Matt Bevin won the KY governorship :(

[katietornado]

This man.  He's actually crazy.

John Oliver included him in his piece this weekend about the elections.  Guy is undoing KY's expansion of Medicaid.  He owned a factory that burned, and he didn't have insurance, and THE GOVERNMENT HELPED HIM OUT.  But he's all about "right to work" laws, taking health care coverage away from people who currently have it thanks to the federal government (seriously, 400,000 people will now lose their health insurance), defunding Planned Parenthood, moving teachers from pensions to 401Ks, etc.  He's the worst.

Is this even real life?


www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/matt-bevin-kentucky-governor_563910abe4b0307f2caaed8c

Republican Matt Bevin has won the election for Kentucky governor, the Associated Press reports.

Bluegrass State voters took to the polls on Tuesday to elect Bevin, who will replace outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear (D). He defeated Democrat Jack Conway and Independent candidate Drew Curtis.

Bevin, only the second Republican elected to Kentucky's highest office in 40 years, is best known for his tea party-backed challenge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the 2014 GOP primary for Kentucky's Senate race. He announced his run for governor in January, going on to defeat other Republican gubernatorial hopefuls, including former state Supreme Court Justice Will Scott and State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.

Conway, who first announced his intent to run for governor in May 2014, has served as Kentucky's attorney general since 2008. He ran against Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in 2010 and lost. Before that, he was a private attorney.

Conway and Bevin took part in several heated exchanges leading up to Election Day, with The Courier-Journal reporting the tea partier accused Conway of "lying" during a recent debate.

The two have clashed on issues that have received national attention in recent months, including Rowan County clerk Kim Davis' refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Bevin gave Davis his "absolute" backing. Conway, however, said he was open to creating a narrowly drafted plan providing a religious objections exemption for officials like Davis, The Associated Press reports.

This election has also put Medicaid expansion in the spotlight, the AP reported last month. Bevin pushed to repeal and replace Kynect, Kentucky's health coverage program, while Conway argued to continue the Medicaid expansion -- which saw twice as many people signed up in the first year as state officials had predicted -- unchanged.

As HuffPost's Jeff Young reported, one consequence of Bevin's victory is that about 400,000 Kentucky residents who qualify for Medicaid under the expansion are now at risk of losing their health insurance.

Kentucky has long been considered a red state, with voters choosing Republican candidate Mitt Romney over incumbent President Barack Obama by 22 percentage points in the 2012 elections, FiveThirtyEight notes.

The Monday before Election Day, HuffPost Pollster showed Conway leading Bevin by a small margin.

[wambam]

I forsee an influx of Kentucky expats to Ohio.

And as always in these discussions, I feel obligated to remind everyone that there are Lexington and Louisville and then there's the rest of Kentucky. When you look at a political map (I remember one vividly from the 2008 presidential election), it's VERY apparent where those two cities are.

[eclaires]

Nov 4, 2015 8:04:35 GMT -5 wambam said:

I forsee an influx of Kentucky expats to Ohio.

And as always in these discussions, I feel obligated to remind everyone that there are Lexington and Louisville and then there's the rest of Kentucky. When you look at a political map (I remember one vividly from the 2008 presidential election), it's VERY apparent where those two cities are.

I grew up in the Louisville area and am pretty familiar with Lexington and the NKY area near Ohio, so I am always taken aback when people like this win there because it makes no sense to me.

I am surprised an R won at all really. Indiana has had 3 terms of R governors but it also used to have mostly D governors. Fletcher was kind of a disaster so I'm surprised a D didn't win since that's usually the case.

[wambam]

Nov 4, 2015 8:14:13 GMT -5 eclaires said:

Nov 4, 2015 8:04:35 GMT -5 wambam said:

I forsee an influx of Kentucky expats to Ohio.

And as always in these discussions, I feel obligated to remind everyone that there are Lexington and Louisville and then there's the rest of Kentucky. When you look at a political map (I remember one vividly from the 2008 presidential election), it's VERY apparent where those two cities are.

I grew up in the Louisville area and am pretty familiar with Lexington and the NKY area near Ohio, so I am always taken aback when people like this win there because it makes no sense to me.

I am surprised an R won at all really. Indiana has had 3 terms of R governors but it also used to have mostly D governors. Fletcher was kind of a disaster so I'm surprised a D didn't win since that's usually the case.

I went to UK and my parents live in LVille. The few times I've been in other places in KY (like Hopkinsville for a wedding), I'm amazed at just how very different Lex and LVille are from the rest of the state.

