Clinton studies Kentucky for battle plan to beat GOPBY PATRICK CROWLEY The Kentucky Enquirer CHICAGO - Not many states with eight electoral votes get the attention from a presidential candidate that Kentucky gets from Bill Clinton. The president was in eastern Kentucky on Sunday for his preconvention campaign swing and plans to be in western Kentucky on Friday at a city park in Paducah as part of his post-convention campaign bus tour. In January, Mr. Clinton chose Louisville for the unofficial start of his presidential campaign by delivering his post State of the Union address there. He has had Gov. Paul Patton as a guest at the White House on at least three occasions. And the White House called Mr. Patton on Saturday to ask him to speak at the convention. The governor will speak Thursday about economic development. There are a few reasons Mr. Clinton has courted the Kentucky vote. For one, it's considered a Southern state and the president could use all the help he can get in winning a few states below the Mason-Dixon line. The Solid South used to refer to the Democrats' dominance of the region, but Republicans are now expected to carry a large number of Southern states this fall.
There's also the historical factor: Kentucky has gone with the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1952 except one. Richard Nixon carried the commonwealth in 1960. Why all the Ky. attention?But still, you might expect big industrial states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois to be more on the president's mind than Kentucky. After all, eight electoral votes aren't much compared to what those states bring to the table and their potential to put a presidential candidate over the top. And with Mr. Clinton's recent announcement of having nicotine regulated as a drug, a move angering many tobacco growers and other Kentuckians, it will be harder for him to carry Kentucky this fall. Even the governor admits that. So why all the attention from the Clinton White House?
What may be attracting the president is how Mr. Patton and his campaign chief, former Democratic Party Chairman Terry McBrayer, successfully turned last year's gubernatorial race into a repudiation of the Republican Revolution that had swept across the country, including Kentucky, in the fall of 1994. The 'extremism' factorMr. Patton, Mr. McBrayer and other Democrats won a race they were supposed to lose with tactics designed to show what they termed the extremism of Republicans. That is now one of the major platforms Mr. Clinton is using in his race against Republican Bob Dole. ''In his campaign Paul Patton, for the first time, took on Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich head-on,'' said Don Sweitzer, who is coordinating the Clinton-Gore campaign in Kentucky and who spoke to the state's Democratic delegation Monday morning. ''Paul Patton showed how we can win, and we're going to do it again, with his help, and keep Bill Clinton in the White House.'' Mr. Sweitzer's message was pretty clear. The Clinton campaign liked what it saw out of Kentucky Democrats last year and wants to try to use the same formula this year. Mr. Clinton may not be as interested in eight electoral votes as he is with the the way Kentucky Democrats campaign. That could be why he's spending so much time and energy in the state and getting to know Mr. Patton. Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Enquirer. Published Aug. 27, 1996.
|