FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - In the race for the Kentucky state House - the last legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats - about the only thing nonpartisan is a pair of women’s panties.
In 2014, Republicans ran a TV ad against Jim Gooch featuring the panties, a reference to an incident at a legislative conference where the then-Democratic state lawmaker displayed them to a pair of female state workers, prompting criticism. But in 2016, Gooch is a Republican, having switched parties late last year. Now it’s the Democrats who have paid for mail pieces calling him “Hoochy Goochie.”
“The very people that defended me two years ago are attacking me now,” Gooch said. “It just shows that there really is no honesty in politics.”
But there is rancor to spare. Against the backdrop of one of the most raucous presidential elections in memory, politicians in Kentucky are letting it fly with abandon in 2016.
Gooch is in one of 64 contested races for the Kentucky House of Representatives, where Republicans need to pick up four seats to earn a majority for the first time since 1920. Many of the races are close, featuring veteran Democratic incumbents trying to hang on to their seats in a state that has been increasingly voting Republican. Most Democrats try to keep the races local, while most Republicans attempt to nationalize them, which has amplified the unprecedented rancor of the presidential campaign in the eyes of Kentucky voters.
One candidate’s old DUI arrest was resurrected, his mug shot mailed to voters. Another ad proclaimed a candidate “stole from us” for using a state seal and state postage on official campaign material. Still another featured a neon “Girls Girls Girls” sign above the smiling face of a 70-year-old former county judge executive.
“It’s much nastier than I thought it could possibly be,” said Jim Townsend, the former Webster County judge executive who is challenging Gooch as a Democrat. “You kind of wonder why you put yourself into a situation like that.”
GOP candidates appear to be taking their cues from the state’s Republican governor, who has used his personal Facebook page to trash Democrats and has been mired in a bitter feud with a Democratic state representative in central Kentucky. Democrat Russ Meyer has challenged Bevin to go door to door with him in his district to see just how outraged people are at him for delaying a local road project that, Meyer says, was put off to punish him for not switching parties.
Bevin has used his personal Facebook page to call Meyer a “habitual liar” and to tell voters in his district that if they re-elect Meyer “he will never have my confidence or that of my administration.” Bevin has pushed hard in other races, too, becoming a near constant presence on the campaign trail less than a year after his own election.
“I feel like I’m still running for office,” he said, adding that people “are tired of being lied to. They’re tired of being played for fools.”
Democrats don’t seem to mind Bevin’s frequent campaigning, as many have tried to make the election about the governor and his policies. In eastern Kentucky, Democrat Cluster Howard - who won in 2014 by just 14 votes - has run ads encouraging people to vote for him to stand up against Bevin. Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo, in a tough race of his own in eastern Kentucky, has run ads saying the governor will “do anything to give our east Kentucky speakership to Bevin’s hometown of Louisville.”
In western Kentucky, Democrat Tommy Thompson said voters need to elect Democrats to keep Bevin in check. He cited court decisions striking down Bevin’s attempt to cut the budgets of colleges and universities and his move to abolish and replace the board of trustees at the University of Louisville as evidence of what the governor would do without Democrats to rein him in.
“Some of his actions that the courts have taken issue with and ruled that he overreached is just more reinforcement of the fact that we need a balanced General Assembly,” Thompson said. “That’s’ why we have a check and balance system, that in certain areas can keep the governor on track.”
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Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner in Louisville contributed to this story.
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