Blue Grass Red State

With the current senatorial race for Kentucky heating up, another candidate has thrown her hat in the ring, Cathy Bailey of Florida.  For a second, just ignore the fact that she and her husband live in Florida, she lived here once and apparently has enough political clout to pull off a Clintonesque move to show how she really is a Kentuckian.  But Ms. Bailey has some positives and negatives that are going to make her candidacy a problem (except that nasty residency problem).

First, her occupation. She is known as a philanthropist. Great! We need more people who are philanthropic, but I think that we also need people who work.  Hand me a few million and I am sure that I can give it away, but the harder task is to create something, manage people, sell something. I want a candidate who actually has some experience in the working world.

Second, she is not the fresh face to the party that we need. In fact, she was a “ranger” for Bush raising over $200,000 and was thus name an ambassador to Latvia. Now that is cool, and I don’t want to take away anything from someone who raises a LOT of money for the party or a candidate.  And being an ambassador is something that I have always wanted to do (although I would have pushed for Fiji).  But, this is often viewed as nothing more than a position of gratitude for those who have done favors to the president (as is the case here).We are grateful for her work as McConnell’s campaign manager for 2008 and it is obvious who is pushing her into the spot light (add fuel to Bunning’s fire!), but is she the right choice for someone who is fresh?

Finally, let’s just admit it! That residency thing is kind of a problem. If she were a Democrat running for President then we could jsut sweep it under the carpet bag, but we are not. I am not going to give 10 seconds of concern for a candidate for the Kentucky Senate who doesn’t even live here.  In fact, honestly I don’t want a candidate who has such little love for the Commonwealth that they would even consider a vacation home in a foreign land like Florida. What’s wrong with a house on Dale Hollow or that getaway retreat near Ashland? Let’s have an election just for Kentuckians.