Daviess Democratic Party planning for future elections, party chairman says | News
The chairman of the Daviess County Democratic Party said although the party did not run candidates for several county and Owensboro-area state offices this year, the party is preparing candidates to run in future elections.
The deadline to file for office closed Tuesday, and several offices have only Republican Party candidates on the ballot. For example, only GOP candidates are running for the county offices of sheriff, county clerk, property valuation administrator, jailer and coroner. Only one Democratic Party candidate is running for a county commissioner seat.
On the state level, no Democrats are challenging Rep. Suzanne Miles, an Owensboro Republican, for her seat in the Seventh District House race, and no Democrat filed to run against Hartford Republican Rep. Scott Lewis in the 14th District. The Eighth Senate District, where Republican Sen. Matt Castlen is not running for reelection, has only one candidate, Republican Gary Boswell.
Larry Miller, chairman of the Daviess County Democratic Party, said officials are working on preparing candidates for future elections.
“We have been working on getting people involved in running,” Miller said last week. “But the time wasn’t right for them.”
Straight-ticket voting has affected how some candidates register, Miller said. This year’s race for county judge-executive includes former Judge-Executive Reid Haire, who was a registered Democrat when he last held office but is now a registered Republican.
“Some have switched their affiliations over from Republican to Democrat,” Miller said.
Straight-ticket voting means a person can vote for all the candidates of a single party.
“We are only one of six or seven states that have straight-ticket voting,” Miller said.
If the state hadn’t had straight-ticket voting in previous election years, “we think a lot of races would have been decided differently,” Miller said.
Miller said, in 2018, the Democrats ran Richard House, the chief deputy of the county clerk’s office, for clerk against Republican Leslie McCarty, who had no previous experience in the office.
“(House) was defeated, and it was because of the straight ticket,” Miller said.
Sebastian Kitchen, executive director for the Kentucky Democratic Party, hadn’t responded to questions about candidate recruitment statewide as of Friday.
Miller said the county party does have strong candidates competing in Daviess County and state races this year. Former county commissioner Bruce Kunze is running as a Democrat for judge-executive.
Michael Johnson, a Democrat and vice chairman of the Owensboro Board of Education, is competing for the 13th District House seat held by Republican Rep. DJ Johnson. Tyler Sagardoy, who has an MBA and works in real estate development for LotSquared Development of Washington D.C., is the sole Democrat in the running for the Daviess County commission.
With no primary, Sagardoy and Kunze can focus on the November election, while Republican voters will have to choose between three candidates for judge-executive and between 15 candidates for county commissioner. There won’t be a primary for either candidate in the 13th House District race.
Miller said of the party’s candidates: “We think they will be very competitive, and they will all have support from the local Democratic Party.”
Miller said there are still more registered Democrats than Republicans in the county.
“That’s one thing we are going to be working on, to get more (registered Democrats) out to vote,” he said.
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