[eclaires]

Nov 4, 2015 8:16:10 GMT -5 wambam said:

Nov 4, 2015 8:14:13 GMT -5 eclaires said:

I grew up in the Louisville area and am pretty familiar with Lexington and the NKY area near Ohio, so I am always taken aback when people like this win there because it makes no sense to me.

I am surprised an R won at all really. Indiana has had 3 terms of R governors but it also used to have mostly D governors. Fletcher was kind of a disaster so I'm surprised a D didn't win since that's usually the case.

I went to UK and my parents live in LVille. The few times I've been in other places in KY (like Hopkinsville for a wedding), I'm amazed at just how very different Lex and LVille are from the rest of the state.

I'm in Knoxville so we regularly make the drive to Louisville which takes us through Lexington. Man, the area along 75 up to Lexington is like a whole other world sometimes in both TN and KY.

MH had to do some work in Hazard, KY several years ago and he said it was like a whole other country.

There are some other areas that are all right too, but there are a lot of areas where the crazy reigns.

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2015 8:04:35 GMT -5 wambam said:

I forsee an influx of Kentucky expats to Ohio.

And as always in these discussions, I feel obligated to remind everyone that there are Lexington and Louisville and then there's the rest of Kentucky. When you look at a political map (I remember one vividly from the 2008 presidential election), it's VERY apparent where those two cities are.

Ohio is no different when you look at the maps. Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, and Toledo generally vote very differently than the rest of the state. Cinci is the one city that usually stands with the more rural areas.

[gumi]

Just yet another example of the Rural, much less, populated areas having disproportionate control. Its really scary.

Sent from my SM-N920V using proboards

[sushi]

My dog was from liberty, ky, and she was a librul.

First she was homeless, then she wanted a handout of not just food and water, but someone to pick up her shit after her.

[bernsteincat]

Nov 4, 2015 8:16:10 GMT -5 wambam said:

Nov 4, 2015 8:14:13 GMT -5 eclaires said:

I grew up in the Louisville area and am pretty familiar with Lexington and the NKY area near Ohio, so I am always taken aback when people like this win there because it makes no sense to me.

I am surprised an R won at all really. Indiana has had 3 terms of R governors but it also used to have mostly D governors. Fletcher was kind of a disaster so I'm surprised a D didn't win since that's usually the case.

I went to UK and my parents live in LVille. The few times I've been in other places in KY (like Hopkinsville for a wedding), I'm amazed at just how very different Lex and LVille are from the rest of the state.

I'm always sorry when anyone has to go to Hoptown. It's awful. Lol.

My boss was stumping hard for Bevin in our region. I'm sure this will be his topic of conversation all day today. I just wish Democrat didn't equal "sucking Obama's teat" and "Un-Christian" in rural areas. It wasn't always like that, it's just been in the last 4-8 years. The fear-mongering of the conservative Christian Right is near impossible to work against.

[underwaterrhymes]

This is why voting in non-Presidential election years matters.

Only 1 million out of 3 million registered voters voted yesterday and KY actually has more registered Democrats than Republicans.

[underwaterrhymes]

It's also why even though people say we shouldn't worry about Donald Trump, I do anyway.

Crazies are REALLY fucking good at getting other crazies to go out and vote. Bevin was 5 percentage points behind and I think people just thought it wouldn't matter if they didn't vote because other people would do the voting for them and that there was no way Bevin would get elected.

[jeaniebueller]

On MJ this morning, they said he heavily campaigned on being anti gay marriage (AKA, a bigot) and pro defunding of PP. THAT is the demographic he appeals to and the demographic that turned out to vote. An embarrassment, really.

[bernsteincat]

Here's a question:

This board has enlightened me on many many issues, not the least of which is the importance of local politics and paying close attention to what is going on in your state. But, I have no idea where to start looking to follow along with what is happening in Frankfort, other than liking KY Dems on Twitter. Can you KY folks point me in the right direction as far as blogs/news outlets/Twittee folks, etc.?

[underwaterrhymes]

Nov 4, 2015 8:47:55 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

On MJ this morning, they said he heavily campaigned on being anti gay marriage (AKA, a bigot) and pro defunding of PP. THAT is the demographic he appeals to and the demographic that turned out to vote. An embarrassment, really.

Honestly I think this is a HUGE reason why a lot of the fruit loops get votes.

Look at Houston. This is a progressive city, folks. And they just set back human rights in their city in a big way with the votes against the HERO bill.

