Will Fletchers Roll of the Dice Pay off?
Fletcher’s gambling focus yet to pay off
By Ryan Alessi
HERALD-LEADER POLITICAL WRITER
The all-anti-casino-all-the-time message from Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s re-election campaign has worked brilliantly in one respect: it has so far dominated the governor’s race.Fletcher’s first two campaign commercials and most of his speeches have been about gambling. And debates between the governor and Democratic challenger Steve Beshear have thus far been heavily shaded by the two candidates’ opposing views on casinos.
But the strategy has yet to yield tangible movement from voters, especially conservative Democrats whom Fletcher needs to win back in order to secure his re-election.
In fact, anecdotally, many Democratic voters — even those who are wary or already opposed to casinos — say they have a hard time making their choice for governor based solely on that issue.
We Say: Good Luck with that. If you cannot run on a real issue, make one up. Instead of debating the environment, or health care we are stuck debating casinos.
