2011 Kentucky gubernatorial election

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Might as well start a thread on this one, since it's likely the only one that will be interesting next year.

The incumbent is creationist theme park enthusiast Steve Beshear (D). His running mate, since Dan Mongiardo flamed out last year, is retiring Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.

The Republicans currently have two candidates running: the establishment pick is State Senate President David Williams, who has Agriculture Secretary Ritchie Farmer as his running mate. The teabaggy candidate is businessman Phil Moffett, whose running mate is State Rep. Mike Harmon.

Now for the fun part: perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith is running. He ran in the Dem primary last time, but in 1999 was the Reform Party nominee and got 15% of the vote. He supports legalizing pot (endorsed!), among other things.

Primary candidates (winners bolded)

Governor / Lt. Governor

Steve Beshear / Jerry Abramson (D) - incumbent / former mayor of Louisville
Bobbie Holsclaw / Bill Vermillion Jr. (R) - Jefferson County Clerk / teacher
Phil Moffett / Mike Harmon (R) - businessman / State Representative
David Williams / Richie Farmer (R) - State Senate President / Agriculture Commissioner

Attorney General

Jack Conway (D) - incumbent
Todd P'Pool (R) - Hopkins County Attorney

Treasurer

Todd Hollenbach (D) - incumbent
Steve Hamrick (D) - businessman / former Republican candidate for Congress ('92 and '94)
K. C. Crosbie (R) - Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council member

Secretary of State

Elaine Walker (D) - appointed incumbent / former Bowling Green mayor
Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) - attorney / former State House candidate ('09)
Bill Johnson (R) - businessman / U.S. Senate candidate ('10)
Hilda Legg (R) - businesswoman

Auditor (open D seat)

Adam Edelen (D) - former Beshear chief of staff
John T. Kemper III (R) - businessman
Addia Wuchner (R) - State Representative

Agriculture Commissioner (open R seat)

Bob Farmer (D) - marketing executive / motivational speaker (not making this up)
Stewart Gritton (D) - farmer
John Lackey (D) - attorney
David Williams (D) - some guy who isn't the David Williams running for governor
B. D. Wilson (D) - businessman / former Montgomery County Judge-Executive
James Comer (R) - State Representative
Rob Rothenburger (R) - Shelby County Judge-Executive

Primary results.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Wikipedia says she lived in Hart County, which is south of Louisville. It also has a rather charming turn of phrase: "On election night Martin wore a 1950s style formal dress and was defeated by Patton."

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The filing deadline for the primary passed yesterday. I added a list of candidates for the statewide offices in the first post. Doesn't look like much drama outside of the apparently-popular job of Agriculture Commissioner.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Bumping because the fundraising numbers are in for the first quarter:

Governor

Beshear/Abramson (D): $1.2 million for quarter, $4.8 million total, $3.3 million cash on hand.
Holsclaw/Vermillion (R): $22,077 for the quarter (total), $15,289 cash on hand.
Moffett/Harmon (R): $45,883 for the quarter, $100,774 total, negative $513.83 cash on hand
Williams/Farmer (R): $446,943 for the quarter. $1.2 million total, $669,839 cash on hand.

Attorney General

Conway (D): $129,857 for the quarter (total), $115,046 cash on hand
P'Pool (R): $79,482 for the quarter, $352,132 total, $305,647 cash on hand.

Secretary of State

Grimes (D): $303,283 for the quarter (total), $256,347 cash on hand.
Walker (D): $100,420 for the quarter (total), $78,769 cash on hand.
Johnson (R): $13,146 for the quarter, $23,116 total, $3,389 cash on hand.
Legg (R): Hasn't filed yet

State Auditor

Edelen (D): $114,860 for the quarter, $417,605 total. $328,761 cash on hand.
Wuchner (R): $35,074 for the quarter (total), $23,362 cash on hand
Kemper (R): $15,152 for the quarter, $19,327 total, $5,763 cash on hand

State Treasurer

Hamrick (D): $5,560 for the quarter, $7,110 total, $776 cash on hand
Hollenbach (D):$36,275 for the quarter, $46,509 total, $33,302 cash on hand
Crosbie (R): $52,860 for the quarter (total), $48,834 cash on hand

Agriculture Commissioner

Farmer (D): $8,166 for the quarter, $15,914 total, $9,433 cash on hand
Gritton (D): $20,044 for the quarter, $28,819 total, $10,691 cash on hand
Lackey (D): $10,264 for the quarter (total), $1,394 cash on hand
Williams (D): no filing with KREF yet.
Wilson (D): $78,675 for the quarter, $127,450 total, $57,007 cash on hand
Comer (R): $77,365 for the quarter, $180,695 total, $152,758 cash on hand
Rotherberger (R): $8,680 for the quater, $31,555 total, $16,260 cash on hand

[JohnnyLongtorso]

A shortening of Pettypool:

http://www.texashistoryhunter.net/ppool.html

[JohnnyLongtorso]

A Republican State Representative is supposedly switching parties. You don't usually see one going R to D these days.

