Top General Assembly Target for '08: Perry Clark

Sen. Perry Clark is a marked man for 2008. Virginia Woodward is likely to come after him in a primary and Doug Hawkins is looking like the early favorite for the GOP nod.

This will be a war, because the GOP needs one more vote to pass medical malpractice reform.

Is Jody Richards Going To Bite Lawyers' Hands?

Gubernatorial candidate Jody Richards will discuss his health care plan tomorrow in Henderson with Dr. David Watkins by his side.

Dr. Watkins is a state representative and a Democrat who won election last year on the strength of his support for medical liability reform.

Liberal trial attorneys will go crazy when they see this. Richards is already in trouble with the left for his statement to the Kentucky Right to Life Association that he would not support a candidate for office who supports legalized abortions (question #9).

KAPT For Everyone: 2008 Wrecking Education Act

Rep. Rick Nelson(D-Middlesboro) has pre-filed a bill for the 2008 General Assembly in an effort to combat rising higher education costs in Kentucky. There is no way his proposal will have the intended result unless Rep. Nelson really wants to make college unaffordable for more Kentuckians.

Rep. Nelson's bill would freeze college tuition rates for two years and then mandate that future increases not exceed the general inflation rate. The bill says nothing about fee increases, which would be the quickest way for state schools to respond to this nonsense. Cost increases have to be paid by someone. After hundreds of failed attempts at price-fixing, you would think we could all agree that this is a poorly conceived attempt to address escalating costs.

Colleges might also respond to this proposal, if enacted, by cutting services. Is that what we want?

By setting their sights directly on lowering college costs in order to increase access to higher education, legislators have increased costs faster than if they had just left them alone. This focus on expanding colleges to receive too many unprepared students has driven up costs without a corresponding benefit.

A recent study showed some benefits of expanding merit-based scholarships and using that as a focus for improving higher education. Kentucky's KEES program is nothing more than HOPE-lite. When we recognize this, we will do better.

Somehow, All Is Not Well In Casino-Land

"There's going to be a lot of depression, a lot of anger. A lot drinking, gambling, and desperate stuff going on."

... and some gubernatorial wannabes still hope to make Kentucky more like Las Vegas.

A Little Financial Literacy Goes A Long Way

A report on consumer spending Monday could cause stock market prices to take a quick hit. If it does, the media will quickly predict economic catastrophe.

Don't fall for it.

Yes, the slump in the housing market is having an impact on the economy. And yes, a recession may be in our future. But the answer is to get out of debt by any means necessary and work to improve your earning power.

The last thing we want to do now is initiate the move to socialized medicine or start another round of "soak the rich" tax increases. Economic slowdowns come and go, but socialism is forever.

Pervertphobia: Good For Kentucky

The Lexington Herald Leader argues against Kentucky's law regulating where sex offenders can live:

Thanks to Kenton District Judge Martin J. Sheehan for putting in writing what other public officials admit privately but are afraid to say: The ban that Kentucky enacted last year on sex offenders living near schools, day cares and playgrounds is bad law and poor policy.

The point of the law limiting where sex offenders live was to respond to other states doing the same thing. If we waited while all our neighboring states made efforts to run off their sex offenders, we risked becoming a magnet for perverts.

I still say we should just make it legal to harass them.

Time To Get Serious About Healthcare Reform

Everyone talks about making healthcare less expensive, but nothing ever seems to happen from there. Kentucky only needs courage to lead on this.

The Left wants to chuck the whole thing and let the government run it all. The idea that the government paragons of efficiency would administer services and lower costs merely be eliminating profit margins should be so implausible as to be unnecessary to address. That it must be addressed is a testament to the dire need for improved financial literacy among the electorate.

The Right simply fails to go far enough in allowing the free market to lower consumer costs.

Kentucky should dismantle its system of mandated benefits and byzantine regulations and allow any kind of company to offer any kind of financial arrangement for any kind of health services that they can sell a policy for.

The regulatory structure currently in place could keep itself busy chasing down companies that didn't live up to the obligations spelled out in their contracts. Lawmakers could work up stiff penalties for fraudulent acts.

The proliferation of competition brought on by this plan would improve service, increase customer satisfaction, and lower prices. Increased competition always does this. Stifling competition -- as our current approach does -- always allows the opposite.

Overheard At The Louisville Right To Life Dinner...

Gubernatorial candidate Anne Northup is making plans to go scorched-earth against "all the people" who set her up to run and then stood by to watch her fall in the Republican primary this year.

Someone needs to get her on the record stating whether she intends to go to the Unity Rally after the primary. She should pick an issue, encourage Governor Fletcher to move forward on it, and help his campaign work on that issue. Leasing the lottery might be a good one. We have a lot of debt to pay off and that could get it done.

Billy Harper is showing signs he will stay involved in pushing his conservative agenda after the curtain falls on his campaign. Anne has campaigned on helping the Republican party advance its issues by winning this fall. If she really wants to do that, she is in a position to do so. But if Anne Northup plans to take her ball and go home, she should go now.

Stumbo Favors Taxpayer Subsidy Of Universities' Unconstitutional Health Benefits

The downside of hitching a ride on a gubernatorial campaign is you wind up sticking your neck out on issues. Now that Bruce Lunsford has come out of the closet with a position on taxpayer dollars funding political activism on college campuses, Attorney General Greg Stumbo is going to have to come clean with whether he agrees -- which appears to be the case -- or not.

