A dinner Saturday
to celebrate the Republican party will include an opportunity
to hear what’s on the minds of three candidates in the
Kentucky governor’s race.
Incumbent Gov. Ernie Fletcher, challenger Ann Northup and Dick
Wilson, the lieutenant governor candidate running with Billy
Harper, will each take the podium during the Lincoln-Reagan
Dinner at the Conference Center at General Butler State Resort
Park.
The event, sponsored by Republicans from Carroll, Trimble, Henry
and Owen counties, begins with a reception at 5 p.m., followed
by dinner at 6 p.m. The candidates will speak after the dinner,
said Trimble County Republican Kathi Prouix.
“This is the first time we’ve had multiple gubernatorial
candidates [attending the dinner] since we’ve been doing
this,” Prouix said, adding that the stumping should remain
friendly during the evening with “vote-for-me-because”
speeches. “I don’t think it will be a quad-county
smackdown. Basically, they will be dishing out their platforms.”
In other locations, the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner is an annual fund-raiser
for the GOP at $40 or more a plate. But Prouix said the local
party leaders prefer to keep the cost down to encourage more
people to attend. Advance tickets were sold at $20 apiece; tickets
will be sold at the door for $30 each.
“It’s more to cover expenses, so we can get as many
people to come together and to meet the candidates,” she
said. “We’re not Boone County; we’re small,
rural counties working together to get these high-profile candidates
here.”
And you don’t have to be a card-carrying member of the
GOP to attend, she said. Democrats, Independents – even
Libertarians are encouraged to dine with the candidates.
“We want the ideas to be out there,” Prouix said.
“We want anybody who wants to come. If you only know one
side [in the election], you don’t know the whole story.”
Dinner chairman Rex Morgan of Henry County agreed. “Our
goal is to make sure people understand that they have a choice.”
Other guests expected to attend are U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, U.S.
Rep. Geoff Davis, Secretary of State Trey Grayson, and state
Sens. Ernie Harris and Damon Thayer.
Prouix acknowledged that locally, Democrats are the majority
party. However, party affiliation ends “when you go into
the voting booth,” where people tend to vote for the candidate
they think is best. “If Geoff Davis can get elected in
Trimble County, he can get elected anywhere.”
Another special guest will be WWII veteran Bob Williams of Union,
Ky. Morgan said Williams was a paratrooper at Normandy, France,
on D-Day, and in 1994 was one of a handful of veterans who jumped
from planes in Normandy to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the battle.
Williams is slated to give the Pledge of Allegiance.
For more information about the dinner, contact Prouix at (502)
255-6300 or (502) 664-7839, or Morgan at (502) 664-9774.
