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Republican rally brings national candidates

September 22, 2010|Michael Broihier

Andy Barr

The Republican rally at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds Friday night had all of the usual trappings, a lot of red, white and blue and local political candidates dishing up barbeque, but it also drew candidates for national office with some interesting messages.

To much applause, the Republican challenger to 6th District Congressman Ben Chandler, Andy Barr, told the crowd, “I’m running to replace Ben Chandler and retire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.” Barr’s boilerplate conservative platform of “Stop the spending, balance the budget and reduce the deficit,” was well received by the several hundred GOP members present.

Barr, a 47-year old Lexington attorney and Constitutional Law professor at UK, is one of 46 candidates nationwide identified as “young guns” by the Republican National Committee that has committed $1.1 million to his campaign against incumbent Chandler.

Though he won’t be running until 2012, Kentucky State Senate President David Williams was laying the groundwork for his campaign for governor. After taking the podium, Williams bluntly said, “I’m pro-life, pro-gun and anti-tax,” which seemed to resonate with the GOP faithful.

Williams went on to raise an interesting point about the importance of the recent census; telling the audience that there is no reason for Lincoln County to be split between two congressional districts. He promised to redraw the lines and put Lincoln County back in one congressional district with a Republican as its representative in Washington. “It just isn’t right that a county named for Lincoln is run by a bunch of Democrats,” he said.

There was another gubernatorial candidate on hand for the rally as well. Phil Moffett, 49, a Lexington businessman with no political background, is the TEA Party candidate for governor. He told the crowd that he was running for governor because he was “Sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Moffett told the voters that his first priority would be to protect the constitutional rights of the electorate. He also explained that he had a plan to fundamentally change the tax system in Kentucky to a model similar to Texas, which, he pointed out, is the only state with significant economic growth while the rest of the country is in a recession.

“I will get rid of all fees and taxes at the state level except for a single sales tax,” Moffett said. He told the group that the point was to get total visibility on how much it costs to do business in Kentucky to keep government honest and to induce businesses to stay or locate in Kentucky.

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