With At the River's Bend, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer takes a look at what's going on in the political and government scene in Owensboro and Kentucky. Tune in to find out the latest news, happenings and political conversations that make this city and state such interesting places to live.
A Louisville television station that pulled a controversial ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District race has begun airing a revised version.
According to Kyra Jennings with the DCCC, WAVE-TV put the revised ad into the rotation on Friday.
The ad drops a portion of a claim regarding Republican Brett Guthrie’s family company, Trace Die Cast Inc., and its business relationship with a Mexican auto parts company.
The ad the DCCC initially produced claimed that Trace Die Cast “shipped manufacturing work to Mexico instead of doing the job here.” The new version only claims that Trace Die Cast “shipped work to Mexico.”
The claim focuses on a Bowling Green Daily News article from 2004 in which a business professor is cited as having said Trace Die Cast sends its products to Mexico “for finishing, and then they are returned to Bowling Green for assembly.”
Trace Die Cast and the National Republican Congressional Committee filed complaints with the four Louisville stations running the ad, which prompted WAVE-TV to pull the spot.
The two men vying for Kentucky’s 2nd District seat in Congress will participate Monday in a debate in Elizabethtown hosted by the News-Enterprise and the League of Women Voters of Hardin County.
The debate, which begins at 6 p.m. EST in the Science Building at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, will be the third time Democrat David Boswell of Sorgho and Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green have met to compare views since the race began in January.
The event also follows a week during which both have been active with new television ads and the Democratic Congressonal Campaign Comittee weighed in with a controversial ad.
The pair appeared on KET this past Monday for a political forum and were in Elizabethtown Aug. 25 for a forum sponsored by the Hardin County Farm Bureau.
The latest public poll in Kentucky’s 2nd District has Republican Brett Guthrie up by 6 points over his Democratic opponent David Boswell.
The poll conducted by SurveyUSA for WHAS-TV in Louisville and released today shows those surveyed favor Guthrie, a state senator from Bowling Green, to Boswell, a Sorgho state senator, by a margin of 49 to 43 percent, a reversal of the lead in the polling firm’s last survey in June that showed Boswell with ahead 47 to 43.
The Guthrie camp downplayed the impact and importance of polls in response to these most recent results.
“Polls go up and they go down,” Guthrie campaign manager Brian Smith said in a statement. “While polls will bounce around, Brett Guthrie’s integrity, work ethic and conservative values will remain consistent through Election Day and that’s why he’ll win this race.”
SurveyUSA sampled 592 likely voters on Wednesday and Thursday for the poll – that followed a controversial television ad produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that began airing in Louisville on Tuesday.
The ad made claims that Guthrie’s company Trace Die Cast Inc. sent manufacturing work to Mexico and was disputed by Guthrie, Trace Die Cast Inc. and the National Republican Congressional Committee. At least one of the four stations that was airing the ad pulled it from the air.
Boswell attributed Guthrie’s bump to the head start Guthrie had in running television commercials, but said he didn’t see any impact from the DCCC ad that began running this week.
Guthrie aired his first ad on Sept. 12, while Boswell’s first ad didn’t hit the air until this Tuesday – the same day the DCCC ad began airing.
“Obviously they had about a 10-day jump on us with media and online with their commercials,” Boswell said. “I would anticipate there would be some degree of fluctuation with that. … It’s not the end of the world.”
Compared to SurveyUSA’s previous poll, Guthrie made gains among male voters, who had previously been split between the two candidates but now favor Guthrie by 12 percentage points.
Boswell has described himself as a conservative Democrat, and on Thursday received the endorsement of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats in Congress.
But those surveyed this week who identified themselves as conservative largely preferred Guthrie by a margin of 75 to 17 percent, compared to 70 to 23 percent in the June poll. Boswell leads among those that describe themselves as moderate and liberal, two groups that accounted for 43 percent of those surveyed.
