State Representative Addia Wuchner wants to be the GOP pick to run for State Auditor. Her strength is currently limited to the Florence and Burlington sections of Boone County, but her hope is that she can parlay that into capturing all of Northern Kentucky. In so doing she took a big risk in hiring Justin Brassell.
Brassell moved from the Geoff Davis camp, to the 2008 campaign of Mitch McConnell and then surfaced again in 2010 as the friend and consultant to Trey Grayson. Grayson's campaign then made a ton of enemies when it tried to taint Rand Paul's pro-life stance, attacked his faith and turned the entire race into a negative attack on Rand Paul.
While few people still harbor any serious grudge against Grayson, personally, recently overheard comments make it very clear that hard feelings still exist over the way in which his campaign was handled. And that's where Brassell comes in.
His association with McConnell and Grayson's failed, negative, mean spirited campaign mean that Wuchner has gone down the "establishment" path at a time when the voters have made it pretty clear that this path is a shortcut to poltical doom.
Over the weekend it was suggested that a high profile candidate might soon emerge and declare to run for Wuchner's legislative seat between now and the May primary. That campaign would likely involve rhetoric which would not be favorable to Wuchner's chances for securing the nomination for Auditor. Adding Brassell to her campaign may prove to be more trouble than he's worth.
It would be tough to find anyone who knows NKY politics better than Brasell. I don't see where addia goes wrong in getting his help, the difficulty for her and Kemper is that they have to expand beyond their home areas of NKY and Lexington. Looking ahead to the general election, the nominee will face an uphill battle against Beshear's COS and they will need all the $ and volunteer support they can get. In the words of Jim Bunning, "We've got to pick someone who can win. That's basic."
Posted by: Noah | March 01, 2011 at 07:57 PM