•KY-Gov: We were expecting a tight GOP primary, but not this tight! With all precincts reporting, tea partying businessman Matt Bevin leads state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer by just 83 votes, a 0.04 percent margin. Former Louisville Councilor Hal Heiner was about 6 points behind with 27.1 percent of the vote, while former state Supreme Court Justice Will Scott brought up the rear with just 7.2 percent. Comer says he'll ask to have the results recanvassed, which won't take place until May 28. The Lexington Herald-Leader's Sam Youngman describes the process:
In a recanvass, printed vote totals are checked against figures sent to the state Board of Elections. No individual votes are actually recounted.It's rare for election outcomes to change after the fact, but you never know what will happen in a race this close. However, Comer says that if he's still behind when all is said and done, he'll back Bevin.
Tuesday's vote brings an end to an incredibly nasty primary. A few weeks ago, Comer's college girlfriend came forward and accused him of abusing her two decades ago and taking her to get an abortion, and her former roommates confirmed parts of her story. Comer denied everything and in turn accused Heiner of paying her to lie. Comer also claimed that a blogger connected to Heiner threatened his running mate's children, a charge local prosecutors are investigating. Bevin managed to stay out of the slugfest, though Heiner ran a last-minute spot that sought to drag him into the muck with Comer.
Bevin's apparent victory comes just one year after his primary challenge against now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went down in flames. When Bevin entered the gubernatorial race at the last minute, he appeared to have a better shot of winning than he did in his prior attempt, but he was still the underdog. However, Bevin had the personal resources to join Heiner and Comer on television, and while McConnell was able to portray Bevin as a big-spending hypocrite, Bevin benefited from having the spotlight trained on his two major rivals. Heiner's allies ran ads against Bevin that rehashed some of McConnell's old attacks, but they weren't quite enough this time. However, if he proceeds to the general election, he can expect Team Blue to zero in on his many flaws.
The eventual Republican nominee will face Attorney General Jack Conway, who easily won the Democratic primary. While Kentucky is a conservative state, voters there have been much more willing to elect Democrats at the state level even as they've spurned them federally. A recent SurveyUSA poll gave Conway a hefty 48-37 lead against Bevin, though things may get closer once the wounds from this primary start to heal. At the very least, Conway won't mind if his would-be Republican foes spend a little extra time fighting with one another.