--The-hate-campaign-was-a-failed-campaign-for-the-Republican-Party?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
