Kentucky Democrats try to buy independent candidate out of the race

The above video isn't especially informative but it is illustrative of the intellectual depth of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Until the very recent past Democrats controlled Kentucky since the end of the Civil War which has given the party ample time to inbreed. Kentucky politics is about family values; the Carroll family, the Yates family, the Young family, the Brown family and a host of lesser known political families. They're not exactly the Hapsburgs but they have done alright. Naturally the Democratic candidate for Senate, Alison Lundergan Grimes is the daughter of a former Kentucky Democratic Party state chair, Jerry Lundergan.
Ed Marksberry, an Owensboro housing contractor, was something of a loyal serf to the Kentucky Democratic gentry. He ran for congress in 2010 with its blessing taking 32% of the vote against Congressman Brett Guthrie which wasn't as good as Obama did two years later when he carried 37% of the vote in the same district. Last year Marksberry became convinced that Alison Lundergan Grimes would not run and entered the senate race as an independent.It's not everyday that a candidate comes forward with a story that his opposition has offered to buy him out of the election. In a lengthy 15 page missive Marksberry reveals that the Grimes campaign agreed to hire his campaign manager and take care of his website bills if he would withdraw from the race. Oh you say "What were they thinking?" They were thinking of meeting the terms that Marksberry himself had proposed.

We met and I was told that Alison’s campaign would like to ask me to consider stepping out of the race.
They said that Jerry ( Lundergan ) really liked me and that Jerry takes care of his friends. And if Alison wins, there could be a favored owed to me. Whatever that means, I don’t know, but I took it that if I ever needed some help in the future, I could call in my political equity with him.
I explained that I really liked Alison and that my campaign was no threat to her and it would be healthy for the Party to have my Liberal Progressive voice in the debate.
This person’s response was that they wouldn’t be reaching out if they didn’t think I was a concern for their campaign.
I had a lot of respect for Jerry, but just like all Democrats, we don’t agree on everything, but if we did, we would just be Republicans.
I wanted nothing more than McConnell to be defeated and I talked about some ideas I had to rebuild the precinct chairs and re-energize the base that the party needed.
I talked about the conversation that Jonathan Hurst and I had about maybe a spot in their campaign for me. But there was a little problem I had with just stepping out and I really didn’t care to be the one of a thousand standing in line after the possibility of Alison defeating McConnell, waiting for a favor. Especially, since most of these people standing in line were probably rich and looking out for their sons or daughters some type of position.
Besides, I had skin in this game; I had debts and a loyal campaign manager who had been with me since day one.
My manager worked hard and so did others on our campaign. They were expecting a job through the primary and possibly the general election. I couldn’t just leave them in the cold.

So

I proposed the following, if they would agree to find a spot on their campaign for my manager and payoff my web designer debt, I would happily abide in their request.

I still would have to talk to my manager about the idea, but I looked at it as a win-win situation.
One other thing I wanted them to be aware of was that I would not be able to immediately withdraw from the race because I wanted the opportunity to sue the KDP and if I was no longer a candidate, there would be no legal “Standing” grounds to sue them. But I would immediately stop active fundraising, because it would be wrong asking for money, knowing I was about to get out of the race.
I got a call later saying that it was deal and to send in my campaign managers resume.

The irony of all this is that Marksberry regards himself as a reform candidate. He is a political outsider who showed deference to the Lundergan family until it looked as if Alison would not run then entered the race.

My first interest in running came from the fact that no “prominent candidate” would step up to take on McConnell, it is coming up on a year since I made public my intentions. I was hoping that Crit Luallen or the governor would take on Mitch, but, we can’t blame them for it.

So I put together a plan of running to attack Mitch on the main problem of the political process and that’s the money it takes to run a campaign. Since Mitch owns Citizens United, it should be easy to communicate this to the working class people of Ky, coming from a regular “Joe” as myself, if I had just a little support from my former Democratic Party, my thoughts were it might push a prominent candidate to step forward.., like Ashley Judd (who probably wouldn’t win, but hell, she would have definitely gave a voice to the Liberal Progressives,) Matthew Barzun or Alison Grimes.
Now remember, at this time, nobody thought Mitch was as vulnerable as the media says he is today, but I was game and ready to help out anyway I could.
Then came the attacks against Ashley from my own party and man, it opened my eyes up to the fact that the two factions were still alive in Ky, that would be the Lundergan vs Beshear faction.
I did my best to expose the nonsense.

The Lundergans verses the Beshears! No quite as bad as the Hatfields and McCoys but Democratic politics is a family feud. Of course political dynasties didn't become dynasties by being stupid and they could readily see the futility of trying to win with someone such as Marksberry who ran worse than Obama who lost the state by 16 points so he would not be the candidate. Exactly how he planned to blame McConnell for the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision isn't clear and he is probably the only person in Kentucky much upset by it. His fixation on the case however endears him to the Daily Koz.

I do not regard McConnell as being vulnerable. Kentucky, like West Virginia is trending redder by the day caused by Obama's war on coal. If however the race is close Marksberry could allow McConnell to win with less than 50% of the vote. The Grimes campaign obviously regards Marksberry as a threat and getting caught trying to buy him out is not the image of new politics it would like to project. If nothing else these Kentucky elections are always interesting.