Forget the US Senate race in Kentucky. Time to win state seats....

[BamaFanNKy]

Again, I have to remind people the state seats are as important as the big ones. One of the local Tea Party's own is running in my district, Jenean Hampton and she faces a guy who's been in office since the 1970s:

Getting her voice in Frankfort would be a better move than wasting time on a losing US Senate primary.

 

[MichaelDavis]

Again, I have to remind people the state seats are as important as the big ones. One of the local Tea Party's own is running in my district, Jenean Hampton and she faces a guy who's been in office since the 1970s:

Getting her voice in Frankfort would be a better move than wasting time on a losing US Senate primary.

Jody Richards won by 22 points in 2012. Matt Bevin has a much greater chance of being elected than Jenean Hampton.

 

[TaftFan]

Face it though, people coalesce around big candidates. If people stop supporting Bevin, it doesn't mean they will help those smaller candidates.

I feel like you are associated with McConnell's campaign and I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Tywysog Cymru]

McConnell has the same approval ratings as Obama, Bevin can win this. Local candidates are great too and we should support them, but defeating the Senate Minority Leader would be a huge victory.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

Jody Richards won by 22 points in 2012. Matt Bevin has a much greater chance of being elected than Jenean Hampton.

Exactly wrong. Matt Bevin will lose by 25-30 pts. Jenean is a solid opponent who has more appeal than any person who's ever run against Jody. Not to mention she's an actual small government conservative who's put blood and sweat in the game. Not like a rich businessman from New England trying to win in the Midsouth.

What do I know though, I've only been involved in numerous races in Kentucky many in paid roles and most winning.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

McConnell has the same approval ratings as Obama, Bevin can win this. Local candidates are great too and we should support them, but defeating the Senate Minority Leader would be a huge victory.

No, no he can't. Mitch has the base of the Primary wrapped up. GOPers will not vote out an incumbent Minority Leader.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

Face it though, people coalesce around big candidates. If people stop supporting Bevin, it doesn't mean they will help those smaller candidates.

I feel like you are associated with McConnell's campaign and I hope I'm wrong.

Yes, because I don't support a guy on par of "Some Dude Named Bill Johnson" I must be a McConnell supporter.

 

[TaftFan]

Yes, because I don't support a guy on par of "Some Dude Named Bill Johnson" I must be a McConnell supporter.

No, because you are going out of your way to attack him. You sound like Jesse Benton.

 

[mosquitobite]

No, no he can't. Mitch has the base of the Primary wrapped up. GOPers will not vote out an incumbent Minority Leader.

Tell that to Richard Lugar.

Not that he was a minority leader but that title don't mean jack to an average Republican.

 

[MichaelDavis]

Tell that to Richard Lugar.

Not that he was a minority leader but that title don't mean jack to an average Republican.

Speaking of Richard Lugar: "Lugar leads Mourdock 45 percent to 31 percent":
http://www.nationaljournal.com/blogs/hotlineoncall/2011/07/lugar-poll-shows-him-ahead-but-not-secure-29

 

[fr33]

No, no he can't. Mitch has the base of the Primary wrapped up. GOPers will not vote out an incumbent Minority Leader.

I hope you're proven wrong and made to look stupid. I guess you're willing to risk such because IMO Bevin has a better chance this election than many other tea partiers do.

 

[invisible]

I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on the KY Senate primary, the arguments on both sides are valid. But yes, we do need to be paying more attention to state-level offices. Today's state-level people are tomorrow's Congressmen and Senators. Remember that in 2008, Ron Paul had said that THIS is how we win, that winning happens from the ground up. Remember an obscure State Rep by the name of Justin Amash? Or a county-level official from KY by the name of Massie? The more people we can get in at the state level, the more of them that will be able to climb the ladder into national offices. It's awesome to see Shem running. Gunny is still involved and working to make a difference, he isn't going away anytime soon. Several other RPF members have run or are running in local elections. These guys all need more support than they get.

