Enter your email address.
C-J: Four Republicans seek chance to take on Yarmuth in Third District race
May 12, 2008
The Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
Facing limited opposition in the May 20 primary, Republican Anne Northup is looking ahead to November’s general election as she seeks to reclaim the congressional seat she lost to Democrat John Yarmuth.
“I think I’m going to win the primary,” said Northup, who represented Louisville’s 3rd District for 10 years before losing to Yarmuth in 2006.
But her three Republican primary opponents — though underfunded and little known — aren’t ready to admit defeat.
“I’m someone who believes that’s for the voters to decide,” said Corley Everett, 41, a partner in a property-management business and a GOP activist.
Chris Thieneman, 42, a developer, and Bob DeVore Jr., 53, a UPS worker, aren’t willing to concede, either.
“If I fail, I failed trying and I’m not afraid to do that,” Thieneman said.
Meanwhile, Northup, 60, already is working to sharpen the contrast between herself and Yarmuth, portraying him as too liberal and out of touch with the 3rd District’s conservative values.
“There’s a big difference between the way John Yarmuth and I think about these things,” she said.
Yarmuth, 60, who has no primary opposition, said he looks forward to debating his differences with Northup.
“I think I’ve developed a pretty good record,” he said. “I take the race seriously, of course, but I’m very confident.”
Phil Laemmle, a retired University of Louisville political science professor, agrees Northup should easily win the primary but says the general election is another matter.
Many voters remain dissatisfied with the policies of President Bush and his administration’s conduct of the Iraq War, Laemmle said. Northup herself blames the unpopularity of the war for costing her and other Republicans the 2006 election.
That continuing dissatisfaction among voters is likely to hurt Republican candidates in the fall, Laemmle said. And a projected high voter turnout for the presidential election won’t help, particularly if Democrat Barack Obama is the presidential nominee.
In the Louisville district, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1.
“If Obama gets the nomination, she’s done,” Laemmle said of Northup. “He will generate the turnout. In the urban districts, it seals the nomination for Democratic candidates.”
Northup disagrees that dissatisfaction some voters showed two years ago will affect her chances.
She remains a supporter of the Iraq War, which she said is “going better” and doesn’t think voters blame Republicans for issues such as the higher cost of gasoline and food and the mortgage crisis.
“I think there’s a group of liberals that tell each other that,” she said. “It’s not among everyday Americans walking around.”
Yarmuth — an opponent of the war and critic of the Bush administration — disagrees.
“I think she’s really out of touch with how the people are thinking,” he said.
Northup’s bid for Congress follows her loss last year in the Republican gubernatorial primary to then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who was considered badly damaged by his administration’s hiring scandal. Fletcher then lost in November to Democrat Steve Beshear.
Northup said she doesn’t think her recent losses will affect her chances this year.
Anne Northup
Northup said she wasn’t looking to get back into politics after losing Kentucky’s gubernatorial primary.
She entered the 3rd District race only after Republican Erwin Roberts, a Louisville attorney and former federal prosecutor, dropped out because of his duties in the Army Reserve, she said.
Northup said that after Roberts was no longer a candidate, she began getting calls from supporters and Republican Party activists, urging her to run. The Republican National Congressional Committee had polls showing her in a “dead heat” with Yarmuth, Northup said.
Yarmuth is skeptical.
“The polling we’ve done shows me comfortably ahead,” he said.
She said her experience — nine years in the state legislature and 10 in Congress — makes her the best candidate.
Northup said she’s confident her more conservative values will prevail among voters, including her support for lower taxes, expanded oil drilling in Alaska, staying the course in Iraq and a tough federal immigration policy to close the country’s borders to illegal immigrants.
She said she also wants to continue her work to bring two new bridges to Louisville — one in the East End and one downtown — a project she believes is not getting sufficient attention.
Northup said that if she returns to Congress, she will be in a strong position to help Louisville and Kentucky because Republican leadership has promised she will get her former seat on the powerful House Appropriations and Revenue Committee.
She has raised about $460,000, according to the most recent spending report filed with the Federal Election Commission, and said she expects to step up fundraising for the general election.
She raised more than $3 million in her 2006 race against Yarmuth and about $1.6 million for last year’s governor’s race.
Northup said that if she loses this race she doubts she will seek another elected office. She lives in Louisville and is married with five adult children.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI