Kentucky's 1st congressional district
Kentucky's 1st congressional district is a congressional district in the U. S. state of Kentucky. Located in Western Kentucky, the district takes in Henderson, Madisonville and the college town of Murray; the district is represented by Republican James Comer who won a special election to fill the seat of Rep. Ed Whitfield who resigned September 2016. Comer won election to the regular term to begin January 3, 2017. Although Democrats have an 2-to-1 edge in registration and still hold most local offices in the district, they tend to be conservative on social issues, a trend which favors Republicans at the federal level; as of September 2013, there were 505,870 registered voters: 302,406 Democrats, 174,137 Republicans, 29,327 "Others". All of the "Others" included 21,711 unclassified Others, 7,011 Independents, 419 Libertarians, 93 Greens, 65 Constitutionalists, 19 Reforms, 9 Socialist Workers; until January 1, 2006, Kentucky did not track party affiliation for registered voters who were neither Democratic nor Republican.
The Kentucky voter registration card does not explicitly list anything other than Democratic Party, Republican Party, or Other, with the "Other" option having a blank line and no instructions on how to register as something else. Kentucky counties within the 1st Congressional District: Adair, Ballard, Calloway, Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, Lyon, Marion, McCracken, McLean, Monroe, Ohio, Simpson, Todd, Trigg and Webster; as of June 2017, there are two living former members of the House from the district. The most recent to die was Thomas Barlow on January 31, 2017. Kentucky's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Andy Barr (American politician)
Garland Hale "Andy" Barr IV is an American attorney and politician serving as the U. S. Representative for Kentucky's 6th congressional district since 2013. Prior to being elected, he served in the administration of Ernie Fletcher when he served as Governor of Kentucky, he is a member of the Republican Party. Barr was born in Lexington, is the son of Garland Hale Barr III and Rev. Donna R. Barr; the Barr family has been in Lexington for generations, Barr Street in that city is named for one of Barr's ancestors. His father founded the accounting firm of Barr and Roberts and his mother is a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington. Barr graduated from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1992, he attended the University of Virginia where, as a contributor to a conservative campus publication called The Virginia Advocate, he was critical of then-President Bill Clinton for evading the draft. While in college, he was an intern for U. S. Senator Mitch McConnell and the Republican National Committee as well as a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
In 1993, at age 19, he was arrested in Key West and charged with possessing a fake Mississippi driver's license. He was sentenced to eight hours of community service. Barr graduated with a bachelor's degree in government and philosophy in 1996. From 1996 until 1998, he worked as a legislative assistant to Jim Talent a U. S. Representative from Missouri. In 1999, he was charged with public intoxication in Lexington, a charge, dismissed four months later. In 2001, Barr earned a law degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law. Commencing practice in Lexington, he joined the Fayette County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section and co-founded the Lexington Charity Club – a non-profit organization of young men raising money for charitable causes – with Lee Greer and Rob Lewis. In 2002, he joined the liability defense service group and the business litigation service group at the Lexington law firm of Stites & Harbison. While there, he worked for former Democratic Kentucky Attorney General and future Governor Steve Beshear, who urged him to get involved in state politics.
Barr and colleague Brad Cowgill were employed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ernie Fletcher in 2003 to fight charges that Fletcher's running mate, Hunter Bates, did not meet the state's residency requirements for eligibility for the office of lieutenant governor. A judge ruled against Bates, he was dropped from the ticket. After Fletcher won the election, Barr was named to the governor-elect's transition team in the Public Protection and Regulation Cabinet. Fletcher chose Barr as general counsel for the governor's office of local development; when Fletcher declared April to be Child Abuse Prevention Month in Kentucky, Barr wrote Fletcher's speech for the occasion. While researching the speech, he made contact with the non-profit group Prevent Child Abuse in Kentucky, he became interested in the organization's mission and was elected to its board of directors in 2004. Fletcher's term in office was marred by a hiring scandal that involved violations of the state merit system. Barr was not implicated in the scandal.
The Herald-Leader requested copies of any employment recommendations made by LINK employees, but Barr refused the request, citing an exemption in Kentucky's Open Records Act that provides exemptions for "preliminary drafts and correspondence" of state employees. In 2007, Fletcher's general counsel resigned to become executive director of the Kentucky Bar Association. In this capacity, he authored a defense of Fletcher's executive order that the Ten Commandments be posted in the rotunda of the state capitol alongside other historical documents. Fletcher was defeated for reelection in 2007 and before his term expired, he named Barr to the state Public Advocacy Commission. In April 2008, Barr returned to private practice as an associate at the law firm of Kinkead and Stilz, he was chosen as an alternate delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention and served as vice-president of the Fayette County Republican Party. After forming an exploratory committee in September 2009, on November 10, 2009, Barr became the first Republican to formally announce that he would seek his party's nomination to challenge incumbent 5th district congressman Ben Chandler.
In the announcement, he touted his opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Barr's campaign raised far more money than those of any of his five opponents in the Republican primary. Barr garnered 31,255 votes in the primary, while his opponents' totals ranged from 4,789 to 1,880. In an interview with WKYT-TV in July, Barr further elaborated on his platform. Declaring his support for the free market, he denounced the signed Dodd–Frank Act that enacted new regulations on the banking industry, he called for an end to the pr
Frankfort, Kentucky
Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city in Kentucky. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the principal city of the Frankfort, Kentucky Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Franklin and Anderson counties; the town of Frankfort received its name from an event that took place in the 1780s. American Indians attacked a group of early European-American pioneers from Bryan Station, who were making salt at a ford in the Kentucky River. Pioneer Stephen Frank was killed, the settlers thereafter called the crossing "Frank's Ford." This name was elided to Frankfort. In 1786, James Wilkinson purchased the 260-acre tract of land on the north side of the Kentucky River, which developed as downtown Frankfort, he was an early promoter of Frankfort as the state capital. After Kentucky became the 15th state in early 1792, five commissioners from various counties were appointed on June 20 to choose a location for the capital.
They were John Allen and John Edwards, Henry Lee, Thomas Kennedy, Robert Todd. A number of communities competed for this honor. According to early histories, the offer of Andrew Holmes' log house as capitol for seven years, a number of town lots, £50 worth of locks and hinges, 10 boxes of glass, 1,500 pounds of nails, $3,000 in gold helped the decision go to Frankfort. Frankfort had a United States post office with Daniel Weisiger as postmaster. John Brown, a Virginia lawyer and statesman, built a home now called Liberty Hall in Frankfort in 1796. Before Kentucky's statehood, he represented Virginia in the Continental Congress and the U. S. Congress. While in Congress, he introduced the bill granting statehood to Kentucky. After statehood, he was elected by the state legislature as one of the state's U. S. Senators. In 1796, the Kentucky General Assembly appropriated funds to provide a house to accommodate the governor; the Old Governor's Mansion is claimed to be the oldest official executive residence still in use in the United States.
In 1829, Gideon Shryock designed Kentucky's third, in Greek Revival style. It served Kentucky as its capitol from 1830 to 1910; the separate settlement known as South Frankfort was annexed by the city in January 3, 1850. During the American Civil War, the Union Army built fortifications overlooking Frankfort on what is now called Fort Hill; the Confederate Army occupied Frankfort for a short time starting from September 3, 1862, the only such time that Confederate forces took control of a Union capitol. On February 3, 1900 Governor-elect William Goebel was assassinated in Frankfort while walking to the capitol on the way to his inauguration. Former Secretary of State Caleb Powers was found guilty of a conspiracy to murder Goebel. Frankfort grew in the 1960s. A modern addition to the State Office Building was completed in 1967; the original building was completed in the 1930s on the location of the former Kentucky State Penitentiary. Some of the stone from the old prison was used for the walls surrounding the office building.
The Capitol Plaza was established in the 1960s. It comprises the Capitol Plaza Office Tower, the tallest building in the city, the Capitol Plaza Hotel, the Fountain Place Shoppes; the Capital Plaza Office Tower opened in 1972 and became a visual landmark for the center of the city. By the early 2000s, maintenance of the concrete structures had been neglected and the plaza had fallen into disrepair, with sections of the plaza closed to pedestrian activity out of concerns for safety. In August 2008, city officials recommended demolition of the Tower and redevelopment the area over a period of years. Ten years the demolition of the office tower was completed on Sunday, March 11, 2018 at 1:30 PM EST, was televised by WKYT-TV on The CW Lexington as well as streamed live on Facebook. Demolition of the nearby convention center, which opened in 1971 and has hosted sporting events and other local events, was completed in Spring 2018. City officials intend to replace the outdated office tower with a smaller, four- or five-story building in order to create a more pedestrian-oriented scale at the complex, to encourage street activity.
Frankfort is home to several major distilleries of Kentucky Bourbon, including the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Although there was some rapid economic and population growth in the 1960s, both tapered off in the 1980s and have remained stable since that time. In 2018, several teachers protested at the city in response to Senate Bill 151 being passed on March 29, 2018. Frankfort is located in the Bluegrass region of Central Kentucky; the city is bisected by the Kentucky River, which makes an s-turn as it passes through the center of town. The river valley widens at this point; the valley within the city limits contains Downtown and South Frankfort districts, which lie opposite one another on the river. A small neighborhood with its own distinct identity, Bellepoint, is located on the west bank of the river to the north of Benson Creek, opposite the river from the "downtown" district; the suburban areas on either side of the valley are referred to as the "West Side" and "East Side". According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.6 square miles, of w
Kentucky's 6th congressional district
Kentucky's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U. S. state of Kentucky. Based in Central Kentucky, the district contains the cities of Lexington and Frankfort, the state capital; the district is represented by Republican Andy Barr. As of September 2013, there were 507,252 registered voters: 293,915 Democrats, 171,722 Republicans, 41,615 "Others". All of the "Others" included 29,934 unclassified Others, 10,760 Independents, 684 Libertarians, 166 Greens, 44 Constitutionalists, 16 Reforms, 11 Socialist Workers; until January 1, 2006, Kentucky did not track party affiliation for registered voters who were neither Democratic nor Republican. The Kentucky voter registration card does not explicitly list anything other than Democratic Party, Republican Party, or Other, with the "Other" option having a blank line and no instructions on how to register as something else; as of June 2017, there are five living former members from the district. The most recent representative to die was John B.
Breckinridge on July 29, 1979. Kentucky's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had expanded slavery into U. S. territories. The party subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States; the Party was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After the 1912 election, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right; the liberal Republican element in the GOP was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 that continued during the Reagan Era in the 1980s. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.
White voters identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party made opposition to abortion a key plank of its national party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. By 2000, the Republican Party was aligned with Christian conservatism; the Party's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States and rural areas in the North. The 21st century Republican Party ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats' liberal platform and progressive wing; the GOP supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest, but has grown more supportive of free trade since 1952. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party is conservative.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the popular Know Nothing Party. The party grew out of opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states; the Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party, was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin; the name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. At the 1856 Republican National Convention, the party adopted a national platform emphasizing opposition to the expansion of slavery into U. S. territories. While Republican candidate John C.
Frémont lost the 1856 United States presidential election to James Buchanan, he did win 11 of the 16 northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. Under Republican congressional leadership, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; the party's success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished, was continued to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant, ran Horace Greeley for the presidency; the Stalwart faction defended Grant and the spoils system, whereas the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1883.
The Republican Party supported hard money, high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans had strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition; as the Northern postwar economy boomed with heavy and light industry, mines, fast-growing cities, prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth. The GOP was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers; the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932.
McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Pa
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D. C; the composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators; each state, regardless of its population size, is represented by two senators who serve staggered terms of six years. There being at present 50 states in the Union, there are presently 100 senators. From 1789 until 1913, senators were appointed by legislatures of the states; as the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers of advice and consent which are unique to it. These include the approval of treaties, the confirmation of Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, federal judges, flag officers, regulatory officials, other federal executive officials and other federal uniformed officers.
In addition to these, in cases wherein no candidate receives a majority of electors for Vice President, the duty falls to the Senate to elect one of the top two recipients of electors for that office. Furthermore, the Senate has the responsibility of conducting the trials of those impeached by the House; the Senate is considered both a more deliberative and more prestigious body than the House of Representatives due to its longer terms, smaller size, statewide constituencies, which led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere. The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice President of the United States, President of the Senate. In the Vice President's absence, the President Pro Tempore, customarily the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. In the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers; the drafters of the Constitution created a bicameral Congress as a compromise between those who felt that each state, since it was sovereign, should be represented, those who felt the legislature must directly represent the people, as the House of Commons did in Great Britain.
This idea of having one chamber represent people while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise. There was a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a "People's House" directly elected by the people, with short terms obliging the representatives to remain close to their constituents; the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally; the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate; the name is derived from Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the following comment about the Senate: In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure.
An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, to balance and check the other, they ought to be so constituted. The Senate, ought to be this body. Article Five of the Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that state's consent; the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation allowed to vote in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two "shadow U. S. Senators", but they are officials of the D. C. City Government and not members of the U. S. Senate; the United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. The disparity between the most and least populous states has grown since the Connecticut Compromise, which granted each state two members of the Senate and at least one member of the House of Representatives, for a total minimum of three presidential electors, regardless of population.
