Morning Digest: Kentucky's GOP governor, trailing in polls, resorts to desperate racism in new ad
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The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. LeadMorning Digest: Kentucky's GOP governor, trailing in polls, resorts to desperate racism in new ad
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. Leading Off ● KY-Gov: Fundraising reports covering the period of May 22 through Sept. 6 were due for candidates running in November's gubernatorial election late last week, and they show Democrat Andy Beshear outraising Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, who has also trailed in the few polls we've seen here recently. Campaign Action During the reporting period, Beshear brought in $2.8 million, spent $1.5 million, and had $1.3 million left heading into the final two months of the campaign. Bevin, meanwhile, raised $2 million but supplemented that haul with a $500,000 personal loan and had $1.6 million in his campaign account. According to disclosure forms he filed when he ran for Senate in 2014, Bevin's net worth was as much as $60 million, so he can write more fat checks whenever he likes. Somewhat surprisingly, though, Bevin's spending over the summer trailed Beshear's considerably, at just $870,000. However, the RGA has made up for that shortfall by pouring $2.1 million into television ads, versus just $657,000 for the DGA. (You have to wonder, though, how RGA donors feel about having to prop up a zillionaire who can self-fund almost without limit.) Bevin's also trying to close the gap by amping up the hate: In a racist new spot that's reportedly running on TV, Bevin's campaign features scary-looking photos of brown-skinned prison inmates with facial tattoos—who are almost certainly incarcerated in Central America, not in the U.S.—while saying the governor will «outlaw» sanctuary cities. (Note: Kentucky has no sanctuary cities.) The narrator goes on to say that Beshear «would allow illegal immigrants to swarm our state» while tying Bevin to Trump. The extremely unsubtle imagery and message is very similar to that used in ads by Virginia Republican Ed Gillespie in 2017, amid his failed bid for governor. Read more