Kentucky’s 2nd District is a Democratic district according to voter registration, but has sent a Republican to Congress since 1994. Evidence of those crossover voters was seen in today’s survey results that showed 21 percent of Democrats surveyed saying they would vote for Guthrie. Among Republicans surveyed, 8 percent said they would vote for Boswell, according to the poll.
A third poll from earlier this month by the Garin-Hart-Yang firm conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had Boswell with a 9-point lead over Guthrie, who takes the lead for the first time with this poll.
Just a few sights and sounds from Gov. Steve Beshear’s visit to Owensboro this afternoon to unveil the sign designating the Audubon Parkway as a future Interstate 69 spur –
While in town, Beshear said he would be attending a fundraiser for the Kentucky Democratic Party tonight at the Stone Creek Park home of Dr. Don Neel.
When asked about the 2nd District Congressional Race, Beshear said he liked the chances for Democrat David Boswell, a state senator from Sorgho. “We are pulling out all the stops. We’re going to try to make sure that he’s our next congressman,” Beshear said.
Boswell missed the event today, but his opponent, fellow state senator and Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green was there. Part of the reason he attended the event was he was already in town for the Interim Joint Committee on Transportation, which meets Friday morning at the RiverPark Center, and he chairs the Senate Transportation Committee.
Friday’s IJC Transportation meeting will be the first time Boswell and Guthrie will meet since their debate Monday night on KET and since the flurry of campaign ads this week that has included a scuffle between the two camps over a DCCC ad that made questionable claims about Guthrie’s family company, Trace Die Cast Inc. Guthrie said he didn’t plan to bring the ad up with Boswell on Friday, but he was sure they would see each other at the meeting and might talk.
Although Boswell was absent from the I-69 event, his supporters obviously weren’t. When leaving, I noticed someone had placed a “Boswell for Congress” sticker on the back of Guthrie’s van, right between his two “Guthrie for Congress” stickers.
The campaign of Republican Brett Guthrie dropped a new ad into the rotation today that focuses on Guthrie’s work with Trace Die Cast Inc., the aluminum die casting company started by his father in the late 1980s.
Titled “Heat,” the ad features Guthrie inside the Trace Die Cast plant in Bowling Green saying that “it’s going to take some heat to change Congress.”
Take a look at the ad –
According to the ad, it was paid for by the Guthrie campaign and by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Guthrie campaign manager Brian Smith said the ad will replace the campaign’s first ad, which began airing Sept. 11 and focused on gas prices, and will be running all over the 21-county district.
The Guthrie camp also followed up with a press release calling on Guthrie’s opponent, Democrat David Boswell, to renounce a DCCC ad that began airing in Louisville on Tuesday.
The ad includes a claim that Trace Die Cast sent manufacturing work to Mexico that could have been done in Kentucky.
The Guthrie campaign and Trace Die Cast asked four Louisville television stations to stop airing the ad with the claim, which it contends is false and unsupportable. Trace Die Cast sells finished auto parts internationally that are eventually used in the assembly of vehicles in this country.
The DCCC issued a release restating the ad’s claim and its support for making the claim.
Democratic congressional candidate David Boswell followed Monday night’s debate with his Republican opponent Brett Guthrie in Kentucky’s 2nd District race with his first television ad, which will hit the airwaves across the district tonight.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also jumped into the fray on Tuesday with an ad attacking Guthrie on trade and business issues that was immediately challenged by the Guthrie camp.
In the ad from the Boswell camp titled “Round Here,” Boswell says he opposes NAFTA and will work to lower gasoline prices.
“I’m pro-life, pro-gun and against higher taxes,” Boswell says in the ad, which features him in a number of different agricultural settings around the state.
Here’s the ad –
Mark Riddle with the Boswell campaign said the new media campaign was using Monday night’s debate on KET between Boswell and Guthrie as a springboard.
“A debate’s always a good kick-off,” Riddle said. “The timing for the KET debate was a nice launching point for the ad campaign.”
Interestingly, at no point in the ad does Boswell identify himself as a Democrat or mention his political party.
Riddle said that is because Boswell is campaigning to represent “all the people” in the district.
