I lost all respect for Jack Richardson IV when he started trying to shoot down Ernie Fletcher EVEN BEFORE ANYONE HAD ANY INKLING THAT ANNIE NORTHUP WOULD LOSE HER SEAT TO JOHN YARMUTH AND WOULD BE A CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. (caps intentional)

The GOP establishment in this state does have a history of preselecting candidates. They did it in 1991 when they got behind Larry Hopkins. They did it in 1995 when they got behind Larry Forgy. They did it in reverse in 1999 when they refused to get behind anyone to run against Paul Patton and they stuck us with peppy Peppy. They did it in 2003 when they got behind Ernie Fletcher. And they did it in 2007 when they encouraged Northup to challenge Fletcher.

This is an open primary and anyone ought to be free to run — just like the D Senate primary where anyone, be they Horne or Lunsford or the bleacher guy or anyone else.

This is a little different than the special election in Hazard, because of the timing and the nomination process. You can’t have an open primary for a special election, so the parties have to choose the person they think will have the best chance of winning. In primary elections, the people decide (Francene is right).

And Annie — if you wanted to run, why didn’t you come out early? Theineman (sp?) announced a long time ago. Why are you waiting till the last minute and then having your surrogates (or Mitch’s surrogates) go out and try to get him to withdraw? If you’d gotten in early, perhaps you wouldn’t have had any challengers. But you waited until there was already a credible candidate in the race. Deal with it.