Kentucky

State officials and nonprofit leaders often chatter about economic diversification and a just transition for Appalachia. But old habits die hard. Many still dream of large factories and firms returning to the region, bringing economic wealth — and tax revenue.  The divide between smokestack chasers and economic diversifiers has an extra urgency as the federal government directs more money into the region than they have in decades. But the diversification versus big business divide threatens to squander the money from federal legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.  Swinging for the fences promises the revival of a golden era, when Appalachia was dotted with coal mines and factories.

The prosecutor who signed off on the plea deal in the case of a transgender daycare worker who sexually abused an infant says he believes the “sentence that the defendant served was appropriate for what could be proven in court.”  “The defendant pled guilty to sexual misconduct and received a sentence of twelve months," McCracken County Commonwealth’s attorney Dan Boaz told The Spectator in an exclusive statement. "The defendant served over 300 days in jail, primarily in solitary confinement, prior to entering the guilty plea. As the case developed, there were contradictions as sometimes happens and a plea bargain was entered. As stated, the defendant served over 300 days in jail.

Racial slurs are being hurled at Daniel Cameron, the Republican candidate for Kentucky governor. That’s despicable. It doesn’t matter what race the victim is or what race his accuser. Those slurs should be called out loudly and promptly.  They would be despicable if a black candidate faced them from a white opponent, or vice versa. They are no less despicable when a black candidate, like Cameron, faces them from other blacks. The epithet in this case is “Uncle Tom” and it has been leveled against him in paid advertisements. His crime: he’s conservative.  Those ads are the work of Black Voters Matter Action PAC. They feature the loathsome slogan, “All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.

The political left isn’t content to secretly smelt statues of Robert E. Lee or remove a plaque honoring the Confederate general’s horse, Traveller. Apparently, the Democratic Party’s own history is too problematic to bear.  Over the years, the Democratic Party’s official website has undergone some curious changes. The Spectator previously reported on the Democrat logo changing from sky blue to royal blue after President Joe Biden took office. It seems the “Our History” page is also getting whitewashed.  Since 2019, the history page has neglected to mention anything about the Democratic Party prior to the 1920s.

On Tuesday, Kentuckians will vote in the state’s highly publicized — and very expensive — governor’s race. Democrat incumbent Andy Beshear is facing off against current Republican attorney general Daniel Cameron. Polls throughout the race have shown Beshear leading by double digits, but GOP consultants I’ve spoken to are cautiously optimistic about Cameron’s chances, noting that his numbers have been rising over the past couple of weeks and that many Kentucky voters remain undecided, which is usually bad news for the incumbent. Trump also reupped his endorsement of Cameron this week in an attempt to disrupt Beshear’s relatively high approval rating among Trump supporters.  Cameron’s recent rise has inspired some late-stage nastiness.

In a move that is right out of the hard political playbook of Mitch McConnell himself, the Democratic governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear is telegraphing that he has no intention of following a state law requiring him to name a Republican should the senator choose to resign. For months in Kentucky, the political conversation has swirled around the possibility that Beshear, locked in a tight re-election race against Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, would follow the 2021 law requiring him to name a member of the same party to any congressional opening.

The Republican primary has kicked into a higher gear in recent days. Donald Trump terrified one half of the country (and delighted the other) in his dominant, unrepentant CNN town hall appearance last Wednesday. Ron DeSantis is spending a lot of time in Iowa and — in the surest sign yet that he really wants to be president — appearing jacket-less among normal people. (10/10 fake laugh, Governor.)  The coming few weeks will see more candidates make it official. With Florida’s legislative session done and dusted, a DeSantis announcement is just around the corner. In a lengthy profile of Mike Pence, the New York Times yesterday reported the arrival of a new pro-Pence super PAC, Committed to America, a sign that he will soon come clean about his plans.

Newly elected GOP congressman Andy Ogles said that President Joe Biden shouldn't have been surprised to receive jeers when he "levied false accusations" about Republicans during his Tuesday night State of the Union address. "I think him standing in the dais and lying to the American people is inappropriate," Ogles told The Spectator. "If you're going to have the audacity to do that, don't be surprised that you get pushback from those who are being levied with accusations. So I would say what was inappropriate is his tone." Biden claimed during his State of the Union address that some Republicans wanted to sunset Social Security and Medicare every five years. "That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away," Biden said.

It seems to be harder to donate money to the Canadian truckers protesting their country's vaccine mandate than it is to keep Hunter Biden out of a strip club. After GoFundMe seized millions of dollars raised on its platform for the Freedom Convoy, Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo stepped in and enabled donors to give nearly $10 million. GiveSendGo was promptly hacked and the personal information of 93,000 donors to the Freedom Convoy released to the public. The media — who largely resisted touching the Hunter Biden laptop story because it allegedly contained "hacked" information — jumped on the opportunity to shame and harass private citizens for donating to causes of which they don't approve.

Lexington, KentuckyIt wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not that Amy McGrath wasn’t supposed to win Kentucky’s delayed primary for the US Senate seat held by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The problem was she was supposed to win in a cakewalk. Instead, she eked out a victory over State Representative Charles Booker, who made a late charge from the impoverished West Side of Louisville during a wave of racial unrest and deadly protests that have wracked Kentucky’s largest city for weeks.McGrath is a former Marine bomber pilot who lost a high profile bid to unseat Rep. Andy Barr two years ago. It wasn’t long before Chuck Schumer tapped her to run against his Republican counterpart in the Senate.