Guest post by Lance Wheeler.
Recently, I have seen support from Kentucky Tea Party members for Gatewood Galbraith – Independent candidate for Kentucky Governor. However, hearing his speeches for two years and taking a glance at his issue page, I ask myself why would any Tea Party member support him?
During the Republican primary for Governor, the Tea Party endorsed Phil Moffett for the nomination. Phil Moffett unfortunately lost the election to David Williams, the establishment candidate, and members of the Tea Party expressed their discontent. Gatewood noticed this dislike for David Williams and convinced some of the members that he is the Tea Party candidate.
After reading his issues page, I noticed some ideas that do not line with the Tea Party’s philosophy. Gatewood is against Mountain Top Removal (MTR), Free-Market measures with “Green” fees, privatization of gambling casinos, and favors a stimulus for all students who graduate from high school.
It is hard to support a candidate to be the next Governor of Kentucky when they support issues such as these. Gatewood believes that the government can fix market problems ranging from casinos to the horse market. This is not a candidate that the Tea Party, or any other conservative group, should endorse.
Gatewood is correct when it comes to taxes and personal liberty; however, Gatewood’s big government policies are not what Kentucky needs as its next leader.
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Since P’Pool was mentioned, I will vote for him because of the Obamacare legislation being so bad and it has all kinds of federal regulations, fees, etc that will affect all kinds of things, not just healthcare and I believe him that he will join the lawsuit against it. It is a socialistic disaster and if implemented, we will not be able to reverse the damage during our lifetime. P’Pool is from a coal family and he has a real big distaste for the EPA so that is worth it also. Not to mention, it is just time for Mr. Aqua Buddha to GO!
Gatewood is not the perfect liberty candidate, but he’s absolutely right on some important liberty issues. Among them are states’ rights, the right to keep and bear arms, and numerous issues that can be lumped under the umbrella of individual rights. Gatewood is also a principled man, so even on the political issues where I disagree with him, I feel that it’s a principled disagreement.
Williams and Beshear, for all of their partisan sniping at each other, are virtually identical in every important respect. They are both career politicians, and the ruinous condition of our state lies squarely at their feet. They caused most of our problems. They are two nearly identical turds floating in the cesspool of Kentucky state politics.
You could list a hundred times as many TEA Party shortcomings of Gatewood and he’s STILL the best gubernatorial choice for anyone with TEA Party values.
I can see where others feel differently and I respect their predicament, but I can’t shirk my civic duty and not vote against Beshear-Williams and the crony political machine they represent. I’ll overlook Dea’s socialist tendencies and vote for Gatewood, hoping he wins, but realizing it’s a protest vote. Williams can’t win. The Bully From Burkesville is unelectable, regardless of millions of dollars worth of TV ads showing Williams in a sweater and showing us his baby pictures.
We worked hard to get Phil Moffett through the primary, knowing that Williams’ nomination will get us another four years of Beshear. I hope all of the neocon party loyalists and brain dead “I voted for the basketball player” voters are happy with giving us four more years of Beshear.
Nah, I’m not bitter.
Williams and Beshear are certainly not Conservative. Look how many years they’ve had in “leadership” and we are the worst run state in America. All the bullying and political scams and scandal with them and their horrible choices for running mates are not worthy of holding your nose and voting for them. The Tea Party has no place to go. That’s why a lot of the Tea Party is sitting out that race. Who is the lesser of evils? Stumbo in the House + an angry Williams in the Senate after a loss = a fairly powerless Gatewood if he should win. So he may do less damage than the other two. Kentucky needed Phil Moffett. It’s now a sad state of affairs for our state.
I don’t believe there was an endorsement of any candidate for governor in this post.
Gatewood has the ability to identify the problem and half the time he is right on how to solve it and has some conservative and or libertarian values (but that does not make one conservative or libertarian). However the other half of the time anyone who has been around in the Liberty Movement long enough notices his liberal/socialist tendencies more than his conservative or libertarian side.
Thus that is why there is a good amount of trepidation in voting for Gatewood. The rest of the reservations come due to his running mate Dea Riley, who makes no bones about her liberal/socialist agenda while at the same time oddly joining with Corporate Globalist T Boone Pickens. She has also been known to bash the TEA Party and the the those that have long standing reputation of being Liberty Advocates in this state.
Gatewood is very much an anti Socialist Big Federal Government. However, he is all for that states being this way. Yeah he is good on the issue of Industrial Hemp but so is Comer running for Ag Commissioner.
Sadly no candidate is good enough. It would be amusing to see Gatewood beat Williams and Beshear still win. Mind you I don’t want Beshear either but he may actually be the lesser of two evils. Besides he made this mess let him “lie” in it. If Williams gets in he will be worse and get the blame and we will never be able to elect a real conservative to that office in quite some time.
So for this reason I am choosing to not vote in the Governors Race as that is my protest. I will vote for Kemper, Comer and Johnson on the Republican Tickets and Ken Moellman for Treasurer. I have not decided on the AG race, may hold my nose for P’Pool as CON-WAY is really bad, but truth be told I don’t think P’Pool is much better, his only saving grace is putting Kentucky as a late comer to the lawsuit against ObamaCare.
It seems my readers are assuming that in my article I suggested that you should vote for David Williams. Never did I mention who you should vote for and never will I in my future posts.
The objective to this article was to show the bad side of Gatewood that many do not see. If we can be so quick to attack David Williams for his ideas, why can’t Gatewood be accountable for his actions and views?
How many decades has Williams been in state government? Are more professional politicians really the answer? Williams opposes gaming and has been funneling money to friends through earmarks for years.
I’m sorry if your idea of shaking up state government is David Williams, who has been a legislator since 1977, 12 years before your birth,.
Gatewood is certinaly not perfect but he is far closer to Tea Party ideals than Williams or Beshear. I will be voting for Gatewood as he is strongly for personal liberty and passionately against the ingrained corruption that Williams and Beshear wallow in every day. Given the three choices, I don’t see how any TEA Partier could vote for anyone but Gatewood.