Analysts predict sharp elbows in fight for earned media at Fancy Farm

cn|2 Pure Politics ^ | 7/29/2015 | Nick Storm

[Republican Wildcat]

With rhetoric heating up between gubernatorial candidates Kentuckians can expect one-liners sprinkled with vitriol at Fancy Farm, but Matt Bevin and Jack Conway will also be competing for air time and column inches in what has so far been a sleepy open-seat general election.

“Last year when we all went to Fancy Farm to me it felt like … we were coming out for the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. This year it feels more like the kickoff — or maybe even the coin flip,” said Scott Jennings a GOP strategist.

Some have called the raucous speaking event outdated, but for Jennings the tradition has a solid footing in the commonwealth’s political arena.

“This is an unusual, interesting and necessary test in a world where campaigns and candidacies are often very sanitized,” Jennings said.

Even though Bevin and Conway have shared a stage three times before and this is Bevin’s second campaign, his challenge will be moving his messaging across party lines, Jennings said.

“This opportunity this weekend is for him to start to talk about a message that will appeal to that broader general election voter,” he said.

The candidates will get their one-liners and policy quips in a “colorful way,” but Jennings warns of the danger of getting caught up in the partisan atmosphere and missing the chance for the state’s media to carry his broader message.

“So far the Bevin campaign hasn’t run any television advertising for the fall Election, I’m sure they will, but they haven’t so far, and so this is going to be one of the biggest earned media opportunities he’s had to talk to the population at large,” he said.

[rikkir]

Bevin ain’t exactly lighting the world on fire here in the eastern part of the state.

If he doesn’t start getting his message out this state is going to continue it’s march to the cliff under a Conway administration.