Jay M. wrote:The library vote went as a "Yes". Steve Beshear (D) and Jack Conway (D) beat their Republican opponents. No surprise at all there. The numbers are instructive, though. In the Governor and Attorney General races the Dems beat the Repubs 83% to 17%. That's a testament to the "blueness" of my precinct. However, in the library vote the "Yes" beat the "No" by a much slimmer margin of 56% to 44%. That's quite a difference and suggests, as I stated, that lots of my blue neighbors were against the tax increase alternative for the libraries and crossed over from what you might expect to be a blue vote.
I can't quibble with that analysis at all, Jay.
I think it's pretty clear that the tax fell for a variety of reasons.
First, there's no denying that there's a strong core of "red" in the community that's always been against a library tax, and that defeated one in the early 80s (I was the Louisville Times' lead reporter on that train wreck and remember it well), and another in 1991. A library tax has a hard row to hoe in this town, because a lot of people don't hold with taxes and don't hold with books and don't hold with paying taxes so other people can read.
Second, this tax wasn't well sold. The Gannettized CJ tried to sell it in the editorial pages but did so awkwardly, then managed to cover the debate in such a way as to give the organized opposition surprising weight. (In fairness, I did the same thing in 1983.
Third, the form of the proposal - although I personally had no problem with it - did in fact lend itself to a conspiracy analysis. "What are they going to do with all that money?"
Put it all together and you had a referendum that the reds hated and that the blues supported only unenthusiastically. And that, I think, is what the numbers show.
What does make me curious is this: Where is all the outrage over the arena - a gazillion bucks going to build an ugly building that will house a college sport for a dozen games a year, pushed through by a small group of unelected, powerful people without any real representation at all (but no new tax! ); or the bridge project, which is certainly needed, but again gets pushed through with limited public input on its details and costs and with considerable, boosterish hype from Gannett. (Remember the option that saved the Great Lawn but was "hidden" from the public?)