Tea Party’s Moffett Hopes for Upset in Kentucky Primary

Though Senate President David Williams is heavily favored to win tomorrow’s Republican primary for governor in Kentucky for the right to take on Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who is running unopposed for his party’s nomination, Tea Party activist Phil Moffett believes a major upset is still possible.

Williams, who maintains a double-digit lead heading into the primary, is being challenged by Moffett, the managing partner in a Louisville telecommunications management company he founded nine years ago, and by Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw, a late entrant in the contest.

Moffett, a self-identified Tea Party candidate who had hoped to galvanize the same voters that sent libertarian-leaning Rand Paul to the U.S. Senate from the Bluegrass State last November, has been vastly outspent in the contest, only raising $131,000 as of earlier today.

His campaign didn’t produce any television ads and he only began airing his first radio spots on Thursday, a mere five days before the primary.

Williams, on the other hand, built a $1.2 million war chest, thereby allowing him to dominate the airwaves throughout the entire primary campaign.

Moffett, however, isn’t ready to concede the contest. In fact, the Louisville businessman believes that a low turnout on Tuesday could work in his favor.

Election officials predict a turnout of less than ten percent.

Tea Party activists, says Moffett, are among the most likely to show up at the polls on Tuesday. “Even if it’s tornado weather, they’ll make their way to the polls,” he said during a campaign stop on Friday, keeping alive the slim hope that the election could still swing in his favor.

“I think we have a chance of winning, especially with low turnout,” he said.

Meanwhile, Holsclaw, who represents the heavily Democratic city of Louisville, said that she’s the only candidate in the race who can appeal to both Democratic and Republican voters in November. However, given her extremely late start — she only announced her candidacy 2 ½ months ago — coupled with her dismal fundraising totals, she isn’t given much of chance in tomorrow’s primary. As of last month, Holsclaw raised only $23,000.

Lexington lawyer and frequent candidate Gatewood Galbraith, 64, who has previously sought the Kentucky governorship on four occasions — three times as a Democrat and once as a Reform Party candidate in 1999 — is also running for governor and is expected to appear on the November ballot as an independent.