Edit: Ah, here's why, the district is 2-1 Democratic in registration and his opponent got struck from the ballot when he was elected last year.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Primary is tomorrow. See the OP for who's running.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

And here are the pre-primary fundraising numbers:

Governor

Beshear/Abramson (D): $200,627 raised since last filing, $284,109 spent since last filing,  $4.9 million total, $1.664 million spent, $3.24 million cash on hand.
Holsclaw/Vermillion (R): $3,925 raised since last filing, $6,566 spent since last filing, $26,699 total, $14,051 spent, $12,647 cash on hand.
Moffett/Harmon (R): $23,328 raised since last filing, $18,446 spent since last filing, $135,978 total, $119,393 spent, $16,244 cash on hand
Williams/Farmer (R): $76,934 raised since last filing, $540,261 spent since last filing, $1.277 million total, $1.07 million spent, $669,839 cash on hand.

Attorney General

Conway (D): $35,530 raised since last filing, $4,206 spent since last filing, $166,353 total, $19,017 spent, $147,336 cash on hand
P'Pool (R): $114,335 raised since last filing, $6,428 spent since last filing, $466,467 total, $54,914 spent, $411,552 cash on hand.

Secretary of State

Grimes (D): $75,377 raised since last filing, $19,954 spent since last filing, $378,660 total, $66,889 spent, $311,770 cash on hand
Walker (D): $23,025 raised since last filing, $8,258 spent since last filing, $123,945 total, $29,909 spent, $94,036 cash on hand.
Johnson (R): $925 raised since last filing, $2,574 spent since last filing, $24,041 total, $22,300 spent, $1,890 cash on hand.
Legg (R): $24,525 raised since last filing, $11,411 spent since last filing, $143,910 total, $26,844 spent, $117,065 cash on hand.

State Auditor


Edelen (D): $14,390 raised since last filing, $6,817 spent since last filing, $431,995 total, $95,660 spent, $336,334 cash on hand
Kemper (R): $3,330 raised since last filing, $6,426 spent since last filing, $22,657 total, $19,991 spent, $2,665 cash on hand
Wuchner (R): $7,658 raised since last filing, $1,758 spent since last filing, $42,730 total, ~$13,500 spent, $29,261 cash on hand

State Treasurer

Hamrick (D): $600 raised since last filing, $400 spent since last filing, $7,710 total, $6,753 spent, $957 cash on hand
Hollenbach (D): $15,470 raised since last filing, $7,922 spent since last filing, $63,479 total, $22,628 spent, $33,302 cash on hand
Crosbie (R): $4,650 raised since last filing, $0 spent since last filing, $57,510 total, $4,025 spent, $53,484 cash on hand

Agriculture Commissioner

Farmer (D): $400 raised since last filing, $0 spent since last filing, $16,341 total, $6,508 spent, $9,833 cash on hand
Gritton (D): $10,175 raised since last filing, $6,207 spent since last filing, $38,994 total, $24,335 spent, $14,659 cash on hand
Lackey (D): $15,080 raised since last filing, $12,078 spent since last filing, $25,244 total, $20,948 spent, $4,396 cash on hand
Williams (D): no filing with KREF yet.
Wilson (D): $17,260 raised since last filing, $45,959 spent since last filing, $144,710 total, $116,402 spent, $28,307 cash on hand
Comer (R): $19,610 raised since last filing, $69,558 spent since last filing, $200,305 total, $97,494 spent, $102,810 cash on hand
Rotherberger (R): $2,390 raised since last filing, $17,455 spent since last filing, $33,945 total, $32,750 spent, $1,089 cash on hand

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Polls close at 6 PM Eastern (1.5 hours from now). Results here. Or here for the AP results which seem to be faster.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

IIRC there's a runoff if no one makes it to 40%.

Not anymore, they did away with the runoff in 2008.

The Jefferson figures are the weirdest part. I'm guessing this Holsclaw woman is from there?

Yes, she's the county clerk or something like that.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

In the other races, Bob Farmer appears to be headed toward a win for Agriculture Commissioner on the Dem side, based solely on the similarity of his name to incumbent Richie Farmer. And the woman Beshear appointed as SoS is losing her primary.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Turnout seems to be really low; it's currently at about 113,000 on the Republican side, whereas it was over 200,000 in 2007.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Looks like the Secretary of State race (on the Dem side) is tightening as Western Kentucky comes in. Not surprising, as the incumbent is from Bowling Green. Probably not enough to reverse the result, though.

The Republican side has been a 50/50 race all night.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

They just called it. Also, looks like the SoS race didn't tighten anymore, it's still 55-45.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Pretty much everything is in now. Williams beats Moffett 48-38, Grimes defeats appointed incumbent SoS Walker 55-45, Bob Farmer wins the Ag Commissioner nomination with 30%, and the Republican primary for SoS is currently a 1,002-vote margin for Bill Johnson.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

No, there are no runoffs in Kentucky.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

It was repealed in 2008.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Gatewood Galbraith filed to run for Governor as an independent. He'll probably be the only third-party option on the ballot in Kentucky.