“He’s running to represent Democrats, Republicans and independents,” Riddle said. “Americans are tired of political labels. What people are looking for is results.”
In “David Boswell: A Fighter. For Kentucky,” the DCCC criticizes Guthrie for comments he made regarding NAFTA and claims Guthrie’s family business in Bowling Green – Trace Die Cast Inc. – “shipped manufacturing work to Mexico instead of doing the job here.”
Here’s the ad –
Waiting for word from the DCCC on where this ad will be airing in the 21-county district, but it apparently was supposed to hit the air today.
The ad prompted a quick response by the Guthrie campaign and Trace Die Cast Inc., which both claim the ad is false.
In a letter to television stations in Louisville scheduled to air the ad, attorney George Strickler Jr. for Trace Die Cast says the claims made in the ad are “demonstrably false and defamatory.”
“No products are manufactured by Trace Die Cast are outsourced to foreign companies,” Strickler wrote in letters sent to WLKY, WHAS, WAVE and WDRB. “All products made by Trace Die Cast Inc. are manufactured at its plants in Bowling Green, Kentucky by Kentucky workers.”
The letter threatened legal action if the stations continued airing the ads.
The DCCC ad appears to be the start of a major investment by the DCCC in advertising in the 2nd District.
Boswell was recently named to the committee’s “Red to Blue” program, and now Nathan Gonzales with Roll Call is reporting that the committee has reserved $840,000 worth of ads in the district.
Guthrie became the first to advertise on television in the race on Sept. 11 when his ad “Pump” began airing.
The Republican Party of Kentucky has criticized state Sen. David Boswell for his trip to Washington, D.C. this week to attend a fundraiser with members of Congress that the RPK said makes him beholden to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat, attended the fundraiser headlined by U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland on Thursday. Prior to leaving Kentucky for his trip, Boswell said he also planned to meet with members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democratic representatives who describe themselves as fiscal conservatives.
Boswell is facing Bowling Green Republican and fellow state Sen. Brett Guthrie in the 2nd Congressional District race, and trailed Guthrie by more than $600,000 in campaign cash at the close of the last reporting period on June 30.
In a release sent Thursday afternoon, RPK Chairman Steve Robertson claims that because Boswell “has raised so little money in Kentucky” he has been “forced to turn to Nancy Pelosi’s closest friends to bail him out. There is no doubt where his loyalty would be in Congress.”
Robertson specifically points out U.S. Rep. George Miller of California as assisting in Boswell’s fundraiser, and points to Miller’s record as detailed at Project Vote Smart. The RPK chair also notes that Miller has supported Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“David Boswell is already keeping the most liberal company you can keep in Washington, D.C.,” Robertson said in the release.
In response, Boswell campaign consultant Mark Riddle said “Guthrie and his friends have no room to talk.”
“One of the reasons (Boswell) is running is to help families in this economic environment that was created by George Bush,” Riddle said.
When asked about Miller’s involvement in the fundraiser, Riddle pointed to a number of Democratic members of Congress who are helping support Boswell’s run, including Kentucky Congressmen John Yarmuth of Louisville and Ben Chandler of Woodford County.
“There’s a lot of excitement about Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District from members around the country,” Riddle said. “One of the reasons the senator’s running is we’ve got to get beyond these labels and name-callings.”
A group of former Kentucky governors will host a fundraiser next week for state Sen. David Boswell and his congressional run.
According to a posting on the Kentucky Democratic Party’s Web site, former governors John Y. Brown Jr., Julian Carroll, Martha Lane Collins, Wendell Ford, Brereton Jones and Paul Patton will play host to Boswell and his supporters on Sept. 23 at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort.
Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat, is facing Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green in this year’s 2nd Congressional District race.
Also on the KY Dems Web site – Muhlenberg County’s “Fun in the Park.”
On Sept. 25 at 5 p.m., KY Democratic Party Chair Jennifer Moore will join state Rep. Brent Yonts of Greenville and 1st Congressional District candidate Heather Ryan during a 3-hour event in Paradise Park in Powderly.
