How "red" is KY? (Lexington, Louisville: house, unemployment rate, live in)

[bowlinggreenorbust]

I'm wondering if I should even bother to register to vote. I'm thinking my little blue vote probably doesn't matter here.

[rnc76]

Not to get preachy, but it always "matters" to vote. Plus, there are more elections than just presidential. You've got congressional, state and local and KY doesn't vote "red" across the board on those.

[censusdata]

On a presidential level KY will only go for a blue dog type Democrat like Clinton or Carter (KY went Clinton twice, Carter once) or a Republican.

On a local level it's very evenly divided btw conservative Democrats and Republicans. Louisville & Lexington are really the only places that send liberal Democrats into the state house/ senate. Republicans narrowly hold the state senate while Democrats narrowly hold the state house

[Off Topic]

On the national level, we're about as red as it gets. On the other hand, Jim Bunning could be very vulnerable the next time he runs, and obviously the governor races are winnable for Democrats.

So I'd encourage you to register and vote. You can make a difference in almost every race but the presidential one.

[dixiegirl7]

An interesting bit of information, Kentucky has predicted the presidential winner in the last 10 elections, three of which went to the democrats. So, possibly... how Kentucky goes, the nation goes.

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by censusdata

On a presidential level KY will only go for a blue dog type Democrat like Clinton or Carter (KY went Clinton twice, Carter once) or a Republican.

On a local level it's very evenly divided btw conservative Democrats and Republicans. Louisville & Lexington are really the only places that send liberal Democrats into the state house/ senate. Republicans narrowly hold the state senate while Democrats narrowly hold the state house

Very much true. The state's House is about 60/40 Dems to Repubs and the state's Senate is about 55/45 Repubs to Dems. So yeah, very close splits.

Lexington and Louisville each send either very right-wing or very left-wing elected officials to these chambers. Very few elected officials in the middle. Still, the most left-wing officials come from these cities.

Interestingly enough, while rural Kentucky sends mostly "blue dog" Democrats to Frankfort, some of them are populist yet "progressive" left-wingers at the same time. Prime examples include Robin Webb of Grayson and Tanya Pullin of Greenup.

But yeah, at the national level we're red. At the state level, it's pretty evenly split. At the local election levels, most mayors and judge-executives are Democrats, so they're blue.

Originally Posted by Off Topic

On the national level, we're about as red as it gets. On the other hand, Jim Bunning could be very vulnerable the next time he runs, and obviously the governor races are winnable for Democrats.

So I'd encourage you to register and vote. You can make a difference in almost every race but the presidential one.

Agreed!

By the way, I'll vote for Jim Bunning, as well as McConnell. I agree with their social and political core values, but I think both men are, uhmmmm...jerks. Primarily, I'll be voting for them b/c I'm scared of having somebody like Lunsford, or perhaps Yarmuth or Abramson represent the entire state. (Not an anti-Louisville statement at all, but I'm not fond of that city's numerous far left politicians.)

[timelesschild]

Usually the Democratic primaries are more interesting than the Republican ones; the Democrats will have several choices while the Republicans will have just the one. That is one reason to be a registered Democrat - more interesting primaries.

[Jamie40829]

I cant see how this state could vote for a republican again after what has happened to the economy the past 7 years..... the last I checked we were number 10 in highest unemployment? Has that changed any? But yeah it will go red again this fall I would guess.

[dixiegirl7]

Originally Posted by Jamie40829

I cant see how this state could vote for a republican again after what has happened to the economy the past 7 years..... the last I checked we were number 10 in highest unemployment? Has that changed any? But yeah it will go red again this fall I would guess.

Unemployment rates in Kentucky vary greatly county by county. The county I live in has one of the lowest rates of unemployment, but one county over it is high and has been historically, not just the past 7 years.

[Jamie40829]

Yes thats true, but over the course of the past 8 years Kentucky as a whole has rose from an average of around 4 percent to around 6 percent. Thats a big shift.