KY-2

State Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green) continues to increase his lead over state Sen. David Boswell (D-Owensboro) in the race for Kentucky's open 2nd Congressional District, according to the latest figures from SurveyUSA. Guthrie is now shown to be nine points up over Boswell in a poll of 559 likely voters.

Conducted from Oct. 15 to Oct. 16, Guthrie increased his lead in polls from SurveyUSA by three points since a poll released in late September. Guthrie broke the 50 percent barrier in the latest poll, and he is shown leading Boswell 51 to 42 percent.

Seven percent of respondents remain undecided.

Guthrie gets the support of 22 percent of the Democrats in the district - where Democrats hold a registration advantage of 57 to 37 percent. Boswell gets 69 percent of his own party's voters, while nine percent are undecided.

At the same time, nine percent of Republicans fall to Boswell, while Guthrie holds onto 86 percent.

State Sen. Brett Guthrie's (R-Bowling Green) hometown newspaper, the Bowling Green Daily News, has again printed an editorial slamming the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's advertising efforts in Kentucky's 2nd Congressional District.

The latest editorial from the paper - circulated by Guthrie's campaign today - calls on Guthrie's opponent, state Sen. David Boswell (D-Owensboro), to  "tell the DCCC to pull" the ads immediately.

The editorial echoes points made by Guthrie and his campaign about the DCCC's ads, which assert that the Republican's family company, Trace Die Cast, of Bowling Green, "shipped work to Mexico."

"The truth of the matter is that Trace had a contract to make a part and ship it to Mexico," reads the editorial. "All of the work was done at Trace Die Cast by employees of the company and shipped to Mexico and the part didn’t come back to Trace Die Cast."

"Mr. Boswell, who has been in politics for a long time, should no better than this [sic]," it continues. "He is allowing the DCCC, which knows nothing about the 2nd Congressional District in Kentucky, to run these ads that distort an American success story embodied in the Guthrie family."

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Ok.) told PolitickerKY.com that Kentucky may play well on Nov. 4 for Congressional Republicans in part because of the effect Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) may have down the ballot, even as speculation abounds about the negative electoral climate for Republicans.

Cole is in Kentucky today for an event benefitting the campaign of state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green), who is seeking the open 2nd Congressional District seat. The NRCC chair particularly said Obama could negatively impact state Sen. David Boswell's (D-Owensboro) effort against Guthrie, though Boswell's campaign charged associations with the current administration were damaging to Guthrie in response.

"We certainly don't think that Senator Obama is going to run very well in the state and I think it's going to give an extra advantage to most of our congressional candidates," said Cole in a phone interview today.

"It really does vary state by state," Cole added of Obama's impact. "He just doesn't sell very well in conservative areas. There is a band of states that Obama is unlikely to do well in and is actually harmful down ballot to Democratic candidates. I think Kentucky is one of those states."

Cole speculated that Obama and other Democrats could be particularly cumbersome to Boswell's (D-Owensboro) bid to win the open 2nd District seat against state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green). That seat is open given the forthcoming retirement of U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Cecilia).

In 2004, the 2nd district gave President Bush his largest margin of victory of any of the Commonwealth's 6 congressional districts and Obama polls significantly behind in the western Kentucky region of which much of the 2nd is comprised.

Boswell has parried inquiries about Obama in the past, and his recent commercials do not tout his party affiliation, instead referencing his anti-abortion and pro-gun positions.

"We have a lot of Democrats who are busy in conservative areas trying to run away from both their nominee and their party, and I think Boswell is in that position," said Cole.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched its second ad on behalf of state Sen. David Boswell (D-Owensboro) today, again targeting his opponent in the 2nd Congressional District race on trade issues.

The thirty-second spot takes a similar tone to the DCCC’s first spot, which sparked a rapid reaction from the campaign of its target, state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green). That ad alleged Guthrie “shipped manufacturing work to Mexico,” and was labeled as “false and libelous” in a rebuttal from the Guthrie camp that led to one station temporarily pulling the ad until it was slightly recut.

The latest DCCC spot – part of a reportedly $840,000 reservation by the organization – again slams NAFTA as having “cost Kentucky over 14,000 jobs” and attempts to tie Guthrie’s family company – Trace Die Cast - to trade permitted by that deal.

“But Brett Guthrie and his company seem to be doing just fine,” says the ad’s narrator.

The ad then plays an audio recording from an August 25 candidate forum in which Guthrie explains the path a product manufactured by Trace takes after it leaves its Bowling Green facility.

“We actually have a product that goes from Bowling Green, Kentucky – our product – and this one goes actually to Queretaro, Mexico, gets put on a transmission, comes to North Carolina to go on an axle and comes back to Bowling Green to get put on a Corvette,” says Guthrie in the recording.

“Queretaro, Mexico?” says the narrator in a befuddled tone, as the name of the central Mexican state is displayed on-screen. “We need David Boswell, who will bring jobs to Kentucky.”

As their race heats up into one of the most competitive in the state, the candidates for the 2nd Congressional District seat are scheduled to meet again for a debate on Sept. 29 in Elizabethtown.

