By Jason Schwalm
When Audrey Haynes, one of the two candidates for the Kentucky Democratic Party’s chairmanship, refused the position, she presciently summarized the situation: “The state Democratic Party needs someone yesterday.” Fall’s election results were tallied, the numbers were grim, and it was clearly communicated that even Kentucky’s registered Democrats – 1.6 million to only 1 million Republicans – have little faith in the Kentucky Democratic Party.
Historically, inauguration season is an opportune time to sound a rallying cry and resolve to move forward. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said, “Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection,” and Franklin Roosevelt, in his first of four inaugural speeches, told us, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
The Democratic Party, however, in nominating its new chair, finds it prudent to break with this tradition. Following Haynes’ rejection of the nomination, the one and only candidate for the position was Jerry Lundergan, a quarter-century member of the Democratic Party.
In 1989, Mr. Lundergan was convicted of violating rules of ethics by accepting a no-bid contract while an employee of the state government. This conviction was overturned – it was mistakenly prosecuted as a felony rather than a misdemeanor – but that is entirely irrelevant.
Accusations of wrong-doing surround Mr. Lundergan’s career as a state politician, and if the Democrats intend to raise ethics flags regarding Republican missteps, nominating someone with a criminal history does not seem like a strong opening move.
The tectonic shifts within the Democratic Party have already begun: witness a string of resignations, reaching as high as former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear, the party’s general counsel.
The Democrats have been here before. Mr. Lundergan was a candidate for this position last year, and he was soundly rejected. Did he miraculously become a better nominee sometime in the past 365 days?
Apparently, Mr. Lundergan’s one major qualification for this position is a striking similarity to the Republicans. His pro-life message and appeal to Western Kentucky voters – who ousted a handful of incumbent democrats – during his acceptance speech should have made some democrats wonder if they had mistakenly attended the wrong nomination.
Although Elizabethtown’s congressman Weaver accurately notes that “Kentucky is a very conservative state,” flanking the conservatives to their far left is not an effective tactic. The solution isn’t metamorphosing into the centrist wing of the Republican Party.
Anyway, McCracken County, for one example, elected most of its republican candidates with 65 percent of the vote last fall. When the Kentucky democrats take back the state legislature, they are probably not going to do it in Paducah.
The Kentucky Democratic Party has seen seven chairmen in three years, yet in its saturnine wisdom old problems still require old (unsuccessful) solutions. Perhaps the brief tenure of so many of its leaders indicates that the problems with the party do not begin and end with its chair.
Ultimately, the party is on a backward slide, and a major factor in that loss of ground is the seemingly ceaseless accusations of corruption and intrigue. If the Kentucky democrats intend to mount an effort to win back the state, they won’t do it by nominating a chairman who is representative of all the nepotistic elitism that is the very worst of Kentucky politics.
Jason Schwalm is a junior majoring in English and a columnist for The Cardinal. E-mail him at: [email protected]