In 1787, Virginia had ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has 70 times the population of Wyoming, based on the 1790 and 2000 censuses. This means some citizens are two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are proportionate to the population of each state, reducing the disparity of representation. Before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were elected by the individual state legislatures. Problems with repeated vacant seats due to the inability of a legislature to elect senators, intrastate political struggles, bribery and intimidation had led to a growing movement to amend the Constitution to allow for the direct election of senators; the party composition of the Senate during the 116th Congress: Art
Thomas Massie
Thomas Harold Massie is an American inventor and Republican politician, the United States Representative for Kentucky's 4th congressional district since 2012. In 2012, he defeated Bill Adkins in the special and general elections to represent Northern Kentucky in Washington, D. C. Before joining congress, Massie was Judge-Executive of Lewis County, from 2011 to 2012, he ran a start-up company based in Massachusetts, where he studied robotics at MIT. He is an engineer by education. Massie has been described as a libertarian Republican and is associated with the House Liberty Caucus. Thomas Massie was born in West Virginia, he grew up in Kentucky. He met his wife Rhonda in high school in Vanceburg, his father was a beer distributor. He earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Thomas participated in the MIT Solar Car Club, which took second place behind a Swiss team in the Solar and Electric 500 at the Phoenix Raceway in Phoenix, AZ, in 1991.
At the time, the team set several world records including a lap speed in excess of 62 mph, straight-away speeds in excess of 70 mph.. In 1992, Massie won MIT's then-named 2.70 Design Competition. It is rare. MIT professor Woodie Flowers, who pioneered the 2.70 contest, mentioned that Massie watched this contest on television in seventh grade and wanted to come to MIT to win this contest. In 1993, at MIT, he and his wife started. Massie completed his Bachelor's degree in the same year and wrote his Bachelor's thesis "Design of a three degree of Freedom force-reflecting haptic interface". Massie was the winner in 1995 of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventors, the $10,000 David and Lindsay Morgenthaler Grand Prize in the sixth annual MIT $10K Entrepreneurial Business Plan Competition. The company was re-incorporated as SensAble Technologies, Inc. in 1996 after partner Bill Aulet joined the company. They raised $32 million of venture capital, had 24 different patents, 70 other employees.
In 1996, Massie completed his Master's degree and his master's thesis was titled "Initial haptic explorations with the phantom: virtual touch through point interaction". Massie sold the company, he and his wife moved back to their hometown in Lewis County, they raised their children on a farm. In 2010, Massie pursued the office of Judge Executive of Lewis County. Massie won the primary election, defeating the incumbent by a large margin, went on to defeat his Democratic opponent by nearly 40 points. Massie campaigned for then-U. S. Senate candidate Rand Paul, speaking to various Tea Party groups on his behalf. Massie resigned as Lewis County Judge-Executive, effective June 30, 2012. In December 2011, Congressman Geoff Davis announced his decision to retire from his seat in Kentucky's 4th congressional district. Massie announced his decision to join the race on January 10, 2012. Massie was endorsed by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rand's father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, he received endorsements from FreedomWorks, Club for Growth, Gun Owners of America, Young Americans for Liberty.
On May 22, 2012, Thomas Massie was elected as the Republican nominee for the 4th congressional district, beating his closest opponents, State Representative Alecia Webb-Edgington and Boone County Judge Executive Gary Moore, by a double-digit margin. In his victory speech, Massie thanked "the Tea Party, the liberty movement, grassroots Ronald Reagan Republicans". Massie was challenged by Democrat Bill Adkins in the general election, was expected to win the election by a wide margin. Massie resigned as Lewis County Judge-Executive, effective June 30, 2012, in order to focus on his campaign for U. S. Congress, allow an election to be held in order to replace him, he was succeeded by Deputy Lewis County Judge-Executive John Patrick Collins, appointed temporarily by Governor Steve Beshear. On July 31, 2012, Congressman Geoff Davis resigned from office, citing a family health issue for his abrupt departure. On August 1, 2012, the Republican Party committee for Kentucky's 4th Congressional district voted unanimously to endorse Massie as the party's nominee once a special election was called.
A special election was called by Governor Steve Beshear to take place on the same day as the general election, November 6, 2012. This meant that Massie would be running in two separate elections on the same day—one for the right to serve the final two months of Davis' fourth term, another for a full two-year term. On November 6, 2012, Massie won both special elections, he defeated his opponent by a wide margin in both elections. Massie was sworn into office to serve out the balance of Geoff Davis's term on November 13, 2012. Massie served on three committees, including the committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Government Reform and Science and Technology, he became Chairman of the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, replacing outgoing Chairman Ben Quayle. Massie was the sole member of the House to vote "present" on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of Iran's nuclear agreement, citing constitutional concerns that the treaties are not ratified by the House of Representatives and that he had no authority to vote for or against the nuclear dealMassie broke from the majority of his party by opposing the reelection of Speaker of the House John Boehner, instead casting his vote for Republican Congressman Justi
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