By Tony McVeigh
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-931986.mp3
Frankfort, KY – Turn on the radio or television, or go online these days, and you'll hear a lot of talk about angry voters. Are Kentucky voters angry? And if so, why? Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeigh went looking for answers.
The rise of the Tea Party movement, with its calls for the ouster of incumbent politicians of all political stripes, is one sure sign of voter unrest this year. The economy is another. As the nation struggles to recover from the recession, the national jobless rate exceeds nine percent. In Kentucky it's over 10 percent. Dr. Laurie Rhodebeck, who teaches political science at the University of Louisville, definitely sees impatience among voters on a variety of issues, especially the economy.
"There's concern about joblessness," said Rhodebeck. "There's discontent with the health care reform legislation. There's quite a bit of antipathy toward incumbents."
There's certainly evidence of that at a senior citizens recreational facility in Frankfort, where retired Baptist minister Dan Crawley loves to talk politics with his buddies. Crawley says voters have a right to be angry because the country's not going in the right direction. And he's fed up with politicians attacking each other instead of talking about ways to help the people.
"They want to find something that they can cause the people to despise the fellow or dislike the fellow enough to not vote for him," said Crawley. "That's the purpose of all these."
"Does it work?" asked McVeigh.
"It does with some people," replied Crawley. "But a few people, thank goodness, are still willing to look at the issues and see if the candidate is zeroing in on the issues, not blowing smoke, or whatever you want to call it, to try to get elected."
Dr. Rhodebeck agrees negative ads are filling the airwaves, but she reminds voters, it's nothing new.
"We seem to have a pretty short memory regarding negativity in elections," said Rhodebeck. "I'm not sure the negativity this year is that much higher. But perhaps voters are just wanting more discussion of issues than they've expressed in the past."
That's exactly what retired state worker Carolyn Whitaker of Frankfort wants.
"We've gone too far, as far as I'm concerned on the personal issues," said Whitaker. "I want to know what the candidate can do for me and for others."
She's much younger, but Kentucky State University student Sepricia White of Louisville feels the same way. White's tired of all the talk and promises, and wants to see some action.
"The message I would like to send when voting is just to be, what we say, real," said White. "You know, like, be real - like, you be honest. I want to see honesty because I'm a very honest person and I feel like if you're going to lead me, like I want you to be honest with me."
All this talk about voter unrest surprises Rep. Jim Wayne. The Louisville Democrat says he's been campaigning door-to-door for weeks, and he's not seeing it.
"I wonder how much of this is being stirred up by some radio commentators, or television commentators, who are trying to boost their ratings and who have a small group of people who are very noisy and angry who are getting all the publicity," said Wayne.
No, it's real, says Georgetown Sen. Damon Thayer, who says he's hearing it at Republican and Tea Party rallies statewide.
"The voters that I'm coming into contact with range from being very, very mad, very angry, a lot of discontent," said Thayer. "And if they're not mad, they're really, really concerned."
If there is a lot of voter anger out there, it doesn't appear to be driving people to the polls. Absentee balloting for Tuesday's election in Kentucky is down 11 percent compared to 2006. And Secretary of State Trey Grayson is predicting 48 percent voter turnout on Election Day, which is about the same as 1998 and 2002. Those, too, were non-presidential election years with U.S. Senate races on the ballot.