Bigots are assholes, but they are VOTING assholes.

[toepick]

This is the last straw for me. I'm not going to voluntarily live in a crazy Tea Party state, where people care more about the right of Kim Davis to discriminate against others than providing health care. All in the name of "Christianity."

[toepick]

Nov 4, 2015 8:04:35 GMT -5 wambam said:

I forsee an influx of Kentucky expats to Ohio.

And as always in these discussions, I feel obligated to remind everyone that there are Lexington and Louisville and then there's the rest of Kentucky. When you look at a political map (I remember one vividly from the 2008 presidential election), it's VERY apparent where those two cities are.

I"m sorry to say that in my opinion, Ohio isn't much better than Kentucky.  If I'm going to move, it's going to be to a blue state. In fairness, your governor is far less crazy than Bevin.  But that's not saying much. 

[toepick]

This lead sentence sums it up: "Republican Matt Bevin defeated Democrat Barack Obama in the race for Kentucky governor."

[anonymous]

this makes me really worried for 2016

[underwaterrhymes]

It really upsets me that fear is a more powerful motivator for voting than inequality.

[toepick]

Nov 4, 2015 10:03:12 GMT -5 anonymous said:

this makes me really worried for 2016

Yes, suddenly President Ben Carson seems possible.  Shudder. 

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2015 10:06:59 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

It really upsets me that fear is a more powerful motivator for voting than inequality.

Well, to be fair, everyone votes based on fear. Dems may vote based on the fear that rights will be taken away. Reps may vote based on the fear that freedom will be taken away. Fear is a powerful motivator for everyone.

[tacosforlife]

Does anybody else remember when Rand Paul criticized Social Security disability recipients as a bunch of whiners who weren't actually disabled?

Well, 178,794, or approximately 4 percent, of Kentucky's 4,413,457 residents receive disability. You know what would be a great way to reduce disability applications? Expanding health coverage like Medicaid! A lot of people apply for disability because they don't have health insurance but can get Medicaid if they are found to be disabled. When you can't afford the medical treatment you need, can you really blame someone for trying to get disability as a way to pay for it? So, Senator Paul, Governor-elect Bevin, and others who oppose the ACA and Medicaid expansion: what exactly do you propose these 400,000 Kentuckians who are about to lose health insurance do?

I would like to see data on this issue because I suspect that universal health care could significantly reduce the number of disabled people in this country, but I have no proof of that.

[ttt]

Nov 3, 2015 23:48:23 GMT -5 katietornado said:

As HuffPost's Jeff Young reported, one consequence of Bevin's victory is that about 400,000 Kentucky residents who qualify for Medicaid under the expansion are now at risk of losing their health insurance.

I am so curious to know how many of these 400,000 people voted for Bevin. 

[jeaniebueller]

Here is this guys profile from the Lexington paper.

www.kentucky.com/2015/05/09/3844063/gubernatorial-profile-matt-bevin.html

Republican financier Matt Bevin can talk without notes for an hour about why he wants to be Kentucky's next governor, easily tossing out facts to support his case for a smaller state government that does less.

Some of Bevin's facts might come especially easily because they're not correct.

"What's your take on Common Core?" Cincinnati radio host Brian Thomas asked Bevin in March, referring to math and English education standards implemented in Kentucky and more than 40 other states.

"Can't stand it!" Bevin replied.

"I'll tell you," Bevin said, "when you ask questions of third-graders, 'Which of the following groups of people doesn't care about the poor?', and the correct answer is 'conservatives,' that's the kind of garbage that's being foisted down the throats of our young people. It's not conducive to actually improving their educational ability."

But Common Core does not mention the poor or conservatives or mandate specific questions. Bevin was referring to a story reported by Fox News in February about a Wisconsin high school teacher who — entirely on her own — gave a "political spectrum" quiz to her civics students.

When a reporter asked Bevin about his Common Core anecdote at a recent campaign stop in Lexington, a luncheon for home-schooling parents, he shrugged and said, "Look, that was just one example."

Then he segued into his oft-repeated complaint about state government growing since Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear took office in December 2007, from 80,000 full-time employees to "more than 85,000."

In fact, state government's executive, judicial and legislative branches employed 35,950 people at the start of this fiscal year, down 9 percent from Beshear's inauguration, according to the state Personnel Cabinet. Asked to explain the discrepancy, Bevin said he is referring to the number of people in the public pension systems, which includes many thousands who work at regional universities, nonprofit mental health centers and prosecutors' offices, among other places. He said he's also counting the people who serve on several hundred public boards and commissions.

