By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
The Democrats’ comeback trail ends in Frankfort, but it starts in the Jackson Purchase, according to a state party activist.
The Democrats have “a better than average chance” of hanging on to a pair of crucial House seats and flipping a Senate seat in Kentucky’s westernmost region, says Daniel Hurt, a state party central executive committee member and a veteran campaign manager at age 25.
“If we hold these two [House] seats, we can get a net gain of as many as 12 seats statewide," said Hurt, who lives in Grand Rivers, just east of the Purchase. “The races will be close, but with the teachers and the pension issue, the Democrats have the momentum.”
Donald Trump won 72.5 percent of the vote in the Jackson Purchase, 10 points higher than his statewide total. Hurt, also an honorary delegate to the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and the recipient of the 2017 state AFL-CIO Youth Labor Award, swears he’s not just whistling past the cemetery.
He does, however, admit that he’s not the most impartial observer of Purchase politics. He’s a frequent visitor to county Democratic party meetings in Mayfield and Paducah. He chairs the Democratic committee in Livingston County, which includes Grand Rivers, and is president of the West Kentucky Young Democrats.
Also, Hurt is campaign boss for a pair of state AFL-CIO-supported Democratic candidates: Sen. Dorsey Ridley of Henderson and House hopeful Abigail Barnes of Salem.
Ridley is one of just 11 Democrats in the legislature’s upper chamber, where Republicans occupy 27 seats. The GOP enjoys a 63-37 House majority.
"But this is the year for the opposition party—us,” said Hurt, who is finishing up a degree in political science and economics at Murray State University. “Our candidates are good on the issues that matter most to most voters: health care, fair taxation and workers' rights, especially union rights."
Even so, Hurt was sorry a pair of Purchase Democrats passed on another House term. Third District Rep. Gerald Watkins opted to run for the Paducah city commission. State Rep. Will Coursey vacated the Sixth District seat to run for Marshall County judge-executive.
"Incumbents usually win," Hurt said.
Hurt, who previously ran campaigns for Watkins and Coursey, confesses that retaking the Senate and House is a tall order, and not just in the Purchase, which consists of Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Marshall and McCracken counties.
Nonetheless, Hurt is happy with the half-dozen Democrats who are running for the legislature in the region. Five are state AFL-CIO-endorsed. The other one will likely be endorsed when the state COPE committee meets on June 13.
All six want to get rid of the state’s “right to work” law and reinstate the prevailing wage. They, too, oppose the GOP’s controversial public pension plan.
State AFL-CIO-backed Watkins and Coursey voted against RTW, PW repeal and the pension bill.
Watkins’ former constituency takes in Paducah and most of McCracken County. Martha Emmons, who had no primary opposition, wants to succeed him. She and her husband run a Paducah bike shop.
Emmons will take on Randy Bridges, a Paducah real estate agent, who beat Joni Hogancamp in the GOP primary, 1,101-729. Watkins bested Bridges in 2014 and defeated Hogancamp going on two years ago.
"The primary was not a blowout for Bridges," Hurt said. "So you've got a Republican party that was not united around a single candidate like the Democrats were. There's a lot of enthusiasm for Martha.
"But that seat is going to be very expensive for both parties. Both candidates can raise the money, but Bridges will get a lot of Frankfort and out-of-state money from the Koch brothers and other groups through Mitch McConnell."
Unions, potent in the Purchase, haven’t forgotten that Bridges bizarrely touted “right to work" in a speech to a mostly-union crowd at the city's 2014 Labor Day celebration. No sooner did the boos fade, than unions, led by Larry Sanderson, a retired UA international representative, started organizing a big rally for labor-supported candidates.
Watkins still says a fired-up union movement carried him to victory.
A newcomer to politics, Emmons is in the middle of candidate training with Emerge Kentucky, the group that recruits and supports women to run for office as Democrats.
While Hurt is optimistic about Emmons' chances of keeping Watkins’ seat in the Democratic column, he's also confident that retired teacher Linda Story Edwards will succeed Coursey in the Sixth District, comprised of Marshall and Lyon counties. Lyon is one of Marshall’s eastern neighbors.
In the Democratic primary, the state AFL-CIO endorsed Al Cunningham, who retired in 2016 as business representative for Painters and Allied Trades District 91.
Edwards received 2,935 votes to 2,127 for Cunningham and 1,467 for Drew Williams. All three are against RTW, favor PW and reject the pension bill. Edwards will likely be endorsed when the state COPE Committee meets on June 13.
Hurt said the primary vote hints at an Edwards win in November. "The Democrats got 4,176 more votes than the Republicans did," he said.
Chris Freeland, a former Democrat, won the GOP primary with 1,490 votes to 863 for Randall Fox.
"[Edwards] is a well-connected Democrat who will have teachers on her side," said Hurt. "I think unions will rally to her, too."
Added Hurt: "Democrats in Marshall and Lyon counties see Freeland as a turncoat, and Republicans might see him as not a real Republican. The Republican establishment evidently wanted Fox."
Hurt also said the Democrats will be more than competitive against Republican incumbents in the First, Second and Fifth House District and Second Senate District races.
In the First, Democrat Desirée Owen of Barlow is taking on Republican Rep. Steven Rudy. The district encompasses Ballard, Carlisle, Fulton and Hickman counties, plus a slice of western McCracken County where Rudy resides.
Rudy and Owen ran unopposed in the primary. Owen has never sought public office, but she managed a pair of winning Democratic House campaigns in 2004—for State Reps. Frank Rasche of Paducah and J.R. Gray of Benton.
“It’s an uphill battle for whoever challenges Steven Rudy,” Hurt confessed. “But if anybody can beat him it’s Desirée, with her experience in running campaigns and with her ability to talk to voters in a way that reminds them of the good things Democrats stand for.”
Owen’s father was an Ironworker.
Rudy voted for RTW and for nixing PW in 2017. Hurt said that Rudy will also have to defend his vote in favor of the unpopular GOP pension bill.
Second District State Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, also voted for the pension bill, RTW and for cancelling PW. Democrat Charlotte Goddard of Pottsville is challenging him, and she is also benefitting from Emerge schooling. Heath and Goddard were spared primary challengers.
"Charlotte has a difficult road ahead, but if there was ever a time for a teacher to win, this is it," Hurt said.
The district includes Graves County and a small part of southern McCracken County.
"Charlotte is a teacher making her first run for office--just like Travis Brenda, and he won," Hurt said.
He meant the Garrard County High School math teacher who upset House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell in the GOP primary. Brenda went after Shell for his support for the pension bill.
David Ramey is with Brenda on the pension bill. He’s the House Democratic candidate in the Fifth District, which covers Calloway County and western Trigg County.
He and former Calloway County Judge-Executive Larry Elkins, a Democrat-turned-Republican, are vying to replace state Rep. Kenny Imes, a Murray Republican, who decided to run for Elkins' old job. Neither had a primary opponent.
Imes, who voted for RTW, the repeal of PW and the pension bill, beat Ramey in 2016.
"Both candidates have name recognition, but with Republican budget cuts to higher education, including to Murray State University, if there ever was a time for Ramey, this is it."
Second District Republican state Sen. Danny Carroll's support for the pension bill helped encourage Paducah attorney Julie Tennyson, a Democrat, to take him on. Ballard, Carlisle, Marshall and McCracken counties make up the district.
Tennyson and Carroll ran solo in their primaries. "If I were Sen. Carroll, I would take Tennyson very seriously," Hurt said.
The election is Nov. 6. All 100 House seats are up for election, along with 19 Senate seats.