Kentucky's hard fought sixth district U.S.

House race.

The U.S.

Senate reconvenes Monday.

[MUSIC] Will Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell be there?

Former Governor Matt Bevin appeals his sentence as Louisville jail officials deny reports he's getting any special treatment.

In 25 years after nine over 11, Kentuckians commemorate the day and remember the losses.

Some rain for some on this September weekend and comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant, and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

A look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Isaiah Kim Martinez, political reporter for WHAS11 in Louisville, KY.

State politics reporter for the Courier-Journal.

And John Cheeves, reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Also tonight, major layoffs at a key Kentucky news outlet and remembering the life and legacy of a frequent panelist on this program.

Let's start with politics.

And now that we are past Labor Day, the November election is clearly in sight.

One of the most closely watched races in Kentucky is that sixth district House seat held by Republican Congressman Andy Barr, who is running for the Senate.

So it's an open seat.

Isaiah, there's a debate about debates in that race right now.

Alvarado has agreed to one debate, and apparently now Dimbo says he doesn't want to do that one.

And so here we are at this time with both candidates saying they're willing to debate but can't agree where.

>> And challenging each other to participate in these debates.

Bill it seems like Zach Dembo his sort of condition here with the spectrum news debate is that it is based or spectrum news.

One is based in Louisville, which is outside the sixth Congressional District, although you can argue they do have statewide reach.

So he says, I don't really want to do that one, which is the one that Ralph Alvarado has committed to.

But then, Alvarado argues, you know, the campaign schedule does not allow me to do these other two debates.

Zach Dembo has already agreed to.

So essentially, we're in a place right now where, as it stands right now, we have no debate on the books, whether that changes.

We'll have to see.

>> Well, Dimbo had called for more debates.

Right.

>> He has challenged Alvarado for these two, specifically one with KET and one with KET.

I don't believe I've seen any language specifically to say let's do more.

I think they're trying to figure out how to get to one at this point.

>> Which KET, by the way, considers.

There's a forum as opposed to the straight ahead debate format.

John invitations are still out there.

Will there be a debate in this hotly contested race?

>> I don't know, they're halfway there.

They've agreed to debate.

Now they just have to agree.

Which debate?

It seems like this is something that grown ups should be able to get together and decide, you know, I, I can only imagine that the between now and Election day, they will conclude that it's to both of their advantages to serve the voters and appear on TV together.

>> Well, clearly there's been some polling indicating that this could be a tight race.

You know, Republicans hold a very small registration advantage.

It's a little over 2000 votes in the whole district over Democrats, but there are close to 70,000 independents in the sixth district.

So don't both candidates really need to reach those unaffiliated voters?

>> Yeah, it's probably in their best interest to do a debate because they have two months to change some of these people's minds, or to get them to come out to the polls in general, Republicans have said throughout this lead up to the November elections that they're concerned about this enthusiasm gap or motivation gap within their voters.

So not only do they have to try and scoop up as many of these independent or undecided voters as they can, they also have to make sure that their own party turns out for them on November.

>> Isn't it fair to say in a race this tight, you know that over 12% of the registration being independent is going to need to be courted?

>> Absolutely.

And you mentioned this before the show, Bill how you know the district itself.

There is an even greater percentage than statewide.

I mean, you want to talk about, you know, we saw so much of the messaging sort of shift focus here, you know, in the primaries for Republicans leading up to it, it was all about President Trump.

I'm the president.

Trump supported candidate.

But now you're seeing sort of the messaging on the affordability aspect, health care.

John mentioned some of the ads that we've seen.

I mean, with Zach Dembo, he leads by saying, I hate politics.

In his latest ad, which is sort of you got to imagine appealing to maybe some of those folks who don't feel like either party really represents them.

>> Yeah, they both have good TV ads up now.

I think they're good anyway, for what that's worth, Doctor Alvarado, the Republicans got one up with him and his white lab coat talking about affordable health care prices, transparency of health care prices going into medical procedures, Zach Dembo the Democrats got one of him in a courtroom.

He's a former federal prosecutor talking about how he's not a politician, but he does prosecute corruption, and he'll root out corruption as a congressman.

Neither one's talking about the political parties.

Neither one is attacking the other.

I think very clearly they're aiming at both moderates and independent voters.

>> John, you did some reporting this week in the Herald-Leader that Alvarado maintained employment here in Kentucky while he served as Tennessee's public health commissioner.

And he responded.

>> Right.

Well, Doctor Alvarado has spent several years living and working in Nashville as that state's Tennessee's full time state health commissioner.