As a successful investment manager in Louisville, 48-year-old Matthew Griswold Bevin has earned himself millions of dollars by making complex market decisions on where to put his clients' money. Integrity Asset Management, the firm Bevin founded in 2003, was lucrative enough to be bought out twice by larger companies. It now oversees $5.1 billion in public and private assets.

Bevin views government far more simply: The less, the better. Beyond a few core functions, such as providing highways and law enforcement, Kentucky's state government should get out of the way, he says.

Bevin says he would "lead the charge" to cut taxes and regulations and largely leave businesses and local governments to run their own affairs. If they wish, parents should be able to take the "per-pupil spending" allocated for their children away from public schools and apply it to the cost of private, religious or charter schools or home-schooling. Bevin's nine children in Jefferson County are home-schooled.

"Why should these parents be precluded from — why are they paying for public education and then also having to pay the costs of home-schooling?" Bevin asked. "It's discrimination for political reasons, because the teachers' unions fear other alternatives are a threat to them."

Also, Bevin says, it's time to cut up state government's credit cards. If Frankfort can't afford something without more debt, then it probably should do without, he says. From guaranteed public pensions that can start at age 50 to Medicaid coverage for one-fourth of all citizens, Kentucky "has become a welfare state" because its politicians don't know how to say "No" to anyone, Bevin said at the Lexington campaign stop.

"There is too much belief that government is the solution," Bevin said.

"The reality is that government is broke. We are now borrowing money from our children and our grandchildren. We're hoping they will continue to live in Kentucky and pay taxes in Kentucky in order to pay back the obligations we are saddling them with, because we are unwilling today to make the kind of decisions necessary to manage our house according to what we can afford," he said.

"'That government is best which governs least,' that's from Thomas Jefferson," Bevin summed up. (There is no record of Jefferson making that statement, according to the nonprofit Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello in Charlottesville, Va. The quote, attributed to various sources, first appeared in print after Jefferson's death in 1826.)

Conservative maverick

A New England native, Bevin served in the Army during the early 1990s and then moved to Louisville in 1999 for a finance job at National Asset Management. He quit that company in 2003, after it was sold, and started Integrity Asset Management with a handful of managers that he recruited from National City Corp. Within a few years, it was handling more than $1 billion in investments for governments and companies, a sum that doubled and doubled again. Bevin said he no longer plays a role at the firm, concentrating entirely on his campaign.

At home, Bevin and his wife, Glenna, wanted a big family. Among their nine children are four adopted from Ethiopia.

Talking to voters recently, Bevin became visibly emotional when a woman in the audience told him she was treated badly by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services as she tried to become a foster mother for children in state custody. He responded with his own story about the state not letting him and his wife take in a foster daughter because they already had five children at the time, despite their wealth and spacious home. So the adolescent girl was left to continue "bouncing around the system," Bevin said, his eyes welling with tears.

"There's little reason for much of the bureaucracy that exists," Bevin told the woman in a choked voice. After pausing a few moments to regain his composure, he smiled ruefully and said "you can probably tell this is very personal for me."

His compassion does not extend to leaders of the Republican Party.

If Democrats are guilty of "government overreach," then Republicans can be accused of "crony capitalism," using political influence to pick winners and losers in the market with bailouts and subsidies, Bevin says. He once told The National Review magazine that he could not bring himself to vote for Republican President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004. Instead, he backed Constitution Party candidate Michael Peroutka.

Last year, Bevin made a name for himself by challenging Mitch McConnell in the Republican U.S. Senate primary. He accused McConnell — the godfather of the Kentucky GOP — of "losing touch" and voting for higher taxes, bailouts, debt ceiling increases, congressional pay raises and liberal judges. McConnell rolled over Bevin on his way to a sixth term. The senator and his allies relentlessly attacked Bevin's character in television spots, branding him a liar and a tax cheat.

Having lost the Senate primary by 25 points, Bevin never reconciled with McConnell. In his concession speech, Bevin told a room full of supporters, "We know — and we're not gonna soon forget — that we have been lied about. We know that we've been boxed out. We know that we've been ridiculed."

Last man standing?

This year, Bevin says, Republican Party bosses are keeping their distance from him, unlike two of his opponents — Louisville developer Hal Heiner and state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer — who enjoy "the support of the Washington and Frankfort interests. ... It's a divided field, where half of the establishment wants one guy and half of the establishment wants the other guy." (Bevin says his third rival, retired state Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott, is "a nice guy" with no chance of winning.)

