Saturday, February 26, 2000
GOP official: Ky. to vote Republican
'Ultra-liberal' Democrats unappealing, he says
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — Kentucky voters supported Bill Clinton in the last two presidential elections, but they will go with a Republican in November, the nation's top Republican leader predicted Friday.
Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, who will be in Northern Kentucky tonight for a GOP gathering, said Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley are too liberal for a growing Republican state like Kentucky.
“These two Democrats running for president are running as ultra liberals,” Mr. Nicholson said Friday.
“They are pandering to the looney left in their party ... and that does not appeal to votes in Kentucky,” he said.
Mr. Nicholson will be the featured speaker at the Fourth District Republican Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner, at 6:30 p.m. at the Drawbridge Inn and Convention Center. Tickets are $40 per person.
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Southgate Republican, will also speak at the dinner, typically the largest local Republican Party gathering of the year.
Like many Southern states, Kentucky has become a force in national Republican politics. Seven of the state's eight members of Congress are Republicans, and last year the party took over the state Senate.
“They say the proof of the pudding is the taste,” Mr. Nicholson said. “It's one thing to say a state is trending Republican, but Kentucky is indeed electing Republicans, in the U.S. Senate, to the U.S. House and in your state Senate.”
Republicans are winning elections in Kentucky because voters have grown disenchanted with Democrats and the party's policies, he said.
“Voters hear these liberal notions of continued big government, regulation and control over people's lives,” he said. “They see the Democrats' failure to reform the public school system and the failure to build a strong national defense and the failure to cut taxes, and those have cost the Democrats dearly.”
But Mr. Nicholson also admitted the Republican primary between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain has grown far too nasty, a point made this week by the party's 1996 presidential candidate, Kansas Sen. Bob Dole.
“Sen. Dole is right,” Mr. Nicholson said. “But there are also a lot of positives in this primary. We're seeing record turnouts in these primaries with a record amount of people wanting to vote Republican.”
The Democratic crossover votes that Mr. McCain is winning in open primaries is also a positive for the GOP, Mr. Nicholson said.“But I'm neutral ... and I believe either one of our candidates will win in the fall,” he said.
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