Kentucky doesn't just fall left or right on political scale

BARDSTOWN, Ky. -- Kentucky has not made the list of battleground states in this year's presidential election, but that hasn't dampened interest for Kentuckians who say this election is one of the most important they've seen in years.

"I'm 51, and I've heard more talk this year than I ever have," says John Barbour of New Haven.

At last week's Kentucky Bourbon Festival here, south of Louisville, Barbour demonstrated how to make the wooden bourbon barrels he produces for Kentucky Cooperage. He and other voters stopped to talk about what's important to them in this presidential election.

"I want to know what they think about the guy who's up every morning with a lunchbox in a pickup and rolling," Barbour says.

The presidential candidates and their running mates are not very visible in the Bluegrass State, but voters here say interest in the national contest will send them to the polls this November.

"We discuss it at work all the time," says Bob Holsclaw, a bank employee from Bullitt County. "Something needs to be done. I don't believe one person runs the country, but I'm voting."

Holsclaw, 51, says he's ready for a Democrat in the White House because he is fed up with policies that he says have wrongly focused on the war in Iraq and left the country vulnerable to economic hardship.

"They're not taking care of what's going on here at home," he says.

Many people here say the issues they are thinking about mirror those of other states: the economy, the war in Iraq and gas prices.

"What's happening nationally — people losing their homes, their jobs — it's happening here," says John Payne, 53, a distillery worker who lives in Bardstown.

Steve Robertson, Republican Party state chairman, says one issue that sets Kentuckians apart is energy, given the state's large coal reserves.

"Kentucky is really well-positioned to be part of the national energy solution," Robertson says. "A lot of people are really starting to look at the positions of these two candidates."

Kelvin Elam of Lebanon says his concerns over gas prices and housing have prompted him to register to vote after skipping all elections for 12 years.

"I'm really concerned about my children being able to buy a home and, if they did, to be able to keep it," says Elam, 46, a surgical technician student. "If we don't get involved, we're just going to get in worse shape."

Since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson was elected, Kentucky has always cast its electoral votes for the winning presidential candidate.

Right now, McCain is leading Obama 53%-41%, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll of 717 likely voters conducted Monday through Thursday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research. The poll has a margin of error of +/— 3.7 percentage points.

Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, says he expects voter turnout in the commonwealth to be high, despite the fact that it is not considered a player in the national election.

Because of the close race and national excitement about the outcome, Voss says, voters will go to the polls.

"The average Kentuckian is having the usual difficulties of our pocketbooks taking us one way and our values taking us another way," Voss says. "Kentucky does not fit on the classic left-right scales."

Many Kentuckians tend to be Democratic on money issues and Republican on values, Voss says.

Jennifer Moore, Kentucky's Democratic Party chairwoman, says her state is an uphill battle for Barack Obama, but there are other contests on the ballot that might benefit from larger voter turnout and could swing Democratic.

She cites the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Mitch McConnell and his Democratic opponent, Bruce Lunsford, as well as the House race in the state's 2nd District between Democrat David Boswell and Republican Brett Guthrie.

"We might not be a battleground state as far as the presidential race," Moore says. "But those are two races that everyone should be watching as races that the Democrats can take."

Michelle Ferrell, 38, of Bardstown, says she is weighing issues but hasn't decided who will get her vote.

"I'm generally Democratic," she says, but she's not sure if Obama has enough experience.

"But on the other hand, I think John McCain might be a little bit out of touch," she says. "It's a hard decision this time."

Halladay reports for The Courier-Journal in Louisville.