Stats

Latest SurveyUSA: A Little Bit Jacked Up?

SUSA’s Current Numbers:

McConnell 52%
Lunsford 40%
Undecided 8%
4% Margin of Error

SurveyUSA used a mix of 57% Democratic, 33% Republican and 9% Other in June polling. But SUSA took it upon itself to under sample Democrats this month. In their latest polling data, they questioned 50% Democratic, 39% Republican, 9% Other.

So, if the group had sampled appropriately this month, the margin between Bruce Lunsford and Mitch McConnell would be 5-6 points instead of 12. Not exactly what we would call “breathing room.”

Current voter registration in Kentucky:

Democratic 1,647,140 (57.26%)
Republican 1,043,331 (36.27%)
Other 186,079 (6.49%)

Total 2,876,550

Hot And Sticky Tuesdays Are No Fun In Kentucky

Labor unions are the devil and it’s all Bruce Lunsford’s fault! Gosh, they’re so scary! [PolWatchers]

Did you miss Fancy Farm? Joe Sonka has an interesting recap of the events on the ground. And an encounter with the KDP’s Thom Karmik, who apparently doesn’t live in the reality-based community. [Barefoot & Progressive]

WTVQ in Lexington is all kind of jacked up. A lead anchor left and the news director was fired. Then the station manager hired former Fletcher official Doug Hogan to be news director. He’s currently being sued along with Bill Nighbert by a woman alleging discrimination and harassment. This is going to get interesting. [H-L]

In case you missed it, the University of Louisville has a serious problem on its hands. A problem so serious that there is no way UofL president Jim Ramsey can continue to say stupid things in the media and expect to keep his $500,000+ per year job. [Page One]

Are you one of the folks who watch Fox News on a regular basis? Then you probably believe a KFC franchise was opened in Fallujah. Turns out the story is essentially made up and pedaled on Fox News in an attempt to make it seem like things are working in Iraq. [TPM Muckraker]

Did you hear? The Courier-Journal died a little more the other day. Public Editor Pam Platt’s job was axed and she was moved to the editorial board. The Gannett paper just doesn’t have any room for, you know, anything that costs money or is worth reading. [The ‘Ville Voice]

Republican voter registration has dropped in many states for the fourth year in a row. Meanwhile, Democratic and Independent registrations have increased. You seeing a pattern here, kids? [NYT]

Friday Afternoon Update – Fancy Farm Is Here

Enjoy yourselves at Fancy Farm, kids! Let us know if anything exciting goes down.

Why would the Courier-Journal apologize for saying that Mitch McConnell is unethical? He’s probably the most unethical person in either house of the United States Congress. He immediately distanced himself from folks like Larry Craig when it was revealed that they were closet-case perverts but he took his sweet time getting rid of that sweet Ted Stevens money. That’s not what we’d call ETHICAL, holmes. [Osi Speaks]

In other news, Mitch McConnell is still pretending that he is the Jesus of lowering gas prices. Naturally, he’s still blaming Democrats for ruining the world. [Mitchypooh’s Website]

Just a reminder: tonight’s episode of Comment on Kentucky will air live from Fancy Farm at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. Guests will include Mark Hebert, Bill Bartleman and Ronnie Ellis. Watch it! [Page One]

From Mark Hebert, here’s a decent list of recent polling data. Check it out. Along with a review in the Wall Street Journal of SurveyUSA. [Real Clear Politics, WSJ]

We haven’t laughed this hard in hours. “The most tragic thing about the next three months will be watching John McCain try to catch up on all of the news he has been ignoring for the past 50 years. It will be like that Rocky montage where he exercises and eats raw eggs, except it will be John McCain reading the large-print edition of Congressional Quarterly and falling asleep with his mouth open.” [Wonkette]

Abstinence-Only Programs Failing in Kentucky?

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) recently released a report about abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in Kentucky and it’s a doozy.

25 other states have rejected Title V abstinence-only funds– but not Kentucky. The Commonwealth received more than $3 million last year alone, the majority of funds going to crisis pregnancy centers.

This sort of thing is obviously not working, since the teen birth rate in Kentucky rose 6.6% from 2005-2006 while the national rate only rose 3%.

Check the report out here and then get an eye-opening look at how health indicators are failing in Kentucky here.

Statewide media: Where are you on this issue? It’s time for you to wake up.

Tuesday Afternoon Stormy Update Dept

Diane Brumback is going to basically beat Mitch McConnell up on women’s issues this year. [Kentucky Women]

Frank Simon and his gay-hating friends have decided that America’s fat farm– McDonald’s — is horrible, horrible, horrible because of the gays. Some dude sits on some homo board or whatever and now McDonald’s has to be boycotted. [Barefoot & Progressive]

That’s right. Only two or three people on earth approve of the United States Congress. Could this mean Republicans are in trouble? [Pat Crowley]

Some Democrats held a press conference before some Republicans over some funny-looking electric cars and everyone is all upset or whatever. Also, some dude was late for his own press conference, we hear. [Mark Hebert]

Common knowledge these days? State Senator Ernesto Scorsone (D-Head Gay) is going to be Chief Circuit Judge in the Seventh Division and State Rep. Kathy Stein (D-Frank Simon’s Worst Enemy) is going to take his place. [PolSmo… er… PolWatchers]

Cook Report Upgrades KY-02 House Race

The Cook Political Report has upgraded the KY-02 U.S. House race between David Boswell (D) and Brett Guthrie (R) from Solid Republican to Likely Republican.

From Cook:

KY-02 OPEN (Lewis) Solid Republican to Likely Republican

House Editor David Wasserman releases the latest batch of race rating changes. While it’s not likely that a majority of the races moved from “Solid” to “Likely” Republican will become competitive by November, the poor national climate for the GOP and the DCCC’s unprecedented financial edge makes even very difficult districts for Democrats worth keeping tabs on. And be sure to look for district-by-district updates in this month’s competitive race rundowns.

Times are a changin’, kids.

Felner’s Expenditures in RI Now Being Reviewed

The Neverending Story of Felner: Take XVII

According to Nancy Rodriguez of the Courier-Journal (which has yet to cite us, even though we offered to help the paper out with the story well before I decided to break it myself), The University of Rhode Island is now reviewing expenditures made by Robert Felner while he was employed there (1996-2003).

The federal investigation into allegations of mishandled funds at the University of Louisville has led another university to review grant expenditures made by the dean at the center of the investigation.

-SNIP-

Felner was the director of URI’s School of Education until he left in 2003 to become U of L’s education dean, although he continued to serve on URI’s National Center on Public Education and Social Policy until 2006.

Scott C. Cox, Felner’s attorney, saw URI’s review as standard.

“I just think when accusations are made like this it would be normal for his prior employer to look at their records,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Based on traffic statistics for Page One today alone, we’re pretty sure everybody under the sun is reviewing anything ever touched by anyone if it involves a grant. Thousands upon thousands of visits from UofL, URI, UW-Parkside, Yale, every media outlet in the country.

Stay tuned.