Some leftovers from the recent election

As many Kentuckians get ready to give thanks that a new governor will be taking office in a couple of weeks, let me help you get ready for the holiday season by serving up some leftovers from this month’s election.

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By now, the tired old false rhetoric from the left should come as no surprise. Liberals continue to insist that conservatives hate females and minorities. Opposition to abortion on demand as a form of elective birth control is termed a “war on women.” Efforts to protect the integrity of elections are declared “racist” and an attempt to suppress the votes of blacks. Even positives are turned into negatives by those on the left looking to demonize conservatives. When Mitt Romney talked during his 2012 presidential campaign about actively recruiting women to work in his gubernatorial administration in Massachusetts and collecting their resumes, somehow having “binders full of women” job applicants became a bad thing.

The same untrue narrative made its way to Kentucky’s statewide races this year. Apparently those trying to tear down Republicans didn’t pay very much attention to the election results.

In case you didn’t notice, two of the Republicans elected to statewide offices are women. And one of them, Lt. Gov-elect Jenean Hampton, just happens to be the first black ever to win a statewide election in the Bluegrass State. Hampton and Treasurer-elect Allison Ball are success stories. Yet their wins appear insignificant to Kentucky Democrats. They’ve belittled Hampton’s victory by implying that voters who supported her ticket with Gov.-elect Matt Bevin didn’t know she was black, as they continue to claim that Bevin won because of racially-motivated animus against President Barack Obama, whose father was black. Rubbish. It’s doubtful that many, if any, Bevin voters weren’t aware of Hampton’s race. Yet the party that just elected a black lieutenant governor is somehow racist. Unbelievable.

Further proof of the true diversity of conservatives can be found in the presidential candidate field currently vying for the GOP nomination. Three of the top-tier candidates are minorities (Ben Carson is black; Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are Hispanic). Bobby Jindal, who quit the race last week, was another minority candidate. Carly Fiorina is female. Youth is also well-served in the Republican field.

Despite evidence to the contrary proving the claims of the left wrong, they keep on insisting that Republicans hate women and minorities. Hampton and Ball are probably enjoying a good chuckle every time they hear that worn out falsehood.

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As the campaign wound down, I started to wonder if Jack Conway himself even believed he was qualified to be governor. That’s because he and his surrogates rarely talked about his positive attributes. Instead, they were constantly on television attacking Bevin.

Candidates say they don’t like to use negative advertising, but they have to because it works. Turns out it didn’t work out so well for Conway.

Conway said very little about why he wanted to be governor, what he intended to do or what qualifications he possessed. One of the few positive traits he bragged about was being a lifelong Kentuckian, which was an obvious dig at Bevin because Bevin’s not a Kentucky native.

Wonder how Brereton Jones, the former Democratic governor in whose footsteps Conway wanted to follow, felt about that? Jones isn’t a Kentucky native either, and I don’t recall Larry Hopkins using that against Jones in the 1991 gubernatorial campaign.

There’s evidence that voters tired of Conway’s attacks against Bevin, especially since he never offered his own positives. It’s reminiscent of Conway’s failed 2010 U.S. Senate campaign, when he turned the unproven and unverifiable “Aqua Buddha” allegation against Rand Paul into a television ad, and it backfired.

Conway ran a terrible campaign. He didn’t connect with the voters on a personal level. Bevin did. Despite being branded by his detractors as an out-of-touch rich carpetbagger from the Northeast, Bevin was able to relate to everyday Kentuckians. And they were able to relate to him. I’ve heard stories about Bevin’s interaction with people as he campaigned across the state. Those interactions were 180 degrees different from the interactions with reporters that many of them were so eager to write about.

Several pundits have theorized that Conway’s career in politics is over. I wouldn’t be so fast to write him off. After all, outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear fashioned a political comeback several years after a couple of statewide losses. But Conway would do well, if he ever runs again, to forego the negative campaigns and try to focus on his positives. He’s now been burned twice by attacking his opponents instead of promoting his strengths.

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Another politician who may have been bitten by the negative advertising bug is Adam Edelen, who lost his re-election bid for auditor to State. Rep. Mike Harmon in what was widely viewed as an upset.

Edelen ran an over-the-top television ad late in the campaign, attempting to portray Harmon as some sort of living-the-high-life party boy who had himself a good time on the state’s dime. There was never any real evidence to back up those charges, especially one that depicted Harmon drinking and living it up.

Edelen was regarded as one of his party’s rising stars, and the same pundits who have now written Conway off think Edelen will be able to come back from his loss. Those who supported Edelen pointed to what they called a successful term as auditor. They should have counseled Edelen to run on that record instead of coming out with a nonsensical attack on Harmon. Edelen’s loss was arguably the low point on a bad election night for Kentucky Democrats. With a little care, they could have avoided it.

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Here’s wishing everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Take time to thank God for your blessings.