Lunsford told Polwatchers:

Public universities should be allowed to make their own decisions to hire the best and most talented professors, researchers and other staff.

Does Stumbo agree with his running mate that the Kentucky constitution doesn't apply to state universities when they are promoting their liberal political agendas?

Studying Blogging's Impact On Campaigns

What will this from Anne Northup's campaign do to the GOP gubernatorial primary? What about the general election?

How Do You Define Government Waste?

Everyone likes to talk about cutting government waste, but when it comes down to actually doing it too many supporters of the spending seem to come forward.

Citizens Against Government Waste, nonetheless, has 750 recommendations that would cut $280 billion in federal spending in the next year and $2 trillion over the next five years.

After the president vetoes the surrender budget, Congress will have another opportunity to ignore recommendations like this. But as our population ages, we are going to have to change the way we think about entitlement spending. As public retiree health spending bankrupts Kentucky, Medicare's red ink looms large on the federal front.

A fundamental shift in the function of government is necessary. It is one thing to rail against subsidies for studying methane production by cattle or bridges to nowhere, but until we get government out of places where it doesn't belong, such efforts will amount to nothing.

We must begin to cut back on the kind of businesses governments can get involved in. If we can manage that, we will eliminate a whole segment of government spending that generates much of the waste and corruption we see now. Only then can we get serious about cutting government spending.

The Libertarian View Of 2007 Race

Take Back Kentucky blasted Anne Northup and endorsed Gatewood Galbraith.

Kentucky Dem Treasurer Idol

I'm watching the Democratic candidates for Treasurer on KET, something I won't be doing for long. It occurs to me that what this debate needs is a Simon Cowell character.

"I've never heard such a dreadful answer. Why are you even here? Simply awful."

Replacing Skippy; Are You Surprised?

Contributions For Treasurer Candidates:

Lonnie Napier $81,505
Ken Upchurch $36,700
Melinda Wheeler $28,410
Brandon Smith $8,300

Todd Hollenbach $23,374
Mike Weaver $7,841
Patrick Dunmire $2426
Jack Wood $200

Stan Lee Destroys Primary Opponents; Race Over

The really interesting race this fall will be for Attorney General between consistent Lexington conservative Stan Lee and far-flung Louisville left-winger Jack Conway.

Lee has raised $106,476, which is more than his three primary opponents combined. Interestingly, Lee's closest competitor on the stump, Tim Coleman, shows $94,185, but $59,500 came from people with the last name Coleman. This includes $51,000 from the candidate himself.

Lee's broad base of support gained over a courageous tenure as State Representative -- not any shortcomings of the able Mr. Coleman -- has turned this race into a rout.

Jack Conway now faces the unenviable task of convincing Kentuckians outside of Louisville that he is not too liberal to serve as Attorney General. His campaign chairman Ben Chandler just voted to surrender to the terrorists in Iraq and his party's incumbent AG Greg Stumbo is standing by limply watching his bosses in the homosexual agenda lobby ram domestic partner benefits through the commonwealth's two largest universities. No comment yet from Conway on his feelings about these unconstitutional actions.

Good luck, Mr. Conway. You will surely need it with those millstones hanging around your neck.

Chandler, Yarmuth Vote To Surrender War

Disgraceful.

Self-Funders Of The World, Unite!

A statement from the Harper for Governor campaign attempts to pre-emptively address criticism of his fundraising numbers:

Billy Harper didn’t enter this race with his hand out. He entered the race because he’s a passionate advocate for Kentucky and believes the people of the Commonwealth share his passion.
Billy has focused most of his time and energy on traveling the state, meeting Kentuckians and listening to their point of view rather than asking people for money. The friends Billy has made in business, through his work in education reform and on the campaign trail over the past several months have begun to come to him with offers to hold fundraisers. This emerging grassroots support will put Billy over the top in this election.
The bottom line is Billy Harper won’t be beholden to any interests other than those of the Kentucky people.

Steve Beshear All In For Casino Scheme

How about a little skepticism for the idea that opening up casinos and giving the state a bunch of money will somehow just work out peachy?

Political Ramifications Of Newfound Planet

No doubt Karl Rove cooked this up.

Astronomers think they may have found another habitable planet. Now famous liberals like Alec Baldwin, Madonna, Rosie, and Al Gore won't have to threaten to move to France if their candidate loses the next election. They can actually leave the solar system.

Newspapers Hate Stan Lee's Fiscal Responsibility, Especially When It Bites Their Bacon

Certain government announcements in Kentucky are required by law to be printed up in local newspapers. Kentucky law actually mandates buying of newspaper advertising for this purpose.

Rep. Stan Lee has tried for years to allow those announcements to be published online. Putting public announcements on the internet would save taxpayer dollars, but the effort to do so has made the Kentucky Press Association mad.

I appreciate someone willing to pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel when the issue involved is saving tax dollars. If there is something in these public notices worth knowing about, online disclosure is sufficient. The opposition to Representative Lee on this is just about newspapers not wanting to lose a government contract.

As a conservative, I'm sure Rep. Lee is not bothered about giving newpapers another reason to nip at his heels. It's just funny to see one of his primary opponents trying to make hay over this and almost completely explains why newspapers are coming out of the woodwork to endorse Tim Coleman.