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Friday May 16, 6:01 PMUS Democratic race reaches Kentucky
Home to the Kentucky Derby, the most famous US horse race, the state has not voted in a contested primary for the White House in decades. So it has been uncharted territory for residents ever since Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama began dropping by to make their pitches before the state's May 20 primary. "Kentucky always picks the president," Clinton said last week in Louisville. And "for too long we have let places like Kentucky slip out of the Democratic column." Clinton, who lags Obama in the battle for the party's Democratic nomination but is leading him by 27 points in the polls here, was correct on both counts. Registered Democrats outnumber their Republican counterparts 1.6 million to one million. But they're a more conservative brand of rural and blue-collar Democrat, and the state has elected an increasing number of Republicans to Congress over the past decade. And while Kentucky has voted for the winner of the White House in each general election since 1964, some political observers think that streak could end this year should a Democrat capture the White House. "If I had to guess right now, I would say (Republican) John McCain carries Kentucky," said Joe Gershtenson, director of the Center for History and Politics at Eastern Kentucky University. In the Democratic race for Kentucky's 51 delegates, New York Senator Clinton holds broad support among rural voters, Gershtenson said. She leads Obama 58 percent to 31 percent, with 11 percent uncommitted, according to a Research 2000 poll of 600 likely voters released Monday. But the African-American senator from Illinois outpaces Clinton 1,887 delegates to 1,719 in the overall race with only five primaries left -- the winner needs 2,025 to win -- meaning a Kentucky victory won't help Clinton a lot. On a campaign stop in Louisville, Obama clearly already had set his sights on the general election contest against McCain in November. "There may be some bruised feelings and people may be frustrated," Obama told an energized crowd of 8,000, "but Democrats are going to be unified." Obama is expected to receive his strongest support in Louisville, which is Kentucky's center of industry and has the largest concentration of African-Americans in the state. One-third of Louisville residents are black, compared to a population of less than eight percent statewide. Known as the Bluegrass State for the thick sod blanketing the rolling hills in the central part of the state, Kentucky remains largely rural. It stretches from the job-starved Appalachian Mountains in the east across horse country to the flat tobacco fields that nuzzle up to the Mississippi River. The economy remains voters' top concern here, where several counties have unemployment rates above 10 percent. Both candidates have hammered on the need for job creation during their speeches. Obama supporters say regardless of the outcome, Kentucky Democrats have benefited from the novelty of participating in a competitive race. "We've never had this type of coverage in the commonwealth for a national campaign," said Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth of Louisville. "There is just incredible enthusiasm." |
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