State Sens. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green) and David Boswell (D-Owensboro) will square off for a third time for a debate sponsored by the Elizabethtown News-Enterprise at 6pm ET next Monday.

The debate will be held at the Elizabethtown Community and Technical College.

Guthrie and Boswell previously met in debate at the Hardin County Farm Bureau's forum in late August and earlier this week at Kentucky Educational Television's 2nd District forum.

Congressional candidate Brett Guthrie: Campaign PhotoAfter a week of battling in the 2nd Congressional District race between state Sens. David Boswell (D-Owensboro) and Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green), a new poll shows Guthrie on top for the first time in the race.

A poll commissioned by WHAS-TV and conducted by SurveyUSA gives Guthrie a 49 to 43 percent lead over Boswell among 592 "likely" voters, with eight percent undecided.

The poll is only the second public poll of the race to be released. The first was conducted just more than a month after the May 20 primary determined the field, and that found Boswell up 47 to 44 percent, with nine percent undecided.

Fundraising numbers posted by state Sen. David Boswell’s (D-Owensboro) campaign for the open 2nd Congressional District seat have been the target of a good deal of criticism in the last few months. In July, National political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said Boswell’s KY-2 race against state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green) was “over” unless Boswell improved on the slightly-more than $40,000 he reported at the end of the 2nd fundraising quarter.

Today, Boswell said speculation about his campaign’s demise was unwarranted.

“We’ve been flying under a lot of people’s radar screen with this campaign - including the media,” said Boswell. “Just because the last report showed that I had 40,000 in bank doesn’t mean I have 40,000 in the bank.”

The $40,000 figure came from reports filed in mid-July, following reports from the Guthrie camp that showed the Republican with over $660,000 on-hand.

“Since that time, we have raised a tremendous amount of money,” said Boswell.

“We went to work immediately and we’ve raised, I guess you could say, over the last 40 to 50 days, well in excess $200,000,” Boswell added.

State Sen. David Boswell (D-Owensboro) told reporters today that he had not yet seen the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's ad run in his favor that was pulled from the airwaves of a Louisville television station two days ago.

"I have not seen the DCCC's ad," said Boswell "That’s an independent expenditure."

"What the DCCC's doing, I am really not aware of, so I really don't have a comment without having seen the spot," he added.

The DCCC's spot was yanked from WAVE-TV's rotation on Tuesday after attorneys from allies of the campaign of Boswell's Republican opponent, state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green), said the ad's claim that Guthrie's family company "shipped manufacturing work to Mexico" was "false and libelous."

Boswell said the advertisements paid for by his campaign thus far were "positive."

"That's the way we like to keep our campaign," said Boswell.

Updated, 10:35 pm, with response from Guthrie camp.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Versailles) joined state Sen. David Boswell (D-Owensboro) on a conference call this afternoon to announce that the 47-member strong Congressional Blue Dog Coalition - of which Chandler is a member - endorsed Boswell's bid for the 2nd Congressional District.

Chandler said an endorsement from the group of "moderate and conservative" elected Democrats was "highly-sought after," though he said the Coalition endorsed Boswell unanimously.

"We believe that you absolutely fit the profile of what the Blue Dogs try to represent," Chandler told Boswell on the call, referencing the group's concerns with the national debt and budget deficits.

"There are a lot of people who have tried to get the endorsement and who have not, so it's not an endorsement everybody gets," Chandler added. "Many more seek it than receive it."

In recent weeks, the campaign of Boswell's opponent, state Sen. Brett Guthrie (R-Bowling Green), and the Republican Party of Kentucky have made comments insinuating that Boswell was aligned with "liberal" facets within the Democratic Party. Chandler said the Blue Dog's endorsement was evidence that was not the case.

Just two days after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hit the airwaves in the 2nd Congressional District with an ad targeting Republican candidate and state Sen. Brett Guthrie, of Bowling Green, Guthrie’s campaign is up with a thirty-second response ad that asks his opponent to “try some honesty.”

“In Kentucky, your word’s your bond, but in Washington, they’ll say anything,” says Guthrie in the ad, then gesturing to images from the DCCC’s recent spot over his right shoulder. “Like this ad, for David Boswell, alleging our family business sends jobs to Mexico.”

In that DCCC ad in favor of state Sen. David Boswell (D-Owensboro), a narrator asserts Guthrie’s family business – Trace Die Cast in Bowling Green – “shipped manufacturing work to Mexico, instead of doing the job here.”

Guthrie’s camp objected to the sentiment, and allies of the Republican candidate – including lawyers from Trace and the National Republican Campaign Committee – sent “cease and desist” letters to television stations airing the DCCC ad. They claimed the ad was “false and libelous,” arguing Trace never sent any “work” to Mexico, but only sold products to Mexican facilities.

Louisville’s WAVE-TV subsequently pulled the ad off its airwaves on the advice of its attorneys.

“It’s flat out not true – so false a TV station took it off the air,” said Guthrie, referencing WAVE’s decision in the ad.