Friday, January 26, 2007

Forum Held Sans Northup

Where was Northup at the candidate forum? What is she afraid of? This was her golden opportunity to challenge the Governor...

From Kentucky Kurmudgeon:

Six of the eight announced candidates for governor made their pitches to the Kentucky Press Association in Louisville today. House Speaker Jody Richards and former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup passed up the event. A couple of new ideas surfaced, or at least new to me. For instance, Paducah businessman Billy Harper proposed letting a private company design and build the Louisville bridges project and then collect tolls on them. And former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry said he would like to create a state surgeon general's office to deal with Kentucky's health issues.

From Conservative Edge:

The first gubernatorial debate of the campaign season occurred today in Louisville. The event was sponsored by the Kentucky Press Association. Most of the big names were there, but Anne Northup was a no show in her own home town. Pol Watchers has a recap of the event at it's site.The single most striking aspect of the debate was that all but one of the candidates talked about what they will do. While Governor Fletcher got to tout what he has done. And his list of accomplishments is not meager.

From Bill’s Political Blog:

Meanwhile… Several candidates for governor appeared for a forum before reporters in Louisville. Governor Fletcher said he makes no claim to perfection, but says his administration has overcome major financial hurdles facing the state. Billy Harper said as a businessman, he knows how to get things done and create jobs. Harper also criticized former Congresswoman Anne Northup for not attending the Kentucky Press Association forum. She was campaigning in the heavily Republican southern part of the state.

Harper Discusses Ford

Liberal Left Loves Fletcher

From Blue Grass, Red State:

MyDD is one of the most liberal blogs out there, with very close connections to Daily Kos, famous recently for its staunch support of kook Ned Lamont over the reasonable Democrat Joe Lieberman.

The guy in the picture was instrumental in creating/implementing a "Google-bombing" scheme by which bloggers could manipulate the Google search engine in order to make it generate anti-Republican web pages at the top (most relevant portion) of its search results. Notice the "Ned Lamont" sticker the guy is wearing. He is a blogger at MyDD and sometimes Daily Kos. Additionally, the guy in the picture, Chris Bowers, is a resident of Philadelphia and a member of the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee. A recent entry on MyDD written by "kynetroots" encourages Google-bomb action against Northup. It reads:

Its important that the Netroots act now and support efforts that Kentucky activists (even some Conservative Republicans who support Fletcher) are taking (emphasis mine) to ensure that Northup does not build too much strength from defeating the corrupt Governor and cementing her image as a corruption free candidate. This is why we must join together to help the Google-bombing campaign against Northup, and now her running mate Jeff Hoover, that was started by Chris Bowers before the 2006 election.

Bowers may or may not personally be behind the current Google-bombing "campaign," but he certainly worked against Northup in '06, when he posted Google-bomb source code on MyDD for people to embed in their blog source code. The code is essentially a list of junk "news articles" written by liberal "journalists." Now "kynetroots" is on it. Could this be the work of Mark Nickolas? Bluegrass Report is MyDD's official Kentucky state blog. Someone in the Fletcher administration? We may never know for sure, but someone is taking desperate and manipulatory measures to keep Northup/Hoover from winning the Republican primary.

What we do know, however, is that KY Democrats would prefer to run against Fletcher over Northup/Hoover in 2007 and that Democrats from all over the country are participating in the campaign to make that happen. They want Fletcher to win the May Republican primary because they know they can capitalize on their '06 momentum and Fletcher's political problems to take back the governorship. I'm afraid some Republicans have their heads in the sand on this one. If Fletcher is so electable, why are liberals supporting him? Hat tip to abortion-supporter Majikthise for the photo of Comrade Bowers.

Harper Releases Statements

On Jobs & Education:

Businessman and Republican Candidate for Governor Billy Harper stressed education and job growth in the first Gubernatorial candidate forum of the 2007 election cycle.

“As a businessman, I know how to create jobs. As a leader in education reform, I know how to improve schools. As your Governor, I’ll do both,” Harper said in his opening statement to members of the Kentucky Press Association at its winter meeting in Louisville.

Harper also expressed disappointment in former Congresswoman Anne Northup’s decision to skip the forum.

“I wish Anne was able to attend. I think these forums, particularly one sponsored by the state’s press association, are a great opportunity to discuss the issues important to Kentucky in a positive and constructive setting,” stated Harper.

Harper said he plans on attending every candidate forum his schedule allows to discuss the challenges facing Kentucky and his vision for moving the state forward.

Harper chaired Leadership Kentucky, an association of business leaders from across the state, and has also served as chair of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. More recently, Harper brought business people, teachers, and school administrators together from across the state to help write the Harper Report on education. The report made 52 specific recommendations to help improve education for all Kentucky students, and today nearly half of those suggestions have been put into effect throughout the state.

Harper currently serves as president of Harper Industries, a family-owned and operated construction and engineering company based in Paducah. For specific information about Harper’s proposals for job growth and education – including a downloadable copy of the Harper Report – visit the campaign online at www.harperforgovernor.com.

On AMT:

"The Governor’s proposal to extend tax incentives to Ford in order to preserve jobs in Kentucky begs the question of why he won't repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is driving the jobs out of Kentucky in the first place.

The University of Kentucky has documented that a great many of the tax incentives Kentucky has extended to businesses have not resulted in the predicted job creation. This is because Kentucky has collected $100 million more this year than last year in business taxes. If the state left that $100 million in the hands of businesses it would not need to offer new tax incentives, just cut taxes."

Quality Jobbed

The Department of Labor says we lost 55,000 jobs after the AMT passed (2005).
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