Women want Jonathan Miller...as Governor

The State-Journal has coverage from the recent Women's Network convention in Frankfort where several female members of the party have strongly encouraged Jonathan Miller to run for Governor.

This past week has been unbelievable because I have just been flooded with e-mails and phone calls urging me to run, Miller told The State Journal. I am considering it very seriously.

Miller was the keynote speaker at a forum hosted by the Womens Network at the Kentucky History Center on Saturday. He discussed his book, The Compassionate Community, and the importance of serving the public good.

The politics of self-interest are weighing us down, Miller said.

Miller also hosted a discussion with Democratic candidates the Womens Network had supported in last months general election. Amy Shir, a candidate from Jefferson County, was the first person to call on Miller and urge him to run for governor.

He walks the walk, she said.

Miller said he had never considered running for governor until recently, because he expected someone like Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson or Congressman Ben Chandler to run. Now, circumstances are very different, because Abramson announced three weeks ago he would not seek the governors office. On Friday, Chandler announced he would stay in Washington D.C. as well.

Its an unexpected opportunity, Miller said.

Miller denied that his new book was designed to be a campaign tool. However, he said the new circumstances would allow it to be a great tool, should he run for governor. Miller brought a box of books to the forum on Saturday, and sold them all within 15 minutes.

The great irony is that the books outlines my core values and policies, he said. It would make a great summary of things I would want to do as governor, and present a concrete plan for Kentucky.[...]

State Auditor Crit Luallen also praised Miller and said he would make an excellent candidate in next years gubernatorial contest. Luallen herself had also been considered a possible candidate, but announced three weeks ago she would not seek the Democratic nomination. She said she expects Miller and/or Louisville attorney Jack Conway to run next year either for governor or lieutenant governor.

I hope they would be on the same ticket, but I am encouraged to see energy coming from a new generation, Luallen said.

Ryan Alessi has a new article up.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are not surprised at Bayh running for president.

Some Democrats on Capitol Hill aren't surprised by Sen. Evan Bayh's decision to open an exploratory committee to seek the Democrat presidential nomination. In fact some are hopeful he'll succeed.

I am hopeful that he will succeed as well and become the next great president of America.

Here is the WaPo take on a Bayh run in 2008.

Later this month Bayh will host a meeting of his top financial backers in Washington. He is also interviewing media consultants; Anita Dunn, Bayh's longtime media adviser, will not play that role should he run for president but will remain a senior strategist for the campaign.

"The exploratory committee will allow us to put an infrastructure in place so that as soon as a decision is made, we can turn the switch and be an up-and-running, high-caliber presidential campaign on day one," said Bayh spokesman Dan Pfeiffer.

While his active planning for a presidential bid has spanned much of the past two years, Bayh's potential on the national stage has been a matter of speculation for more than two decades. The son of former senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) -- himself a failed presidential candidate in 1976 -- Evan Bayh was elected Indiana secretary of state in 1986, and in 1988, at age 32, won the governorship. Easily reelected in 1992, Bayh began running in late 1996 for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Dan Coats (R). In November 1998 he was elected to the Senate with 64 percent of the vote, and six years later coasted to a second term.

Bayh's electoral success in a state regularly won by Republicans in presidential contests -- Lyndon Johnson was the last Democratic nominee to carry Indiana -- is at the core of his campaign-in-waiting. Bayh's allies argue that he is the lone candidate with a proven record of winning the votes of Republicans and independents, a necessity for the party's chances of retaking the White House in 2008.

"Evan Bayh has developed a formula for winning under the most difficult of circumstances," Pfeiffer wrote after the midterm elections. "He is fiscally responsible, tough on national security, shares the values of middle-class families, and values progress over partisanship."

Although his résumé is impressive, Bayh is little known outside Indiana. National polling and surveys in early-voting states show Bayh as barely a blip on the radar screen when compared with such figures as Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards.