Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Oh, Kentucky

Doesn't get any sadder than this.

The State Board of Elections figures Kentucky's voter turnout yesterday at 10.34 percent. However, tiny Cumberland and Monroe counties turned out at about 26- and 21-percent clips, respectively. Those were the state's highest rates of turnout other than Franklin (32.27 percent), whose seat is Frankfort. These two adjacent southern Kentucky counties on the Tennessee line appeared to have voted in such greater frequency than 117 others in order to support a couple of home boys: David L. Williams, who won the Republican primary for governor, is from Burkesville (seat of Cumberland); James R. Comer, for agriculture commissioner, is from Tompkinsville (seat of Monroe). Cumberland and Monroe tallied 2,491 votes for the Williams/Richie Farmer ticket to 285 for runnerup Phil Moffett/Mike Harmon. That's a 2,200-vote advantage in a race decided by fewer than 15,000. (It should also be noted that both Moffett and the third-place governor hopeful, Barbara "Bobbie" Holsclaw are from Louisville and that Jefferson County roughly split 17,000 votes between their two tickets while marking fewer than 8,000 in the Williams/Farmer column.) In the agriculture-commissioner race, Comer dominated Shelby County's Rob Rothenburger in the Cumberland/Monroe wheelhouse, 2,622 to 157. But then he would not have been hurt had all of Burkesville and Tompkinsville spent their Election Day off staying home to get their gardens in late after all of these spring rains, anyway; Comer garnered more statewide votes than any other Republican in a Kentucky primary and blasted Rothenburger by more than 43,000 overall votes.

The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) HistoryMobile rolls on!

County needs more than a new boys' basketball coach.

An ominous two paragraphs from near the Cumberland Gap.

More bees.

Twitter overnights: Alabama's two-time Mr. Basketball might announce his college choice today in front of a big crowd (or he might not), but UK coach John Calipari is hanging out even further south.

Take that, Bobby Knight!

2 comments: