Political Stew–Here and There

Iowa Aftermath–As I posted last month, Iowa really means nothing as far as who wins the nomination, but it does serve one purpose. It usually weeds out the haves from the have-nots money-wise. That doesn’t seem to be the case this year. Mitt Romney is well financed, but Rick Santorum ran a shoestring campaign and tied the front-runner. While it’s a great start for Santorum, unless he gets a huge cash infusion from this, it can’t last. My take on Santorum is simple. Timing is everything.

After watching everyone in the GOP race take a turn at the top of the Iowa polls, it just happened to be Santorum’s turn and it happened to fall at voting time. Romney has been the only GOP candidate who has not seen his numbers fluctuate wildly from week to week. In his case, slow and steady will win the race. Romney will also pick up a huge endorsement from John McCain as early as today. I’ve said it from the start–Mitt Romney will be the GOP Presidential nominee. Look for Perry, Bachman, and the rest including Gingrich to pull out quickly, although I suspect at least one of those will run in New Hampshire before calling it quits.

Tonight in Frankfort–Governor Steve Beshear will deliver his annual State Of The Commonwealth speech, but don’t expect it to have much news on the budget. That sperate speech comes later during this session. Tonight you can expect a push for expanded gambling, and a pledge to work on a bipartisan level to accomplish good things for Kentucky. It sounds good but don’t expect that to happen much. Already, Beshear may have trouble on the gaming front. It was expected that GOP State Senator Damon Thayer would introduce a gaming bill in the Senate to get the ball rolling. But now Thayer seems to be hedging a bit and it could implode before it even begins.

Friday Hijinks–It’s always been great fun to see Senate President David Williams and the Speaker Of The House (Jody Richards/Greg Stumbo), engage in regualr press avails on Friday mornings, and it seems the trend will continue. Word has come down that the practice will renew again this session. Should be fun.