He did come back to Kentucky.

He had his medical practice in Winchester.

He also worked as a medical director at different times for up to eight different health care facilities, including a number of nursing homes, some of which, as with earlier in his career, were not very well rated.

They had some deficiencies, some lawsuits, some some issues to work out.

His argument to me was, well, this isn't a problem.

I work 90 hours a week.

I drove back every other weekend.

I'm on top of it all.

I was able to not shortchange anybody.

There were some issues raised in my story by others about possible conflicts of interest.

Your state health care regulator while you're working for health care institutions and being paid by them.

Also, there's some concern as a medical director at health care facilities, are you really giving them the full attention they need while you're working a full time job in another state, a seven hour round trip away, he says he was on top of.

>> It.

Isaiah Alvarado's team, meanwhile, is hitting Dimbo.

They're calling him a cop.

Prosecutor.

>> Yeah, really trying to lean into one of the biggest Republican bases there, arguing.

Yeah, you were a former federal prosecutor, but the people you prosecuted are the very agencies, the very law enforcement agencies that a lot of voters out there support.

And in their words, you know, Zach Dembo is somebody who was connected to the Breonna Taylor case, of course, based in Louisville, but they actually at one of the press conferences at the FOP endorsement of Alvarado, his team also brought a former Kentucky state trooper who essentially shared his testimony on how he felt like Zach Dembo didn't handle his case with the most transparency.

So they're really trying to key in.

Yes.

You were a former prosecutor, but maybe you didn't handle it quite the way that you should.

Is their argument.

>> So we'll see if these ads continue to be on the issues or they start going into some of these other directions.

This is the the race, though, that Kentuckians are watching, right?

Or it's being watched outside Kentucky especially.

>> This is the race to watch.

I think there's been a lot of conversations nationally about the seats that could flip in the midterms.

Midterms usually see, I think, an average of 24 seats flip.

And I think that the Democrats are hoping that this is one.

And we can't forget that Barr flipped this seat from blue to red when he ran.

So yeah, it's the one to watch.

>> Kentucky's U.S.

Senate race, of course, features a much better funded Republican, Andy Barr, going up against hard charging Democrat Charles Booker and Kelly Booker put out a poll this week that was done for his campaign, suggesting he said in the narrative that it might be within striking distance.

But doesn't he face some pretty tough headwinds?

>> Yeah, it's definitely an uphill battle for Booker.

I would say his own poll shows that he's nine points down behind Barr, although they will say that once that potential voters were given information about both candidates, that that evened out to 43%.

But you know, it's still going to be a challenge, probably for the Democrats, but they're hoping that this kind of helps get people excited about the race, helps draw more attention to it and kind of can bolster it for the next two months.

Coming up.

>> It'll be really interesting to see.

I've been asking this question of both Charles Booker and his campaign.

You know, they're going to have to win in rural areas in order to win this race, to even have it be competitive.

It can't just be Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort.

So I've asked the question, hey, are you going to get out in West Kentucky, eastern Kentucky?

Where are you going to be campaigning here?

Give us a list of spots we'll be there to cover.

And so far I haven't heard specifics yet.

Not saying couldn't be the case.

We still have days to go, but I think how he speaks to those voters, I think will be very interesting.

What's that messaging like to speak to areas that have become more Republican?

>> Refrain.

Hood to the holler is intended to make that bridge.

>> Exactly.

And he did have some presence in Eastern Kentucky, I believe in the race that he ran.

I can't remember if it was 22 or 2020, but he's known to that community to some degree, and he has name recognition there.

But we'll have to see how that resonates.

>> Well, as we said, Barr has the monetary advantage and he put up an ad this week featuring one of his daughters.

>> My dad, Andy Barr, loves Kentucky like a lot.

>> John is it a luxury for Barr to be able to at this point, put up this sort of feel good advertising, rather than doing attack ads?

Or does it indicate where he feels the race may be that he takes this stance?

>> I think it's the second.

It's probably a good idea to Andy Barr had some pretty vicious, bitter primary advertising where again, as we remember, he talked about how it's not a crime to be a white man.

And, you know, woke and liberal tears and a lot of other really, you know, pretty, pretty nasty.

>> Stuff to be Christian.

>> Not a sin, to be Christian, as if somebody said it was.

And but this is a dad ad.

This really does feel good.

It's very cute.

His daughter is very cute.

And I think we were talking before about in the house race, appealing to the independent and moderate voters as clearly as Andy Barr's attempt to do so, as well.