Here in OK, we have the following Ron Paul supporters running at the state level:

Governor - Randy Brogdon
State House district 61 - Kenny Bob Tapp
State Senate district 22 - Mark Thomas

Now, how kickass would it be to have someone who endorsed Ron Paul (while in the State Legislature) as a GOVERNOR? This should be a huge deal! Yet very few people here on RPF are talking about it.

Also, how many good people do we already have in state-level offices that are running for re-election? Plenty of them both here and in NH. Where else? Who are they?

 

[TheTyke]

Jenean Hampton was an early Bevin supporter, and drove for hours to support him in the picture you yourself posted, and is wearing his shirt. She believes in him and cared enough to go to personal effort and expense to elect him. She also was involved in vetting him as a candidate. How do you hold one up as awesome and while smearing the person she's promoting? :O Yes, we'd be wise to pay more attention to and support good local candidates. No, they won't generate as much enthusiasm as a senate or presidential race. But is it possible for you to promote someone without tearing down other liberty efforts?

Historical note: The last candidate Bama spent this much effort trying to convince everyone had no chance, Phil Moffett, came within 10% of beating the Senate President in the Republican primary for Governor with only 1/10th of the money, despite the endless establishment "he can't win" smear campaign against him. Then, Bama did find it worthwhile to support 1% Gary Johnson - whose chances were far more remote and seemed less liberty-aligned to me than Matt Bevin.

Bevin has closed the gap from 47% to 22% over the last few months, and he is inspiring the grassroots to get active. Trying to discourage that will not win more support for your candidates. And it's 100% pure establishment spin to frame McC losing that much ground "maintaining an insurmountable lead."

 

[invisible]

I hereby request a change in thread title from the OP. There are already enough threads about the Bevin / Mitch argument, but we don't really have a thread about our state-level candidates.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

I hope you're proven wrong and made to look stupid. I guess you're willing to risk such because IMO Bevin has a better chance this election than many other tea partiers do.

Hey yo, I am not stumping her to run for US Senate. It's a fact it's easier to win a state house race than a US Senate race. Fact remains, the "Liberty Movement" in Kentucky is so focused on Federal big seat roles they forget the state house can be taken over. So much so, there were 21 seats of 100 with ZERO GOP Candidates. 18 Republicans with zero primary or general challengers. When over a third of the state house have zero opposition, we are losing.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

Jenean Hampton was an early Bevin supporter, and drove for hours to support him in the picture you yourself posted, and is wearing his shirt. She believes in him and cared enough to go to personal effort and expense to elect him. She also was involved in vetting him as a candidate. How do you hold one up as awesome and while smearing the person she's promoting? :O Yes, we'd be wise to pay more attention to and support good local candidates. No, they won't generate as much enthusiasm as a senate or presidential race. But is it possible for you to promote someone without tearing down other liberty efforts?

Historical note: The last candidate Bama spent this much effort trying to convince everyone had no chance, Phil Moffett, came within 10% of beating the Senate President in the Republican primary for Governor with only 1/10th of the money, despite the endless establishment "he can't win" smear campaign against him. Then, Bama did find it worthwhile to support 1% Gary Johnson - whose chances were far more remote and seemed less liberty-aligned to me than Matt Bevin.

Bevin has closed the gap from 47% to 22% over the last few months, and he is inspiring the grassroots to get active. Trying to discourage that will not win more support for your candidates. And it's 100% pure establishment spin to frame McC losing that much ground "maintaining an insurmountable lead."

Actually you glossed over the time I spent working for Chris Hightower while most of you were making calls, sign waves and wasting time on Massie after his Primary. Let's be real, most of you waste your time and money on candidates with zero chances.

As for my "Then, Bama did find it worthwhile to support 1% Gary Johnson - whose chances were far more remote and seemed less liberty-aligned to me than Matt Bevin." Yeah, I killed it for him when I went to that event (none), spent my money (none) and made calls for him (none). I voted for him. That's it. I hold Jenean up as awesome on her personal merits as a person fit for office. I also stand up for Rand and work for him but, thought his endorsing Romney was S-T-U-P-I-D! So, stop making strawmen and realize Bevin is a carpetbagger, bailed out businessman who was bailed out by Max Blumenthal. I supported the only Kentuckian for office who went to M.I.T., Thomas Massie. The dude is down 30% in the last poll this month I had seen.