Update…
Boswell will be attending a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. Thursday featuring U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the U.S. House majority leader, and organized by former governor and U.S. Sen. Wendell Ford.
Boswell attended a visit by Gov. Steve Beshear to Owensboro today, and said beforehand that he would be leaving this afternoon for Washington and that while there he planned to meet with several members of Congress and members of the Blue Dog Coalition – a group of fiscally conservative members of the U.S. House.
Boswell said his addition to the DCCC’s Red to Blue program last week has already generated some campaign contributions from Democratic members of Congress.
“I’m getting calls from Congressmen all over the place saying their check’s in the mail,” Boswell said.
As for next week’s fundraiser, Boswell noted that most of the listed hosts will attend, though he was unsure of whether former Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. would be able to make it.
Boswell said he hadn’t invited one former governor – Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher who last his re-election bid last year.
“I wouldn’t think he would accept my invitation,” Boswell said.
Political columnist Stuart Rothenberg, who had previously written off David Boswell in Kentucky’s 2nd District, is now saying that the Sorgho Democrat “has a chance in this race, but only if the DCCC and its labor allies come in with a huge media buy.”
In his latest column, Rothenberg analyzes the latest round of candidates added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program last week that included Boswell, who faces Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green.
In an column in July, Rothenberg had argued that Boswell’s campaign cash deficit of more than $600,000 at the close of the last quarter meant “this race is over” without a major influx of cash.
While Rothenberg is giving Boswell more of a chance to win the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis of Cecilia, the columnist is including Boswell in a list of candidates in the Red to Blue program that are facing more challenges than earlier additions.
According to Rothenberg,
The reality, of course, is that these lists are gimmicks — gimmicks to try to drive resources and media coverage to them without the committee necessarily having to spend its own money on candidates who have little or no chance of winning. In fact, these gimmicks often work.
But if the national landscape continues to move even slightly more back toward the Republicans, eroding (but certainly not eliminating) the Democrats’ huge early advantages, DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) might find himself promoting dozens of candidates with no chance of winning. And that would be embarrassing and self-defeating.
The head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee weighed in on Kentucky’s 2nd District race Friday, the day after state Sen. David Boswell was bumped to the top tier of Democratic candidates in this fall’s election.
U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen said in an interview with the Messenger-Inquirer that the race for the seat currently held by Republican Ron Lewis is “very much on our radar screen.”
“We think it’s one of the most competitive races in the country,” Van Hollen said by phone. “David Boswell is coming on strong. He’s got a great grassroots campaign and he’s got a great message.”
Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat, is facing Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green in this year’s 2nd District congressional race, which is the first time the seat has been open since Lewis was first elected in 1994.
The 2nd District race generated some talk during the Democratic National Convention in Denver last month, and Van Hollen said he sees some similarities between this contest and special elections districts in Louisiana and Mississippi that saw Democratic victories.
In May, Democrat Travis Childers took the special election in Mississippi’s 1st District, which Van Hollen said is a conservative-leaning district. Childers has been described as a conservative Democrat, which is the description Boswell has used for himself.
In the Mississippi campaign, opponents tried to link Childers to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, which has been part of the strategy for the Guthrie camp this summer.
“It’s nonsense,” Van Hollen said. “I think people are a lot smarter than that. And they were smarter than that in Mississippi and Louisiana.”
In response to Boswell being named to the Red to Blue program, Guthrie campaign manager Brian Smith sent a statement in which he said Boswell is now “beholden to Nancy Pelosi” and “will be taking money from the most liberal donors in America as directed by Pelosi.”
Van Hollen said similar attacks on Childers didn’t stick in the Mississippi election, and he doesn’t see them gaining much traction in Kentucky’s 2nd District.
“In David Boswell, you’ve got someone who’s a social conservative and that fits the values of this district,” Van Hollen said. “I think when people start focusing on bread and butter issues, the Democratic message in terms of the presidential race but also the congressional race will resonate more strongly.”
Read more about the Van Hollen’s take on the 2nd District race in Saturday’s Messenger-Inquirer.
At the River's Bend 