Blue Crush

The Where is the Red Crew spent the day in Louisville, KY in the office of former Congresswoman Anne Northup’s campaign office, our third blue to Red target district of the trip.   In 2006, the people of Louisville were down on Republicans nationawide and the Congresswoman fell victim to that political enviornment.  After making calls and working hard today, it seems as if the City of Louisville has gotten over their “blue crush.”

Congresswoman Northup was first elected to the United States Congress in 1996, replacing retired Democratic Congressman Ron Mazzoli, who had represented the district for 24 years.  The district is a swing district; the Congresswoman generally had a tough race.  In 2006, she lost to John Yarmuth by 3%.  After unsuccessfully challenging sitting Governor Ernie Fletcher (who proceeded to be handily defeated by Democrat Steve Beshear) for the Republican Nomination for KY Governor, she decided to make another run at her former seat.

We spent the morning researching doctors who have donated to political campaign over the past 8 years.  The Northup camp is hosting a fundraiser for doctor in a couple of weeks and so they had us identify potential invitees.   This afternoon, we made calls focusing on Congresswoman Northup’s support of drilling off the Gulf Coast and in ANWR, a common topic we’ve been experiencing on the campaign trail.  We were calling registered Democrats and I must say we got a good response: lots of undecided and Northup voters.  Out of the 100 calls I made, I think I only came across 4 Yarmuth supporters, and I probably had just as many people refuse to take part in the survey as I did have respond “undecided.” 

It seems more and more everyday that energy is becoming issue number one in this election.   Tomorrow, we will be doing a mailer for the campaign focusing on the issue along with variety of other issues.  I expect to do a lot more work for campaign on energy before the end of our trip.