The unlikely Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin

Some are
calling it “Trumpmania.”

Perhaps it’s
the old “throw the bums out” attitude on steroids.

Whatever is
happening out there, the voters’ collective embrace of outsiders who vow to
smash the political status quo was on ample display in state elections Tuesday.

As the
vaunted Center for Public Integrity reported, Republicans won several key races, including a
stunning upset in Kentucky’s gubernatorial contest. The GOP held on to most
offices in Mississippi and kept control of Virginia’s legislature. Continuing
a pattern of dramatic GOP gains in statehouses and legislatures across the
land, Tuesday’s gains came even though Republicans spent less than
Democrats on political
ads to get out their message.

The
Republican victories were achieved despite a major advertising push by
Democrats, according to the Center for Public Integrity, and the independent
political groups that back them. Democratic-affiliated advertisers spent more
than $155,000 on individual political ads on average compared with the $85,000
that Republicans spent on average in the mainly red-leaning states.

Over
at the National Journal, columnist Ron Fournier, who points out the foibles of
Republicans and Democrats on a daily basis, cautions that Tuesday’s election
results could portend unexpected happenings in the 2016 election, up and down
the ballot.

In a piece
written under the headline, “Kentucky’s Trump: If the next president doesn’t
heal our politics, angry voters may reach further to the dangerous fringes,”
Fournier (a Detroit native) tells the bizarre tale of Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt
Bevin.

 

Bevin is the most unlikely of gubernatorial success
stories in 2015. A wealthy GOP busi­ness­man, during the Kentucky campaign he
was  called a “patho­lo­gic­al
li­ar” and an “East
Coast con man” by his fel­low Re­pub­lic­ans. But he thumbed
his nose at the es­tab­lish­ment and won.

Fournier
reports that Bevin emerged as a polit­ic­al
novice whose awk­ward cha­risma and go-it-alone
style shocked the polit­ic­al world on Elec­tion Day.

Sam Young­man at the Lex­ing­ton
Her­ald-Lead­er summed up the Kentucky election shocker this way:

“Re­pub­lic­an
Matt Bev­in, who trailed in every pub­lic poll since win­ning the Re­pub­lic­an
primary in May by 83 votes, shocked Demo­crat Jack Con­way on Tues­day to be­come
the next gov­ernor of Ken­tucky.

“With
help from na­tion­al Re­pub­lic­ans he has shunned re­peatedly, Bev­in was able
to over­come a cam­paign of mis­steps and self-in­flic­ted wounds to be­come
the first Re­pub­lic­an gov­ernor since Ernie Fletch­er’s 2003 vic­tory and
only the second since Louie Nunn left of­fice in 1971.

“Bev­in
was able to defy pun­dits, polit­ic­al in­siders, and polling, in­clud­ing one
re­leased by his own cam­paign in Oc­to­ber that showed him los­ing, and emerge
a win­ner Tues­day night.

Fournier
sizes up the situation and concludes that Kentucky may be a bellwether for 2016
– or maybe not. But it’s looking more likely that the angry voter who has been endlessly
cited as an underappreciated force in American politics since the days of Ross
Perot may enjoy his comeuppance on Election Day 2016.“Bev­in
be­nefited from a deep dis­ap­prov­al of Pres­id­ent Obama in Ken­tucky and, of
course, run­ning for gov­ernor in 2015 is noth­ing like run­ning for pres­id­ent
in 2016,” Fournier wrote.

“But
the Ken­tucky race is merely the latest warn­ing shot fired at the polit­ic­al
status quo, a surge of pop­u­lism play­ing out at the edges of both parties:
The rise of the tea party in 2010; the ouster
of House Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Eric Can­tor in 2014; the pro­gress­ive mag­net­ism
of Eliza­beth War­ren and Bernie Sanders; and, of course, the sur­pris­ing staying
power of Trump. In June, I called the celebrity bil­lion­aire a “combed-over
re­flec­tion of an Angry Amer­ica.”

“I’m
not smart enough to know wheth­er the pres­id­ency will go to an out­sider in
2016. But I’ve spent enough time talk­ing to voters across the coun­try to be­lieve
that the anti-es­tab­lish­ment fever will not be broken un­til the polit­ic­al
sys­tem is healed.

“Should
the next pres­id­ent—like the past two—break his or her prom­ise to unite the
coun­try and ad­dress the na­tion’s long-term prob­lems, the an­ger will boil
hot­ter, voter back­lash will hit harder, and the path to power for a hate-spew­ing
me­ga­lo­ma­ni­ac will be easi­er.”

 

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