"Every Lincoln Day dinner I've been to across the state, you won't see an elected official wearing one of my stickers. They're scared to," Bevin said at a recent campaign stop.

As a maverick, Bevin says, he's free to criticize both political parties in Frankfort for ignoring grievous problems, such as the tens of billions of dollars in unfunded public pension liabilities owed to state workers and school teachers.

"This last (legislative) session, we expended most of the oxygen in the room on things that nobody cares about, like where kids can go to the bathroom at school. But we didn't touch the pension crisis," he said. "More than 800 pieces of legislation were filed, and only one of them offered any solution on pensions. And that solution was borrowing $3.3 billion in bonds, saddling our children and grandchildren with still more debt."

Bevin's message plays well with conservatives who share his skepticism about politics as usual.

John Wiggill, 62, a Lexington retiree, said he was impressed in April after hearing Bevin call for a shift to 401(k) defined-contribution accounts for public workers, replacing the traditional defined-benefits pensions or the more recent "cash-balance" hybrid plans that guarantee minimum payouts. Such a move would put the burden on public workers to save enough money, invest shrewdly and time their retirements well, as most private sector workers must.

Wiggill's T-shirt bore the question "Who is John Galt?", a reference to Ayn Rand's libertarian novel Atlas Shrugged.

"I've never been involved in any sort of political activity, but I was inspired here today," Wiggill said, watching as Bevin posed for selfies with voters. "This is an issue that's got to be handled. I think Matt has the best thought-out plan. I don't think there's as much substance to the others' messages. They're mostly just attacking the other guys."

Some believe those attacks could help Bevin win the nomination. As Heiner and Comer blast each other with growing ferocity, leveling personal and political accusations, "Bevin's chances appear to be on the rise," the Washington Post's political blog observed last week.

'Subsidizing poor decisions'

For all the feuding, Bevin and his primary opponents often agree on more than they disagree.

■ All say they would dismantle Kynect, the state's health insurance exchange that Beshear created under the Affordable Care Act. Kentuckians can buy insurance through the federal exchange, Bevin said. "Kentucky cannot financially afford" to operate Kynect, he said.

The $28 million annual cost of operating Kynect actually takes no money from the state's General Fund, according to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. It's entirely paid for through an existing assessment on insurers that previously was used to fund Kentucky Access, the state's high-risk insurance pool, which closed as its users switched to Kynect.

Bevin said he's appalled that one in four Kentuckians now get their health insurance from Medicaid, a $450-billion-a-year government program created for the poor and disabled. About 375,000 Kentuckians enrolled in Medicaid through Kynect just between 2014 and the first part of this year.

"We do not need this many people — able-bodied, working-age people — taking advantage of the system," Bevin told a debate audience in Versailles last month. "We've got to stop subsidizing poor decisions. Stop subsidizing those who are able to take advantage of a situation and of a system that we literally cannot afford to continue."

■ All four Republicans say Kentucky must enact "right-to-work" legislation that would end workplace requirements for union membership.

"It is now, whether we like it or not, a litmus test for large employers who skip us by because we're the only state left in the South that does not have it," Bevin said in Versailles. "The jobs are being sucked out of here by states that are beating us at our own game."

The liberal-leaning Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, in Berea, challenges such claims. Kentucky considerably outpaced some of its right-to-work neighbors, including Tennessee and Virginia, in manufacturing job growth since the 2008 recession, the KyCEP said in an April report. And according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, unions represent only 12.8 percent of Kentucky workers, the majority of them employed by government.

■ All of the GOP candidates say they would cut individual and corporate tax rates to boost the economy. In particular, Bevin stresses that he would eliminate Kentucky's "death tax," which he says makes it impossible for families to pass along farms and businesses to the next generation.

"Why do we still have a death tax in this state?" Bevin asked in a recent interview. "It's an antiquated form of double-taxation."

Kentucky no longer taxes estates when people die, according to the state Department of Revenue. The state's estate tax effectively was repealed by federal law for the estates of those who died after 2004. The state does impose an inheritance tax on those getting assets from an estate, but it exempts most family members, such as parents, siblings, spouses, children and grandchildren.

John Cheves: [phone]. Twitter: @bgpolitics. Blog: luegrasspolitics.bloginky.com

Read more here: www.kentucky.com/2015/05/09/3844063/gubernatorial-profile-matt-bevin.html#storylink=cpy

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2015 10:32:21 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Nov 4, 2015 10:20:59 GMT -5 lurkingaw said:

Well, to be fair, everyone votes based on fear. Dems may vote based on the fear that rights will be taken away. Reps may vote based on the fear that freedom will be taken away. Fear is a powerful motivator for everyone.