And it could very well succeed, assuming the voters forget what they just saw five minutes ago on television.

>> Booker is working really hard to inject data centers into this Senate race.

>> Yeah, I mean, to his credit, he did call for a a nationwide or I guess this case statewide moratorium before we start to see them trickle into localities across Kentucky.

So, I mean, clearly, he sees that as an issue that we've seen, not just be like Republican or Democrat crosses party lines.

You have concern across the board.

So he definitely believes he can win over potentially some Republican moderate voters there.

>> It's a big issue out there, by the way, Woodford County, along with the cities of Versailles and Midway, did a county wide ban.

I think the first this week, the U.S.

Senate goes back in session Monday, and one bit of suspense is whether Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell will return to the chamber for the first time since he suffered a fall.

June 14th.

Governor Andy Beshear said this week.

If McConnell is not there, other answers will be needed.

>> I have still heard absolutely nothing from the senator.

He has been absent from work for, what, about three months now, which is unacceptable.

But if he is not there on Monday, he has an explanation.

He owes an explanation to the American people, to the people of Kentucky.

You can't not show up for work and not call and talk to your boss.

And his boss is the people of Kentucky.

>> John this has been a question all summer long.

Speculation and rumors have circulated about McConnell's health and his Senate office has repeatedly worked to ask for more time.

>> Sure, it's understandable that there are rumors Mitch McConnell is 84 years old.

He has certainly a recent history of serious health problems.

He was rushed to the hospital three months ago.

All we've gotten since then is a couple of photographs of him in bed, and we're told he's been recuperating from whatever medical ailments put him in the hospital in the first place.

That's all we have.

We don't really know much more.

>> Kelly of Forbes, I think, was one of the outlets reporting that his staffers have indicated to Senate leadership that he will be in the Senate next week.

>> Yeah, a lot of people have talked to his staff, and they say that they hope to see him in September, whether that's on Monday, we don't know.

But there's a really important farm bill that has to go through committee to go through the floor.

McConnell sits on that committee, and they were unable to pass it in August because of his absence.

And so they're hoping that he can be back for some of these crucial votes, not only on the farm bill, but on a couple others.

>> And ICE Beshear has repeatedly said that McConnell's staff should have been more forthcoming.

But there's really not a lot the governor could do or can do.

>> No matter what you see on social media.

Bill he can't force Senator McConnell out of his seat.

In fact, he brings up Senate Majority Leader John Thune a lot as him to him and him alone, sort of holding this power to be able to to call into question some of the transparency, in Beshear's words, issues.

But if you ask Senator McConnell's team, I mean, they have been from the start saying that this is a time that the senator has asked for privacy and that when he does return, he'll surely let people know how he's doing.

And we'll see if the urgency comes this next.

>> Week on that farm.

Bill, I know you talked to the the Farm Bureau, and we have just a little bit of that.

We'll hear.

>> When you're looking at diesel prices being $6 a gallon and fertilizer prices still being up, that puts immense pressure on farmers in order to just break even.

Getting a farm bill done, you ensure that there is that protection within there.

We expect him to be back at work as soon as he is able, and I know that he wants to be there next week.

>> As Kelly mentioned, right, this big vote, McConnell is the tiebreaker here.

And Politico actually told the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman that he told Politico that he's going to call this vote next week.

He says he hopes McConnell will be there, but can't say for sure whether he is.

We'll have to see, because that ultimately will affect a lot of farmers in Kentucky and across the country.

If it doesn't.

>> Yeah, that farm bill is overdue.

I think the last one was 2018, and that's a major thing.

And Democrats will not vote for the bill because of their holding out for SNAP.

>> They could pass an extension, though, which sounds like it's very.

>> Much been done.

I mean, typically passed every five years.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

Republicans held their first ever midterm convention in Texas this week.

At the same time, several Democratic governors were in Louisville, where they joined Governor Beshear.

And they talked about the party's priorities.

So we had that bit of competition for the narrative this week.

I think Andy Barr went out to Texas for one evening, have that event right.

>> State lawmakers were out there to Senate majority floor leader in Frankfort, Max Wise was there.

State Rep John Hodgson was there.

So it definitely wasn't a huge contingent of state lawmakers.

As I understand.

But there were definitely some of them.

>> And the Democratic governors, five of them were in Louisville.

Right.

And they talked their priorities.

>> Yeah.

They talked a lot about the tariffs trade with Canada, Medicaid, and then a lot about this blue wave that they see coming or that they hope to see coming in the midterms.

They're convinced that voters on the Democratic side are very engaged, want to change things.

Midterms usually see a couple of seats swing in the House and sometimes in the Senate, and Republicans have talked about this enthusiasm, motivation gap.

So I think that the Democrats are hoping they can capitalize that by getting their people out to the polls.

>> From his official office, Beshear made an economic development announcement in Louisville, $1 billion investment by Ford.

>> Yeah, for their paint shop.

Right.

This is a place right now in the Kentucky truck plant in Louisville that makes some of the most popular models.

Cash cow when it comes to the Super duty, the Ford Expedition.

And this comes as we know, that Ford is investing in another Louisville plant, Louisville assembly plant for the new EV midsize pickup that they're going to be releasing next year.

So for locals, it is definitely a win.

To see further investment in manufacturing in the city.

No doubt.

>> Do the governor's race, which is next year since you were last here.

I know, Isaiah, you've done some reporting that Democratic candidate Rocky Adkins intends to spend more time in Louisville.

>> Yeah, and he was actually at the country Ham breakfast Wright held during the state Fair by the Kentucky Farm Bureau.

He was there, but also Jacqueline Coleman was there, too.

And you get this sense that for Rocky Adkins, it's hard to find places in Louisville, especially big public events, that the lieutenant governor isn't also at, because, as we know, with the governor traveling so much nowadays, she's getting to be at a lot of these events and sort of be the main speaker.

So you see kind of rocky really trying to pick and choose his moments and try to capitalize on that.

>> That's fun.

Primary to watch in the Republican field cleared for Congressman James Comer, or will they have a primary as well?

>> Certainly the whole Michael Adams announcement will go to waste.

>> He rolled out the red carpet.

It seemed at Fancy Farm.

Although comer hasn't said that he's counted out anyone else getting in the race.

But he seems to be pretty confident.

>> On it.

And you don't get the sense that he's he's nervous about waiting to announce.

I think you should read that as okay.

He can take his time on this.

>> Yeah.

>> Former Governor Matt Bevin is appealing his jail sentence to a higher court and Louisville jail officials denied this week that Bevin is getting any special treatment, as he serves a 60 day sentence for contempt of court.

Isaiah, how are Bevin's attorneys shaping that appeal?

>> They're basically saying that this civil contempt sanction or charge, whatever you want to call it, essentially should allow Matt Bevin to somehow have an avenue to get himself out of jail.

And they argue that this 60 day sentence essentially is end of story.

And he can't do anything about it.

His legal team can't do anything about it.

Although I will add, the judge said if he meets certain conditions, good behavior meets the requirements that 30 days could be an option.

But his attorneys believe the former governor should be able to get out right.

>> Now, and the Metro detention officials knocked down reports hard that he's getting any special treatment.

>> Yes, the union president, the corrections union president, sort of threw out there that maybe there was a a delivery, a special dinner delivery for Matt Bevin.

But the mayor and local jail director essentially said this never happened.

And we don't know how this spread.

>> This hits very close to home.

For one of our panelists tonight.

And for those of us who knew those involved, there were major layoffs this week at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

It includes several journalists who have appeared regularly here on comment, including Tessa Duvall, Alex Acquisto and Hannah Pinski.

Among the 13 journalists, I think the total number is who were let go.

John, tell us what you can.

>> The Lexington Herald-Leader is owned by a company called McClatchy, which is owned by a hedge fund called Chatham Asset Management.

And this week, our owners lost patience with us and other McClatchy papers.

And I think 90 jobs is what I saw nationwide were cut like other profit news outlets.

We've struggled to find a paying audience in this internet era.

We can't find people willing to pay for local news.

So more than half of our staff was cut at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Our newsroom was gutted.

We cut all sorts of positions city Hall, state capitol, eastern Kentucky.

These are people who came to work every day for very little money to cover substandard housing for poor people and environmental problems in eastern Kentucky, and unethical behavior in the state legislature.

It's popular in some quarters to sort of sneer and mock newspapers or to greet with apathy the demise of newspapers.

But I can assure you, you're going to miss us when we're gone.

>> These were, you know, good people, good journalists, award winners who won't be on the scene.

And until they find something, another approach.

>> Bill, I can tell you right now, as a TV reporter, I mean, these are reporters that we are chasing every day.

And I'll be the first to say that I'm humble enough to say I look at these stories that they publish and say, how did I miss that?

Or I wish I could have gotten that first.

