Star power

The one way Kentucky is political Ground Zero this fall is in the struggle for control of Congress. As the economy imploded and President Bush's popularity and Senator McCain's popularity sagged, so did that of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (24-year Senate veteran but former county executive in Louisville), who had helped round up votes for Bush for years in the Senate and who also rounded up votes for the controversial - in KY, at least - $700 billion bailout. (McConnell's spouse, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, is also the only person to serve all eight years as a Bush Administration Cabinet official.) For the Democrats to win the 60 Senate votes necessary for them to get around a filibuster, they'd have to take some Republican seats that the folks had taken for granted until late in October. Knocking off incumbent Republicans in MN (where SNL alumnus Al Franken is running neck and neck with former St. Paul Mayor (and former Democrat) Norm Coleman (this is the late Senator ' old seat) and even in GA , Alaska, and KY now seems possible. McConnell has pulled ahead a little in the polls - and he's a master politician who helped make the KY Republican Party what it was at its height a couple of years ago. Late this past week we got a robo-call from actress Ashley Judd (who remember way back from "Ruby in Paradise"), a KY native (and sister and daughter of the singing Judds) representing Obama, who helped headline a Democratic get-out-the-vote rally, also featuring Governor Steve Beshear (pictured above) (who deposed McConnell ally Ernie Fletcher last year), partly to boost turnout for businessman Bruce Lunsford (pictured below to Judd's right), the Democratic candidate against McConnell (who some Dems still don't trust because he ended up endorsing Fletcher five years ago). We didn't make it to this outdoor rally in a park on the south side of town. Apparently she knocked McCain for his wealth, which seemed a little odd (given how wealthy Lunsford is).

Two days later at a union hall in the SW side of the county, the KY primary victor Hillary Clinton, whose campaign we helped support in May (we also got an e-mail and call about this event though we missed it) appeared at a pro-Lunsford rally. KY's former Miss America Heather French Henry MCed and a host of other KY Democrats joined them. Over the weekend President Bill Clinton (who we also saw in May) stumped other parts of the state for Lunsford.

In terms of the Democrats' margin in the House, KY's two incumbent House members - including our own John Yarmuth - seem OK. But a seat vacated by a Republican may go to a Democrat. In Bullitt County - south of Louisville - not too far from where Judd and Hillary Clinton had appeared - a popular Republican linked to an unpopular Republican (President Bush) made one of the very few campaign appearances made by any Bush this fall. First Lady Laura Bush - who didn't show up for a Lincoln birthday bicentennial event nearby when that snowstorm canceled it - did show up to stump for Brett Guthrie, the Republican Congressional candidate (to Bush's right and behind).

Democrats picked up three seats in the greater Kentuckiana area in 2006. And, despite Bush's appearance, they may pick up a fourth south of Louisville, as Kentuckiana continues to go from red to blue - thanks in part to - or perhaps in spite of - the visits by stars. Whether this transition includes the Democrats taking one of two KY U.S. Senate seats and sending the Democrats over the top to 60 votes remains to be seen.

-- Perry