SOURCE: Beshear attempting to get Boswell to drop bid for Second Congressional District seat

A reliable source reports to KyPolitics.org that, in a tried-and-true Beshear administration tactic, Governor Steve Beshear is in private talks with State Senator David Boswell (D-Sorgho) in an effort to entice him to drop his bid for Kentucky's Second Congressional District seat. Boswell is locked in a primary race with fellow Daviess County Democrat Reid Haire, the county judge-executive. Both are seeking the seat that will be vacated by seven-term incumbent, Congressman Ron Lewis (R-Cecilia). State Senator Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green) will be the GOP nominee for the seat in the fall election.

Reportedly, Beshear is offering Boswell an opportunity to join the state payroll, similar to the arrangement that Beshear worked out with former state representative James Brandon Spencer, who gave up his House seat in favor of fellow Democrat and former Attorney General Greg Stumbo in exchange for a job in the Pikeville district office of the state transportation cabinet.

Beshear favors bypassing a potentially messy Democrat primary in the hopes that the eventual nominee would enjoy a tailwind versus headwind going into the general election.

Boswell's current employment, as marketing director for the Executive Inn Rivermont in Owensboro, is in question as the hotel is set to be sold at public auction on April 21 at the front door of the Daviess County Courthouse. Poor management of the Executive Inn Rivermont has forced at least one owner into bankruptcy in the past decade, and the current owner, Minnesota/Owensboro Executive Inn LLC, is being sued by the mortgage holder for $9.5 million in unpaid debt. That unpaid debt has resulted in the property's current sale at auction.

In order to accept a state job in the executive branch, Boswell would be required by law to vacate his Senate seat that he has held for the previous 18 years. While he may be reluctant to make this move, the personal financial security of a state job would be a motivating factor for Boswell. To sweeten the deal, Beshear might also throw in a promise to appoint Boswell as the Daviess County judge-executive, in the event that Haire were to win the congressional race and vacate that office.

According to our source, Boswell is going to report raising a paltry $25K - $50K in his first-quarter FEC fundraising report for the congressional race, with at least some of that total coming from a personal loan. PolitickerKY reported last week that Boswell's campaign manager was bemoaning the fact that he has had little time to raise money during the recent legislative session.

Regardless of whether Boswell seizes the carrot that Beshear is dangling and regardless of which Democrat emerges from the May primary, Brett Guthrie is heavily favored in this race. We understand that he expects to report in the neighborhood of $300,000 raised in the first quarter of this year. Guthrie has maintained an aggressive schedule of public appearances in the district, even though he has no primary competition and was busy this session as the key architect of the Kentucky Senate's version of the transportation budget as chairman of the transportation committee in that chamber.

Comments

Quit picking on Beshear and Boswell. You rightwing nuts just pick, pick, pick. If the governor helps Senator David get a job, so be it. What's state patronage for but to give your buddies state taxpayer-funded jobs??? To the victor goes the spoils, doesn't it?

So Boswell works for the Executive? No wonder he pushed so hard for casino gambling. The Executive hoped to put an off-track casino in.

Why lean on Boswell to drop out? I'd think he'd be the favorite vs. Haire in the primary.

Beshear's political skills are about as sharp as Jared Carter's jumper.

1:05 - You're right, Boswell's name ID makes him the favorite in the primary. But Beshear's looking at the general election, and Haire is the more electable Dem in that race. Boswell's got a ton a baggage and bad votes from his time in the legislature and he has trouble putting two sentences together in a coherent thought. Public speaking ain't his thing. Add to that the fact that Boswell is horrible at fundraising and you have the makings of easy GOP hold in the 2nd district.

Haire is a fresh face who is fairly charismatic and is actually raising money. He doesn't have nearly the number of detractors that Boswell does in Daviess County.

Beshear wants to have a shot playing kingmaker in this race, and Haire fits that profile. Boswell doesn't have a prayer.

One of the last active threads on Bluegrass Report was about the Haire/Boswell race. Lots of namecalling between the two guys' supporters. Rumors of skeletons in the closet of both candidates.

Call me crazy, but won't the GOP have a field day running against Haire, a former IRS tax collector?

An IRS tax collector? Sounds like Beshear's kind of guy.

Beshear using tax payor dollars to buy influence for Democrats is old hat. He sat on his hands as AG when Sony Hunt funneled $800,000 in tax dollars to various Democratic big wigs through a phony insuarnce premium scam.

Even after Hunt plead guilty and admitted that the Dems hand't earned the money, Beshear said he had no idea how to get the money back for the taxpayors. Any first year law student could have come up with half a dozen legal theories including criminal fraud. But charging your Democratic buddies with felonies doesn't go over well for an up and coming politician. So, Beshear did nothing.

Kentucky has managed to get rid of a good Governor and elect the most dishonest, corrupt politician of the past threee decades in Steve Beshear. So, what else is new?

[Steve Metzger]

"Kentucky has managed to get rid of a good Governor and elect the most dishonest, corrupt politician of the past three decades in Steve Beshear."

Please. Admittedly, Beshear has some issues with honesty, but you would rather have the governor with the "escape hatch" back? It's time for more transparency in government, not less.

I don't blame Fletcher. If I had to deal with @$$holes like Alessi and Loftus and Hebert on a daily basis, I'd have an escape hatch myself.

[writing up dissertation]

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