And that's the real heartbreaking part of it is because at the end of the day, the communities lose out on what we just won't be able to make up for in numbers, especially smaller communities where, you know, local governments can sometimes be so insular and you need those reporters to be able to shed some light.

Snow and Kelly.

I know you're close with.

>> Yeah.

With, you know, several of them.

Hannah used to work for the Courier-Journal.

And I think like you guys have said, no one wins in this situation.

Communities don't win.

Reporters who remain at the paper, it's going to be harder and just, you know, whether you're a Lexington Herald-Leader subscriber or not, this is going to impact you.

It's going to impact the institutions that you put your faith in.

You put your trust in everything from education to state government to our congressional and federal representatives.

We need people to be watching these things.

And the less of us there are, the harder and harder it gets.

>> Just less coverage.

And we will certainly miss those who appeared on this panel here and lended their reporting, their expertise.

There's no question about that.

Today, marked 25 years since nine over 11.

There were commemorative events all across Kentucky, many in the Commonwealth reminded of the U.S.

Navy Petty Officer Edward Thomas Earhart, who was from Morehead.

He was killed that day while working as a weather forecaster at the Pentagon.

He was supposed to be on vacation that day, but he went in to help train a colleague, his family and friends still grieve and think about the things that the 26 year old at that time then missed out on in life.

John a difficult day, as we remember.

>> Bill both of us remember how devastating nine over 11 was.

The one sort of glimmer of hope was how it did bring us together in mourning downtown Lexington that night.

I remember going down there.

People were gathered, lit candles, were singing songs together.

Nobody cared about politics.

We weren't divided by anything.

For about 15 minutes.

And then we got back into it again.

Over the wars and the national security state.

But we briefly came together and I missed that moment as horrible as the day was.

>> Yeah.

And it was history that you had to learn, the two of you.

Right?

>> Yeah.

Four years old.

Yeah.

So there there aren't many fragments or memories, but thankfully WHAS11.

I mean, we have archives that we've been going through watching our former reporters in D.C.

and New York and paints a new perspective.

>> Well, as we said, this is a tough night.

And we're also remembering Mark Vanderhoff, who died this morning at the age of 50 after a battle with brain cancer.

Mark was a frequent panelist on this program and well respected for his coverage of politics.

Breaking news in the courts, and everything in between.

He started in print journalism, transitioned to broadcast, and he loved the outdoors.

We knew that.

Grateful for the time that here we are grateful for the times that he would give some of that up and be on the program with us.

And I know we're all remembering Mark tonight.

>> I mean, just the ultimate professional, the nicest guy.

He never felt like out in the field because he had been doing this for so long that this young, wide eyed reporter that I'm just going to let him figure it out the hard way, he'd be like, hey, man, we're doing this over here.

You want to join in?

And there are some folks in this industry who might say, hey, that's not what you're supposed to do.

We're here to win.

He didn't see it that way.

He was a from what I've seen out in in the field, he was he was a great person first and foremost and a great reporter.

>> He was on the panel with you several times.

>> Yeah, I knew Mark.

He worked at the Lexington Herald-Leader before he went to the Courier-Journal, before he went into TV.

Everyone keeps saying how genuinely nice he was and everyone keeps saying that for a reason, because after so many years in journalism, a lot of people become kind of gruff and cynical.

He didn't.

He saw no need to, and it was just so refreshing to be around him.

And I was heartbroken today to hear about it.

I'm so sorry.

>> He spent years at the Courier-Journal, and I know many of your colleagues remember.

>> Yeah.

I never had the pleasure of working with him, but it's been a really, really sad day at the Courier-Journal.

People miss him a lot and, you know, wish the best for his family.

>> Yeah, certainly.

Well, many in Kentucky are also remembering Bruce Lunsford.

He was a candidate for governor and was the 2008 Democratic nominee for the U.S.

Senate, where he ran a tough challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell.

Earlier in his life, he set aside his business career for a time to serve in Governor John Brown's administration, where he headed up the Commerce Cabinet.

After that, he was successful in the health care industry.

Lunsford and Northern Kentucky native died last weekend at the age of 78, and former Franklin Circuit Judge Roger L Crittenden has died.

In 2004, he made a landmark decision requiring the General Assembly to pass a budget and restricting what governors could do without one.

He served more than a quarter of a century on the bench, and taught up and coming lawyers as well at UK along the way, judge Roger Crittenden was 81, and again, we all reflect on this weekend on this haunting anniversary of nine over 11.

Well, that's common on Kentucky.

Have a good week ahead.