2007 Kentucky Governor’s Race – Awesome opportunity for us!!!

[oldbookguy]

Good luck you guys in kentucky.

My letter of support, though an outsider it likely will not get printed.

Editor and my Neighbors in Kentucky,

Having just gone through much of what you all are now concerning the proposed table gaming we have much in common.

I can fully understand your Gov. Fletcher’s position; polls show that a majority of you wants table gaming as an added attraction to the Horse Wagering in your state.

A minority led by your governor does not. It was a minority faction coalition similar to this led by your Senator McConnell that pushed through the U. S. Senate last fall to take away all our abilities to play Internet Games as well while protecting the Horse Racing Industry from the same ban.

At least in this effort you do have a say so. I hope and encourage you exercise it to its fullest and vote.
obg

[TheEngineer]

Fletcher's latest commercial: www.erniefletcher.com/nocasinos/index.asp

It features a woman who blames casinos for causing her to steal $241,000 from the bank at which she worked. I thought conservatives liked to hold people responsible for their own actions. I guess not when they wish to ban something.

[TheEngineer]

The papers here are fairly eager to run stories on the topic, as the election is coming up. Today's Louisville paper has a number of letters to the editor: www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070827/OPINION02/708270324/1018/OPINION

[fnurt]

[ QUOTE ]
It features a woman who blames casinos for causing her to steal $241,000 from the bank at which she worked. I thought conservatives liked to hold people responsible for their own actions. I guess not when they wish to ban something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seriously. It's like the GOP decided to resurrect every stupid liberal argument from the 1970s. What real conservative wouldn't laugh at someone who tried to claim "the casino debt made me commit that crime"?

If the Republican Party didn't have the same sign hanging on the door, it's unlikely anyone would recognize it these days.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It features a woman who blames casinos for causing her to steal $241,000 from the bank at which she worked. I thought conservatives liked to hold people responsible for their own actions. I guess not when they wish to ban something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Seriously. It's like the GOP decided to resurrect every stupid liberal argument from the 1970s. What real conservative wouldn't laugh at someone who tried to claim "the casino debt made me commit that crime"?

If the Republican Party didn't have the same sign hanging on the door, it's unlikely anyone would recognize it these days.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree. What's next? Will Fletcher run ads saying, "lock your car door...don't turn an honest kid into a thief"?

I've been hitting this personal responsibility angle pretty hard in my letters, and I think it can be effective.

Also, that link in my last post allows for commments, so maybe we should post something, even if it's just recylcing some of our comments from here for the site.

[TheEngineer]

http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...0103/708240414

Fletcher's TV ad on gambling irks Ill. casino town
Was 'all sweet and nice' on visit
BY TOM LOFTUS | THE COURIER-JOURNAL

Gov. Ernie Fletcher's first fall campaign television commercial is an ominous warning about the ills of casino gambling - against the backdrop of the Hollywood Casino in Aurora, Ill.

And Aurora City Hall is not happy about it.

"We're disappointed," said Carie Anne Ergo, spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Weisner. "Our mayor spoke with your governor when he visited about a month ago, and your governor was all sweet and nice.

"The ad makes us look bad, and it's not an accurate picture. Aurora's anything but what this ad makes it seem to be."

But Marty Ryall, manager of Fletcher's campaign, offered no apologies.

"So no one's ever got addicted to gambling? No one's ever stolen there to gamble? No one's ever gotten a divorce over gambling debts in the entire town of Aurora? I find that hard to believe," he said Wednesday. "And our ad didn't mention Aurora. It showed a casino."

Fletcher's campaign launched the television ad Tuesday - its first for the Nov. 6 general election.

It begins with Fletcher saying his re-election race against Democrat Steve Beshear has become a referendum on casinos. Beshear favors a constitutional amendment to allow limited casino gambling in Kentucky; Fletcher opposes it.

The ad shows quick shots of Fletcher walking in front of the Hollywood Casino, which isn't identified in the ad. Other shots show someone putting money into a slot machine and the grim face of an old man, apparently inside a casino.