?  Way to oversimplify.  Also, I don't see where she singled out one party in that statement.

I vote Dem because they are closer to what I believe on social issues.  That everyone should have decent housing, affordable healthcare and a good education.  That government is not evil, and is in fact NECESSARY to make these things happen, thus, I'm OK with it being large.  I think we also need to spend money on infrastructure.  I also think that all people, regardless of gender, sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, etc. should be treated equally and given the same opportunity and pay.

Are the Dems actually doing all of this?  Of course not!  But at least they agree with me that this is the general direction in which we need to go and will work on some of these things.

You want to call all of that "fear"?

I said "may" vote on fear. I've heard many Dems say they fear someone like Cruz. They fear that their reproductive rights could be taken away. Or they fear that PP could be defunded. Just like I've heard some Reps say they fear gun rights could be taken away or stuff like that. I think it's an oversimplification to say that either side votes solely on fear. Everyone does to a certain extent, and it MAY be the sole motivating factor for many, but I think both sides are just generally voting fir the party that aligns the closest with their ideology. And I think it's unfair in this thread to paint all the people who voted for this guy as scared bigots. Perhaps freedom or states' rights or many other big issues for Reps are the deciding factor in the vote. They aren't just voting against gays or whatever you think makes them bigots.

[jeaniebueller]

Remember when everyone thought that President Obama was crazy for making his "clinging to their guns and religion" comment? Yeah. Well...look where we are, people.

It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

[2curlydogs]

Welcome to Hell, Kentucky.

Signed,
Wisconsinite

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2015 11:02:24 GMT -5 @littlemoxie said:

Nov 4, 2015 10:48:54 GMT -5 lurkingaw said:

I said "may" vote on fear. I've heard many Dems say they fear someone like Cruz. They fear that their reproductive rights could be taken away. Or they fear that PP could be defunded. Just like I've heard some Reps say they fear gun rights could be taken away or stuff like that. I think it's an oversimplification to say that either side votes solely on fear. Everyone does to a certain extent, and it MAY be the sole motivating factor for many, but I think both sides are just generally voting fir the party that aligns the closest with their ideology. And I think it's unfair in this thread to paint all the people who voted for this guy as scared bigots. Perhaps freedom or states' rights or many other big issues for Reps are the deciding factor in the vote. They aren't just voting against gays or whatever you think makes them bigots.

"Well to be fair everyone votes based on fear."

Everyone does to a certain extent. Whether or not it is their main motivating factor is another thing.

So you're telling me you don't fear a conservative Supreme Court or a president that wants to end abortion?

[toepick]

Nov 4, 2015 10:27:22 GMT -5 ttt said:

Nov 3, 2015 23:48:23 GMT -5 katietornado said:

As HuffPost's Jeff Young reported, one consequence of Bevin's victory is that about 400,000 Kentucky residents who qualify for Medicaid under the expansion are now at risk of losing their health insurance.

I am so curious to know how many of these 400,000 people voted for Bevin. 

More people will lose health insurance than voted for Conway statewide.  Chew on that.  

It all goes back to "What's the matter with Kansas?"  Republicans are masters of convincing people to vote against their self-interest.  And I don't know how to counter that.  

[katietornado]

Nov 4, 2015 9:40:43 GMT -5 toepick said:

Nov 4, 2015 8:04:35 GMT -5 wambam said:

I forsee an influx of Kentucky expats to Ohio.

And as always in these discussions, I feel obligated to remind everyone that there are Lexington and Louisville and then there's the rest of Kentucky. When you look at a political map (I remember one vividly from the 2008 presidential election), it's VERY apparent where those two cities are.

I"m sorry to say that in my opinion, Ohio isn't much better than Kentucky.  If I'm going to move, it's going to be to a blue state. In fairness, your governor is far less crazy than Bevin.  But that's not saying much. 

Kasich definitely has had his crazy moments, but Ohio had a fairly liberal Dem governor not that long ago (Strickland), and I imagine that could return with the next election.  Kasich opposed the Heartbeat Bill (disallowing abortion once a fetal heartbeat has been detected), he expanded Medicaid, and he's not anti-same sex marriage.

Ohio has its red areas, but it was my experience there that someone like Bevin wouldn't stand a chance of being elected.