Afternoon Links: May 18, 2011

Good afternoon from Bowling Green, where it was a busy, busy Tuesdasy. Elaine Walker was defeated in the Democratic secretary of state race, Mike Huckabee spoke at a fundraiser at the Sloan Convention Center, the city took one more step towards making fireworks legal, and Rep. Brett Guthrie spoke about the need to cut Medicare and Medicaid.

Food for thought: Greatest sign that Elaine Walker will run for office in some capacity at the state level in the future? Her campaign website’s url for the secretary of state race was ‘elaineforkentucky.com’

Plenty other action happening around the state as primary season winds down:

Grimes enthusiastically accepts nomination: Democratic nominee for secretary of state Alison Lundergan Grimes didn’t scrimp on the enthusiasm in her victory speech Tuesday night as she sought to reach out to about every core group of voters in Kentucky.

She mentioned Kentucky-based troops, veterans, unions and business owners. She spoke of victims of domestic violence — whom she has pledged to help by pushing to allow them to use secretary of state’s address on their voter registration information to protect their privacy. (Pure Politics)

Walker not pleased with voter turnout: “I think the turnout today was an embarrassment,” Walker told the Daily News late Tuesday evening. “I think the over 90 percent of registered voters that didn’t vote should be ashamed. It’s not just a right, it’s an obligation. The men and women who have fought on foreign soil and our soil to give us that right have been dishonored by people not voting.” (Daily News)

Legg considering recanvas in GOP secretary of state race: Republican secretary of state candidate Hilda Legg said Wednesday she will wait until vote totals are official before deciding whether to ask for a recanvas. (Herald-Leader)

Beshear buys TV ad, won’t run in BG: Less than 12 hours after the Republicans crowned their gubernatorial nominee, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear tapped into his expansive campaign warchest and made a three-week TV ad buy starting Monday.

Beshear bought more than $90,000 worth of ad time in the Louisville, Lexington and Owensboro cable markets. The ads are set to run from May 23 to June 12, according to public ad files with Insight Communications, which is cn|2’s parent company. (Pure Politics)

Sen. Paul proposes Gas Tax Freedom–eliminate gas tax and pass savings on to Americans: Last week, oil company chiefs were called to testify in the House, where Democrats berated them for turning a profit on the product they offer consumers. While oil companies make an average profit of $0.07 per gallon of gas sold, the federal government collects nearly three times that in taxes. The Democrat solution to this is to raise taxes on the oil companies – a cost that will undoubtedly be passed on to consumers.

“Eliminating the federal gas tax passes on a $0.184 saving per gallon to consumers. Raising taxes on the companies that provide this product would have the opposite effect,” Sen. Paul said. “The only real solution to this problem in the short term is to eliminate the government’s cut and pass the savings on to consumers.”

While some worry that eliminating this tax will lead to a decrease in revenue for the Highway Trust Fund, Sen. Paul has a solution for that as well: “Every dollar that is lost in the highway trust fund from the gas tax holiday will be replaced by cuts in foreign aid and in corporate welfare,” he said. (YouTube)

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