The governor tells viewers that in future ads he will show what he found during visits to casino communities this summer.

He concludes by warning: "It's a story without a happy ending."

Ergo, however, said that the Hollywood Casino, which opened in 1993, has been a big help to Aurora - generating about $15 million a year for city coffers. "Most people here will say the casino has been beneficial," she said. "It's provided revenue that paves roads and provides services. There's no question it's a positive player in our community."

Although Aurora is not named in the ad, Ergo said most anyone familiar with the city will be able to identify it. She said she did not recognize the grim-faced old man shown briefly in a close-up.

Ryall later said that the shot of the man was not from Aurora but was "stock footage" obtained elsewhere by the campaign.

Ergo said Mayor Weisner, a Democrat, does not plan to complain or do anything about the ad.

Aurora, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago, is Illinois' second-largest city, with a population of about 170,000, according to the City-Data.com Web site.

Its median household income in 2005 was about $56,000, nearly 2 percent higher than in 2000 and roughly 12 percent higher than the statewide average, the Web site said.

From 2000 to 2005, some serious crimes actually declined in Aurora, according to the Web site. In 2000, there were 15 murders, compared with 13 in 2005. There were 173 robberies in 2005, down from 185 in 2000, and 477 assaults in 2005, down from 586 in 2000.

Its overall crime index, according to the Web site, was below the national average.

The unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in February 2005, the most recent month available on the site.

Support for the casino isn't universal among officials in Aurora. Alderman Rick Lawrence, a Republican, said he's not offended by the Fletcher ad.

"The casino has been kind of a wash for us, and because it's only a wash I would do without it," he said.

"Lazy politicians rely on gambling to solve financial problems. Politicians with creative ideas rely on economic development."

[Legislurker]

Has any local press gotten McConnell to come on record about this yet? Would be beneficial to help him tie his own noose.
You would think they would do the Christian thing. Work to ensure that casinos and casino communities pay to help compulsive gambling's fallout. No one anywhere does. Lotto, casinos, tracks, books, no one. Honesty was part of the Christianity I remember. Helping not restricting. Instead of letting the casino industry off from actually helping the peopel they ruin, they fight to keep gambling away, isolated, and underground. Imagine the good they could do fighting for legislation to legalize gambling and require actual liability for taking compulsive action, and forcing them to help people not lose their homes. Instead they make it into a zero sum war. No gambling ever anywhere, consequences of lives be damned. People should go to Vegas and disappear in that dank cesspool devoid of pity or compassion? People are a lot less likely to destroy their whoel lives if they gamble within the community and people see them going downhill. And if they can force the industry to directly pay for counselling, and help with jobs and mortgages. But no, instead they want to deny human nature and make it be a back alley or plane flight away.

[TheEngineer]

Actually, McConnell has been faily noncommittal, while Sen. Bunning just recently went on the record as saying Fletcher should support a referendum. I was hoping the whole party would attach itself to Fletcher's sinking ship, but we may be better off letting the nation see that FoF can't even keep red state Republicans in line.

----------------------

www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/158123.html

Fletcher disdains gambling; state's 2 senators differ

By Jack Brammer
JBRAMMER@HERALD-LEADER.COM

LOUISVILLE --Gov. Ernie Fletcher laced his speech at the 44th annual Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast yesterday with disdain for casino gambling, but the state's two U.S. Republican senators had a different message on the issue.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Louisville, who also was at the breakfast, declined to say whether he thinks Kentucky needs expanded gambling -- even though Fletcher has based his entire re-election campaign on opposing casinos. McConnell called it a state issue, not a federal issue.

Still, McConnell noted that he was focused on getting Fletcher re-elected, and said he would be appearing with Fletcher during several campaign stops and fund-raisers in coming days.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, told The Associated Press at the breakfast that he urged Fletcher to support putting the issue of expanded gambling on the ballot for voters to decide.

Bunning said he worries Fletcher's anti-casino gambling position could cut into the governor's support in Republican-heavy Northern Kentucky, where charitable gaming is popular and casino gambling is available just across the Ohio River.

"I advised him to allow it to be put on the ballot," Bunning said. "I guess my word didn't get through." Fletcher later said Bunning had not offered that advice to him personally.

Bunning said he gave the advice to a Fletcher staffer, whom he wouldn't identify, the day after the May 22 primary. Bunning had endorsed Fletcher's chief rival, former U.S. Rep Anne Northup, in the GOP primary, but promptly endorsed Fletcher after the governor won renomination.

Bunning said he wasn't upset that the governor had taken a different position on what's shaping up as the key issue in this year's governor race. "It's his race to run, not mine," Bunning told The Associated Press.

Mark Guilfoyle, an Edgewood lawyer and former state budget director for Democratic Gov. Brereton Jones, said Bunning's comments "drive a stake through Fletcher's heart in Northern Kentucky.

"Ernie Fletcher can't win without a huge margin in Northern Kentucky and Bunning is basically saying you're way out of step with folks up north," Guilfoyle said.

Though the Republican governor did not mention his re-election campaign or the name of his Democratic opponent, Steve Beshear, in his speech to about 1,650 at the breakfast, Fletcher repeated his opposition to Beshear's call for expanded gambling to fill state coffers.

Fletcher said farming requires taking risks, but "we don't need the type of gambling that takes food off the table."

Fletcher claims the move would hurt Kentuckians with many societal ills.

Beshear, who was at the breakfast earlier in the morning but did not stay to hear Fletcher's speech, supports allowing voters to decide the expanded gambling issue. He contends casinos at horse racetracks and a handful of other sites could generate an extra $500 million a year for pressing needs like education and health care.

[Legislurker]

The comment about farmers is funny. Someone should do the math. What gets more state tax money on a day to day basis.
An acre of land for tobacco, a state subsidized horse, or a sick kid without health insurance. And then let FLetcher say how he would pay for bringing the spending on the kid up to what his government now spends on rich horse breeders or tobacco farmers.

[BDHPlayer]

As you may or may not be aware, Senator Bunning has indirect ties to the horse racing industry. His daughter in law was president of the HBPA which is the leading horsemen's association in Kentucky.

I've been involved in the horse racing industry for the last 16 years, both as an owner and as a breeder. Currently I have two horses in Kentucky, one of which resides on a Kentucky farm for breeding purposes.

I had to make a decision this year whether to leave the mare in Kentucky to have her foal next year, or ship her out of state which meant that I would ship her to Pewnnsylvania.

Why Pennsylvania? SLOT MACHINES! If Kentucky does not pass gaming by this time next year, the mare will end up in Pennsylvania. By not having casino gaming, the horse racing industry will be harmed. Although racing at Keeneland and Churchill Downs is attractive, Ellis Park and Turfway Park are totally unatttractive. As a breeder, I want to sell the offspring and profit from the sale through Breeder's awards as well as a higher price for selling the offspring because of higher purses.

Moreover, the farms and veterinarians and feed companies will be the ultimate losers if casino gaming does not pass. The horse racing industry is one of the largest, if not the largest, industries in Kentucky.

The citizens of the state should have the power to decide what is in the best interest of the Commonwealth.

As a poker player for the past 20 years, I would love to see poker legal throughout the US. When I went down to Louisville in the past for the Kentucky Derby, I always ended up at Caesar's. One year I decided to skip the Derby and ended up at the boat to play some Omaha and watch the Derby. Ended up saving me quite a bit of money as all my horse picks that day sucked.

Currently I live in Phoenix after spending most of my life in Chicago. I started in the horse racing business in Chicago and have pretty much abandoned Illinois because the economics of racing in Illinois suck. The tracks have been fighting a losing battle for the last 10 years.

Casino gambling unfortunately has become a panacea for the racing industry. I don't need the government to tell me how to spend my entertainment dollars.

If I lose money playing poker, I can just as easily lose it investing in the stock market.

As a life long Republican, I voted against Kyl when he ran for re-election last year in Arizona. Hopefully the Republican party will get the message before it's too late.