Kentucky: Mongiardo

Apparently, Jim Newberry's first announcement that he is running for re-election as Lexington Mayor wasn't enough, as his special friends decided to throw a party for him in the posh Thoroughbred Room at the Civic Center last night.

My first thought as I walked into the room was that I was the only dude that wasn't wearing a suit and didn't have white hair. This is Jim's crowd.

And what a crowd it was! Particularly since the smallish room was 2/3 empty:

Schankula got there a little earlier, and was met by Newberry's right hand Shaye Rabold. Shaye said that she saw Schankula and I on the FB event list, and asked if we were going to "heckle" him.

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.

Check out the juicy juice from their new press release.

On Mongiardo's last place in fundraising and the polls (to Conway, Grayson, and Paul):
“It is hard to spin being dead last. They can spin, blame and point fingers, but the fact remains that Dan Mongiardo is last in money and last in polls,” added Riddle. "One must wonder when the Mongiardo campaign gets dizzy from all their spinning."
Ouch.
Mongiardo has spent weeks hiding from the press because he refuses to answer questions regarding what he said about the Governor. It is time for Mongiardo to “man up” as the Herald Leader editorialized.
Yep.
80% of Jack Conway’s fundraising comes from Kentuckians.