Some campaign leftovers to go with that turkey salad, turkey burger, turkey stew or turkey surprise you might be enjoying, or tossing out, this weekend:
The Republican wins in the Nov. 3 election were obvious in Northern Kentucky, with the GOP taking two county court-houses and four of the five contested statehouse seats while helping elect Jim Bunning to the U.S. Senate.
But the party also picked up a lot of ground in local races in the 4th U.S. House district - a 22-county area that includes all of Northern Kentucky and runs from Ashland in the east to Oldham County near Louisville in the west.
Under the leadership of district GOP chairman Damon Thayer of Crittenden in Grant County, the party provided Republican candidates money as well as materials, such as more than 4,000 pages of lists and almost 80,000 labels for direct-mail pieces.
"My main objectives were to have the party help the candidates with get-out-the-vote pieces, and help them as much as we could with money," Mr. Thayer said as he finished a breakfast of fresh fruit and orange juice at the Bob Evans restaurant in Florence.
"Sometimes I eat like a liberal," he said with a laugh, stealing a line from his wife, Carrie.
Joking aside, the party raised $13,500 for the '98 elections, making contributions to a number of local candidates. It did district-wide mailings and helped Republicans pick up fiscal court and courthouse seats in Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Boyd, Carter, Rowan, Owen, Greenup, Lewis, Bracken, Pendleton, Grant, Shelby, Oldham and Trimble counties.
And while Boone County Republican State Sen. Gex "Jay" Williams lost the 4th District U.S. House race to Democrat Ken Lucas, the district gave Mr. Bunning a 38,000-vote margin over Lexington Democrat Scotty Baesler in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race.
That turned out to be huge, since Mr. Bunning won the statewide race by fewer than 7,000 votes.
Mr. Thayer is one of the most visible, active party leaders in Northern Kentucky, if not the state. In most instances he runs circles around Democrats, who don't even have a 4th District chairman, when it comes to organization, raising money and recruiting candidates in the district.
Look for him to someday run for a statehouse seat or courthouse office in Grant County.
George loves Mitch:
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Louisville Republican, could lose his Senate leadership position this week. But George magazine has put him on a list of the most powerful people in Washington.
The mag's December issue labels Mr. McConnell a "broker," which fits in between "player" and "mogul," the latter being the loftiest designation on the "George Power 50" ranking.
Mr. McConnell's Senate office sent out a press release touting its boss' inclusion on the list, noting that only five senators made the cut.
By virtue of his chairmanship of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which raised and spent almost $60 million in this year's Senate elections, Mr. "McConnell gets to decide which Republicans receive how much cash from the GOP's big donors," George said.
Mr. McConnell funneled millions of dollars into Kentucky to get Mr. Bunning elected to the open Senate seat in his home state. But he also spent a wad trying to whip his personal enemy on campaign finance reform, Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold, and came up short when Mr. Feingold won.
Since a couple of other high-profile Republican Senate candidates tanked on Election Day and everybody is looking for somebody to blame, Mr. McConnell is opposed in this week's leadership elections by Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.
Mr. McConnell has said he thinks he has the votes to win re-election, which would put him in a position to eventually move up in the GOP's leadership ranks.
Outside looking in:
Northern Kentucky gained lots of statewide notice in the Nov. 3 election.
Mr. Lucas is now the only Democrat in the state's congressional delegation, and his win over Mr. Williams was big news in papers all over Kentucky.
And in Mr. Bunning, Northern Kentucky proved it can field a candidate who can win a statewide contest.
But the news isn't as good in Frankfort, where some changes on the political landscape are cutting into the region's clout in the state capital.
In the Senate, Republican Caucus Chairman Dick Roeding of Lakeside Park looks as if he'll be run from leadership when the General Assembly convenes in January for its organization session.
No locals are in line to head committees.
The reason? Mr. Roeding and the other Northern Kentucky Republicans in the Senate were in vogue when conservative Dan Kelly was floor leader and Mr. Williams was one of his top lieutenants.
But Mr. Kelly is out of the picture with the new ruling coalition of President Larry Saunders, a Louisville Democrat, and Burkesville Republican David Williams, an arch political enemy of the Kelly-Williams faction.
Over in the House, Caucus Chairman Jim Callahan, a Southgate Democrat, may be challenged in the leadership races.
Mr. Callahan suffers because he brings only five Democrats from his home base to the table when it comes to counting party votes. Northern Kentucky's other eight lawmakers are all Republicans. But Mr. Callahan is known as an evenhanded consensus-builder who has been elected to leadership without a lot of local Democrats in his camp in the past. He can probably do it again.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.
CROWLEY ARCHIVE
