Posted on Wed, May. 14, 2008

Tone mellows before primary

Kentucky gets less attention

By Ryan Alessi

RALESSI@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Eddie Bernice Johnson

While Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton appears poised for a big victory in Kentucky's primary Tuesday, it could be a case of winning the battle but losing the war.

The May 20 elections in the Bluegrass State and Oregon could effectively deliver Barack Obama the nomination if he collects enough delegates from those two states to push him over the necessary threshold of 2,025. He needed roughly 150 more delegates before Tuesday's contest in West Virginia.

Perhaps sensing the end is near, both candidates have changed tones in their rhetoric during speeches in Kentucky and focused on party unity and defeating Republicans instead of each other. This transition from primary race mentality to general election campaign talk could help explain why Kentucky isn't receiving the same level of attention experienced by other states with recent primaries, such as Indiana and North Carolina.

Obama and Clinton have each given one speech in Kentucky this month and both were focused largely on unifying the party and replacing the Republicans in the White House.

"There may be some bruised feelings and people may be frustrated ... but Democrats are going to be unified," Obama said in Louisville Monday night, which could be his only stop in Kentucky after he cancelled a Tuesday stop in Lexington to return to Washington for Senate votes.

Obama argued that the protracted race has had some benefits to the party. "First of all, this long contest has meant that every person across this country has had a chance to vote," he said.

Democrats in West Virginia got their chance Tuesday and, as predicted, overwhelmingly picked Clinton.

Kentucky and Oregon voters are up next. And some observers and even Clinton-supporters say the results from those states could afford both candidates reasons to finally end this contest, which began in early 2007.

"It might well be a good time because she'll obviously carry West Virginia today and Kentucky next week," said Terry McBrayer, a former Kentucky Democratic Party chairman and longtime Clinton supporter who will serve as a superdelegate at the party's August convention in Denver.

Kentucky would give Clinton her chance to end on a high note, he acknowledged.

McBrayer, who is consulted occasionally by Clinton and her husband, Bill, said he has received "no indication one way or the other" whether Clinton has targeted the May 20 primaries for her exit date.

Obama, who leads Clinton in total delegates, popular votes and states won, could nail down the nomination by continuing to pick up superdelegate endorsements and by securing enough pledged delegates among the 103 up for grabs in Kentucky and Oregon combined.

That would be welcome news for prominent Obama supporters who not only want to see their candidate lock up the nomination but also are seeking to avoid a brokered convention that could disenfranchise Democratic voters.

"I hope it won't get to the point when we have to have a meeting with the superdelegates," U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas told Obama volunteers in Lexington on Sunday. "I'm really tired of this primary."

A kinder, gentler primary

Clinton, sounding a bit hoarse and tired, spent the first third of her speech to Kentucky Democrats on Friday night criticizing the Bush administration and calling for Democrats to stand together to defeat likely GOP nominee John McCain. She spoke for more than 10 minutes before mentioning her credentials.

"This has been a spirited election," she said.

Then, Monday night, Obama, who also appeared road-weary when he began speaking, glanced over his race against Clinton in order to focus on McCain.

"You've seen a fairly dramatic change from both of them," McBrayer said. "There's been an easing down and a smoothing. It's almost as if it's orchestrated from both of them."

Richard Fording, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, said the transition into general election rhetoric couldn't come soon enough for the Democrats, who have already allowed McCain to campaign freely and unscathed for nearly two months since he secured the GOP's nomination.

"It sounds like they're aware of how this campaign has been perceived at times and the potential damage it can do, and neither of them wants to go down in history as the ones who doomed another Democratic campaign for the White House," Fording said.

What's next in Kentucky

Neither campaign says it has given up on campaigning in Kentucky.

Former President Bill Clinton is slated to stump for his wife in Louisville, Bardstown and Elizabethtown on Thursday and stay to campaign elsewhere in Kentucky on Friday, the campaign announced.

And Jerry Lundergan, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman in Kentucky, told supporters Monday night that the margin of victory and turnout in Kentucky remains essential to Clinton's quest for the nomination.

Obama's campaign dispatched an e-mail to its Bluegrass supporters Tuesday thanking them for "the excitement" at Monday's rally and urging them to participate in get-out-the-vote efforts.

The Obama campaign conceded that canceling a planned forum for nurses at the University of Kentucky Tuesday was a disappointment. Obama returned to Washington for key votes on a flood insurance bill.

"We're obviously still hoping to get Senator Obama back here," said spokesman Clark Stevens.

Obama supporters say they aren't concerned by losing Kentucky's primary to Clinton, who leads by 27 points in the Herald-Leader/WKYT Kentucky Poll.

"You need a candidate who will still stand if they don't win everything," said Johnson, the Texas congresswoman. "I admire him for having the courage to continue to do it."