Hey, NRCC: What About KY-3 ?

Politico reports that the NRCC is already identifying what Democrats to target in 2012 for the second wave.

Here's a word of advice: you need to pay attention to John Yarmuth. To be sure, Democrats will always have a big registration advantage in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional district. Yarmuth's voting record is so far to the left, however, that he irks Republicans here in a way that words cannot convey.

At a fundraiser for Todd Lally, Yarmuth's most recent opponent, Republicans expressed dismay and then outrage upon learning that the NRCC had not given a single dime to the Lally campaign.

Republicans here get that the target-rich environment this election made the NRCC dizzy with possibilities. In sort of a reverse triage, low-hanging fruit needed to be picked first. Nonetheless, the NRCC's refusal to send a few bucks to defeat Yarmuth makes many donors in KY-3 wonder if it is best to give to individual candidates rather than the committees.

NRCC Welcomes Back Dems

The National Republican Congressional Committee has a new video that features Congressman John Yarmuth and colleagues at the summer town halls. Yarmuth gets included for his now viral clip: "The question is, how are we going to pay for it? I don't kow."

In fairness to Yarmuth, he clarified in a letter to the Courier-Journal that he does not know how we are going to pay for the sum total of the reckless spending that culminates in the deficit.

But when it comes to health care, he does know how to pay for it: by socking it to the rich. The problem with Yarmuth's plan is that he defines rich as those making more than $500,000. Many small businesses file as individuals. A business that makes $500,000 is big enough to keep a few people employed. It is not big enough to pay for nationalized health care. Indeed, forcing these business to pay any more taxes or endure any more government regulation will just worsen unemployment.

One other point on the NRCC video. It seems clear that many of the angry voters are conservative. It would be a mistake, however, for the party to assume that because they are hostile to the Democrats' plan that these people are Republican. Whether these people vote Republican will depend on whether the Republican party returns to and adheres to conservative principles.

NRCC Targets Chandler, But Not Yarmuth

The National Republican Congressional Committee has compiled its hit list of 70 Democratic seats it will try to retake, according to Politico. The only Congressman from Kentucky to earn a bull's eye is Ben Chandler. The NRCC did not target John Yarmuth -- which seems to be a tacit admission that he is safe for now. His left-wing voting record fits the preferences of his Louisville voters. Nonetheless, by conceding the seat, the NRCC will make it more difficult to recruit a credible Republican to run for that seat.

As for Chandler, I've been impressed by how often he votes with the Republicans in our delegation. His record, unlike Yarmuth's, is quite conservative. Indeed, Chandler's voting record will serve him well with the rest of the state when he runs state-wide. It seems wasteful for the NRCC to use scarce resources to go after Chandler. Given the free-fall of President Barack Obama's poll numbers, shouldn't we target the far-left fringe rather than the Blue Dogs?