Also, I believe Thomas Massie was after Moffet. Since My name is Matt Pannell this article disagrees with your premise I don't support your guys (For the record, I was on the phone right after Massie got elected with my journalist friends getting articles written and this is the only one I allowed my name to be used): http://reason.com/archives/2012/03/16/meet-thomas-massie-next-rand-paul

Lastly, "Historical note: The last candidate Bama spent this much effort trying to convince everyone had no chance, Phil Moffett, came within 10%." Remember back what I said, he had no shot as long as he kept that crack pot David Adams. I was right and I would assume Moffett would have rather hired the guys Massie did. The Liberty Movement in Kentucky is either afraid of running and having to govern or they are rudderless. Why are we allowing 40% of the House to run unopposed?

 

[BamaFanNKy]

I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on the KY Senate primary, the arguments on both sides are valid. But yes, we do need to be paying more attention to state-level offices. Today's state-level people are tomorrow's Congressmen and Senators. Remember that in 2008, Ron Paul had said that THIS is how we win, that winning happens from the ground up. Remember an obscure State Rep by the name of Justin Amash? Or a county-level official from KY by the name of Massie? The more people we can get in at the state level, the more of them that will be able to climb the ladder into national offices. It's awesome to see Shem running. Gunny is still involved and working to make a difference, he isn't going away anytime soon. Several other RPF members have run or are running in local elections. These guys all need more support than they get.

Here in OK, we have the following Ron Paul supporters running at the state level:

Governor - Randy Brogdon
State House district 61 - Kenny Bob Tapp
State Senate district 22 - Mark Thomas

Now, how kickass would it be to have someone who endorsed Ron Paul (while in the State Legislature) as a GOVERNOR? This should be a huge deal! Yet very few people here on RPF are talking about it.

Also, how many good people do we already have in state-level offices that are running for re-election? Plenty of them both here and in NH. Where else? Who are they?

I am glad you understand my point. Also, I'd point out we have two forum members from Kentucky running. Massie for Congress and Hightower for County Jailer (Granted both endorsed McConnell and are now icky to others).

 

[invisible]

I am glad you understand my point. Also, I'd point out we have two forum members from Kentucky running. Massie for Congress and Hightower for County Jailer (Granted both endorsed McConnell and are now icky to others).

That's great, I wasn't aware that Hightower was running for something again. I was hoping he would continue to remain on the scene.

There are so many opportunities in this midterm election, if we had had more people already in place at the state level, there could be quite a few moving up into national seats. These state level elections are also fairly cheap and easy to win.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

That's great, I wasn't aware that Hightower was running for something again. I was hoping he would continue to remain on the scene.

There are so many opportunities in this midterm election, if we had had more people already in place at the state level, there could be quite a few moving up into national seats. These state level elections are also fairly cheap and easy to win.

Yup. No one of value running against Whitfield, Guthrie, Yarmuth, Barr or Rogers. Nor Massie but the other 5 we should be trying to replace. Reason we have no one of value, we never try to get people in current state house or senate nor county judge/magistrate seats. Massie did it the right way. He wasn't known and try to run for Congress. He got elected Judge Exec and made a name for himself in a short time.

 

[invisible]

Yup. No one of value running against Whitfield, Guthrie, Yarmuth, Barr or Rogers. Nor Massie but the other 5 we should be trying to replace. Reason we have no one of value, we never try to get people in current state house or senate nor county judge/magistrate seats. Massie did it the right way. He wasn't known and try to run for Congress. He got elected Judge Exec and made a name for himself in a short time.

Exactly. We're missing a large part of a great opportunity in this midterm election, because we have all but ignored the importance of state-level races in the last several elections. This point needs to be made more forcefully, while there is STILL TIME to file for state-level offices in THIS election. State Legislatures need to be closely examined for those with bad records, and challengers found (not to mention the open seats). This will not only put good people in position to later move up in rank to national offices, but it will also help stem the tide of bad state-level legislation.