Bowen to run for state senate

 Messenger-Inquirer reporter Steve Vied reported today that Owensboro Republican Joe Bowen, a former member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, has filed to run for the 8th District seat in the Kentucky Senate – the position now held by Democrat David Boswell.

Bowen, 59, was elected to the 13th District House seat in 2004 and served one term before being defeated by 408 votes by Jim Glenn in November of 2006. Glenn remains in that seat and is running for re-election.

Bowen is co-owner of Bowen Tire Co. of Owensboro.

“I do this because I think I can have a positive impact on public policy … as an advocate for our community,” Bowen said. “Owensboro and Daviess County and McLean County have missed opportunities too many times. We’ve been passed by.”

Bowen said if elected he will become a member of the Republican majority in the Senate, which will leave him is a good place to help the 8th District.

“When the economy turns around I’ll be well-positioned to make sure Owensboro is out front to benefit more than we have,” he said.

“We’ve been left behind. I think I can work to get the attention for Owensboro that’s been missing. I don’t think we’ve had the presence, we haven’t been on the inside of the maneuvering in Frankfort. Other legislators have had more clout and been able to channel more things to their communities. I think people want a fresh face, new eyes. We need a change. We can do better.”

Guthrie outspent Boswell in 2nd District race

Republican Brett Guthrie outspent David Boswell by nearly $400,000 in his successful run against the Sorgho Democrat in Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional this year.

Brett Guthrie

Campaign finance reports filed within the last week show that Guthrie, a state senator from Bowling Green, shelled out $1.2 million during the campaign, with almost all of that spent since May. 

Boswell, also a state senator, spent $838,000 during the campaign cycle that included a primary victory over fellow Democrat Reid Haire, Daviess County judge-executive. 

Both candidates found themselves with outstanding debts at the close of the campaign finance reporting period, with Guthrie owing $30,000 in “win bonuses”  and Boswell with an $18,000 car loan from a Ford truck his campaign bought for him to use on the trail. 

Guthrie dished out $5,000 “win bonuses” to fellow state Sen. Richie Sanders, a friend who assisted during his campaign, to Mike Gula & Associates, a Washington-based fundraising firm, and to OnMessage Inc., a Maryland campaign media, strategy and survey firm.

Boswell weighing options, with retirement a possibility

State Sen. David Boswell said Tuesday that a retirement window closing at the end of the year has him weighing his options for the future. 

Boswell has two years remaining on his fifth term in the Kentucky Senate and mounted an unsuccessful run to represent Kentucky’s 2nd District in Congress next year. Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat, lost to fellow state senator and Bowling Green Republican Brett Guthrie on Nov. 4.

David Boswell

“The election has nothing to do with it,” Boswell said about his future plans. “What this is all about – it has to do with my family and my future and my retirement benefits.”

Boswell said there will be a significant decrease in his retirement benefits if he waits until after Jan. 1 2009 to retire.

After the first of the year, Boswell and other state employees will see the basis of their retirement benefits change from the average of their highest three years of compensation to the average from their highest five years. 

As a state legislator, and one who was first elected to the General Assembly in the late 1970s, Boswell will enjoy one of the highest “multipliers” to determine his retirement benefits. The multiplier is used along with years of service and salary rates to determine the benefit rate.

Along with 18 years in the Kentucky Senate, Boswell spent four years as state agriculture commission in the 1980s and three terms in the state House beginning in 1978 for a total of 28 years in state government. 

Boswell was sales and marketing director for the Executive Inn Rivermont in Owensboro until it closed June 9 after new owners took over. 

Although he said he was considering retirement, Boswell said he hasn’t given “a whole lot of thought to it.” While retirement is an option, so is completing his current term and running for additional terms, Boswell said. 

“That’s about all the comment I have to make on it,” Boswell said.

Open seat(s) in the Kentucky Senate

The Herald-Leader’s Larry Dale Keeling weighs in on “a tale of two state Senate vacancies” in a column this week and compares the post-election talk now and last year over open seats in the chamber. 

