Kentucky: Dan Mongiardo

Some crosstab madness from the SUSA polling goodness yesterday:

First, on the Republican primary side

Rand Paul- 35
Trey Grayson- 32
Other/Undecided- 33

Gender-wise, Paul leads 40-32 among Male Liberty Patriots, Grayson leads 33-29 among females.

Among young voters, Paul had a crazy-high advantage in the last SUSA poll, but now trails 43-40. Odd.

Among conservatives (69% of respondents), Paul leads 39-31, but is losing huge among moderates. This falls more in line with what I think will happen (the last SUSA was the opposite, if I recall correctly), as Rand Paul is much much much more conservative (both economically and socially) than Trey Grayson.

Regionally, Grayson takes Western KY and Louisville, while Paul takes Eastern, Central and Northern KY.

So, a little update on Jake's earlier post about Mongiardo today.

As he said, Mongiardo issued a press release to everyone in Kentucky announcing that he would speak about healthcare reform in London and Lexington today. However, they kicked out a Conway staffer at the London event, saying that it was a private event, even though they issued press releases and used state resources to put this out.

Well, I decided to attend the Lexington event, as I recieved the press release too and am a member of the dirty librul blogger press.

As soon as I stuck my head in the door, a Mongiardo campaign staffer saw me and whispered to a woman named Angela Underwood.

OK, I'll pick up where I left off on the KDP rally liveblog on Saturday...

As for the speeches, there wasn't anything specifically noteworthy. What was of note was that each of the speakers didn't just praise Steve Beshear, but they gushed and gushed about him. A little obvious what was going on, and a little more glaring because Dan Mongiardo chose to split right beforehand so he didn't have to go through the awkwardness of this.

When Ben Chandler spoke, a guy standing right next to him at the podium held up a "Fix Healthcare, it's Broken" sign. Which Ben Chandler's free government healthcare probably didn't appreciate.

So, what do you do when your candidate is caught on tape calling your boss, Gov. Beshear, a "whore", "son of a bitch" and the "worst Governor in KY history"?

Granted, this isn't an easy situation. But the strategy of the Dan Mongiardo camp has been a comedy of errors so far. The whole "I won't comment on a doctored tape" thing has only increased the curiosity of the KY and national press, and they aren't going to stop asking that question until he explains why he (obviously) said them.

But this new tactic from yesterday? OH MY. Check it out:

Yes, instead of finally putting this whole thing to rest by apologizing for his comments, and saying that he and the Governor have patched up their differences.