Keeling reminds readers that Senate President David Williams called for then-Sen. Dan Mongiardo, now lieutenant governor, to resign from the chamber before this year’s legislative session began. 

That move would have prompted a special election to fill Mongiardo’s seat in eastern Kentucky earlier than if Mongiardo waited until the inauguration to resign, which he did. 

Keeling notes that Williams has been publicly silent so far about when Sen. Brett Guthrie, a Bowling Green Republican, should resign after his election last week as the state’s next 2nd District congressman, and Guthrie hasn’t been forthcoming about when he plans to turn over the seat. 

Guthrie has said since his election that he will be talking to Williams about when to resign. 

Earlier this year, Williams said he was actually expecting to fill two seats in the Senate following the 2nd District election that pitted Guthrie against fellow state Sen. David Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat. 

Williams predicted a Guthrie win and a Boswell retirement following the Nov. 4 election.

Boswell has been in state government for nearly 30 years, including a stint as state agriculture commissioner, and Williams said Boswell could earn a higher pension if he retires before the end of the year when pension system changes go into effect.

Wesley Clark makes last minute pitch for funds in KY-2

Former Democratic presidential candidate and retired Gen. Wesley Clark made a “last minute plea” on his blog for supporters to send funds to races in the Kentucky 2nd, New York 29th and Illinois 10th districts. 

On the Web site for his political action committee, WesPac, Clark on Monday night wrote that he had received an “urgent note” from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for help in the three districts. 

In the Kentucky 2nd, where Democrat David Boswell is facing Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green, Boswell needs money to help with last-minute “get out the vote” operations, Clark wrote. 

“This is a tough district that George Bush carried handily, but the most recent polling shows David with a very slim lead,” Clark wrote. “To win, he needs to make sure all the new voters coming out to the polls for the presidential election, vote down the ballot and check David’s name.”

LA Times: Conservative Dems make headway in GOP districts

Richard Simon with the Los Angeles Times has examined the trend this year of conservative Democrats making a move in U.S. House districts that are “traditional GOP strongholds.”

One of those identified by Simon in his article Saturday is David Boswell, the Sorgho Democrat running in Kentucky’s 2nd District for the seat held by Republican Ron Lewis for 14 years. 

Simon cites a Boswell ad that pegs the state senator as pro-life, pro-gun and against higher taxes, a campaign slogan being used by many conservative Dems this year. 

Check it out.

2nd District race a toss-up down the stretch

The two candidates for Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District seat returned to Owensboro this week, making stops at the same locations where they delivered stump speeches months before.

Since those stops earlier in the campaign cycle, the contest between Democrat David Boswell and Republican Brett Guthrie has evolved into a high-dollar battle drawing attention and money from around the country.

First lady Laura Bush will campaign for Guthrie in Bullitt County’s Shepherdsville on Monday, and Boswell was by the side of former President Clinton during a stop in Bowling Green.

Poll results and political predictions in recent weeks have made it difficult to peg the winner, who will replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, a Cecilia Republican, in Congress next year.

“I think it’s a genuine tossup,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “Frankly, it’s been kind of confusing. I’m also getting two wildly different stories from the two major parties.”

Guthrie up by 10 in latest SurveyUSA poll

Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green continues to build on his lead in Kentucky’s 2nd Congressional District, according to the latest SurveyUSA conducted this week for Roll Call newspaper in Washington D.C. and WHAS-TV in Louisville.

Brett Guthrie

The survey of 587 likely voters contacted on Monday and Tuesday found that 53 percent plan to back Guthrie and 43 percent are supporting his opponent, Democrat David Boswell of Sorgho. The margin of error for the poll is 4.1 percentage points.

This is the third straight SurveyUSA poll showing Guthrie with a lead in the district. A poll released Oct. 17 showed Guthrie leading 51 to 42 and a Sept. 26 survey had Guthrie with a 49-43 lead over Boswell. 

This most recent poll showed Republican John McCain leading Democrat Barack Obama 62 to 35 in the presidential race in Kentucky’s 2nd District, which is considered one of the more conservative congressional districts in the state. 

The survey also looked at the opinions likely voters hold about the two congressional candidates, and neither one appears to be an overwhelming favorite.

David Boswell

The results show 36 percent had a favorable opinion of Guthrie while only 32 percent held a favorable opinion of Boswell. About the same amount – about 31 percent – were neutral about the two men, who are both state senators. 

Those surveyed think much higher of retiring Congressman Ron Lewis, a Cecilia Republican, who is leaving his 2nd District seat after seven terms. Lewis received a favorable rating of 60 percent, which higher than McCain’s 55 percent and much higher than the 33.5 percent who approved of Obama.

Both President George Bush and Congress faired poorly in the poll. Only 39 percent approve of the job Bush is doing as president and only 9 percent approve of the job Congress is doing.

Update…

In a release issued this morning, the Boswell camp called SurveyUSA “vastly out of touch” with the other polling done in the race and said the firm has not reflected what “national political pundits” have said. 

The release noted other poll results conducted for the Boswell campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that have found 1-point and 6-point leads for Boswell. 

“SurveyUSA’s poll numbers in no way track with where anyone else sees the state of the race,” said Mark Riddle, media consultant for Boswell, in the release. “We have consistently seen polling showing Boswell ahead, and every other indicator provies that national political handicappers are seeing the same thing.”

At a rally and pig roast in Owensboro Thursday night, Boswell told a crowd of more than 100 that his campaign’s internal polling show him ahead by between 1 and 6 percentage points heading into the final days of the campaign. 

“It’s a close race,” Boswell said. “We’re running like we’re six points behind.”

Cook Political Report, Rothenberg call KY-2 race a “toss-up”

The Cook Political Report has changed its ratings on 10 U.S. House races, including the Kentucky 2nd District contest between Democrat David Boswell of Sorgho and Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green. 

Report Editor David Wasserman now sees the race to replace Ron Lewis of Cecilia as a “toss-up” after pegging the contest as “lean Republican.”

The reassessment is the latest in new takes on the race that see a close race between the two candidates as it draws closer to Election Day. 

The Rothenberg Political Report and Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball have both announced that the race is becoming more competitive. 

Just today, Rothenberg moved the race into the “pure toss-up” category after viewing it as “toss-up/tilt Republican.

Opposing polls showing leads for Boswell and Guthrie released in the last few weeks might add credence to the idea that it’s a dead heat with less than a week to go. 

Both candidates continue to take to the road in the 21-county district that stretches to Shelby County in the east, Daviess County in the West and includes Owensboro, Bowling Green and Elizabethtown.

Guthrie has been on board U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s bus for its 62-stop tour around the commonwealth while Boswell’s campaign announced Tuesday he was kicking off his “America First” tour for the final week of the campaign.

Boswell targets Guthrie stances in new TV ad

Democrat David Boswell takes a swing at Republican Brett Guthrie on the issues of pension plan investments, NAFTA and a March fundraiser with Vice President Dick Cheney in a new television ad released Monday. 

The ad, titled “The Guthrie Gamble,” makes a new claim – that Guthrie “backs a risky scheme to gamble our retirement in the stock market.”

The new ad cites a Jan. 6 article in the Bowling Green Daily News as the basis for its claim about Guthrie’s stance. 

The article focuses on the retirement system for state and local government employees and various proposals the Kentucky General Assembly was expected to address during its 2008 session. 

The article states that “Guthrie said he thinks that any reforms considered need to include some sort of mixed plan that involves investing in the stock market.” That comment pertains only the state and local employees and not Social Security benefits. 

Guthrie’s campaign immediately responded that Guthrie was not in favor of privatizing Social Security, even though the ad doesn’t mention Social Security.

When asked by Boswell during a forum in Elizabethtown on Sept. 29, Guthrie said he would not vote to privatize Social Security.

“You can look at the market today and just see exactly what would happen if Social Security was privatized,” Guthrie said at the forum. “…It would be irresponsible to have privatized Social Security in this market.”

Take a look at the ad – 

More endorsements are also making their way into the contest between the two state senators. 

The Courier-Journal and the Elizabethtown News-Enterprise are both backing Boswell while the Bowling Green Daily News is backing Guthrie.