KyKurmudgeon

Sunday’s column:

This and that as the taste buds tune up for the 129th Annual Fancy Farm Picnic (Yummy!):

The best description of the $1.32 million Attorney General Jack Conway raised during his first quarter as a U.S. Senate candidate is this: He lapped the freaking field for a first quarter in the race!

More than double the $602,699 Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson reported for his first quarter. More than triple the $429,552 fellow Democrat Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo drummed up in the first quarter of his campaign.

When all the reports for the quarter that ended June 30 are in, Republican Sen. Jim Bunning easily could be last among Tier 1 candidates — an almost unheard of situation for an incumbent. Worse still, he may soon trail one of the Tier 2 candidates as well.

Rand Paul, a Bowling Green ophthalmologist and the son of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, said recently that, if he decides to go beyond the exploratory stage and enter this race for real, he will do an on-line fund-raising event with a goal of raising $1 million. Paul already has raised $100,000.

Frankly, despite his protestations to the contrary, it’s increasingly difficult to believe Bunning stays in the Republican primary race.

You don’t tell an ally (Grayson) to warm up in the bullpen with an exploratory committee if you plan to finish the game. Nor do you stop bringing the heat and go to the slow stuff with your own fund-raising.

But back to Conway. Even though his fund-raising prowess may be unequaled in this field and even though he has shown the ability to generate significant dollars in the Eastern Kentucky and Northern Kentucky homes of his major opponents, he still faces a serious challenge in convincing Kentucky voters to send a second Louisvillian to the U.S. Senate.

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If the barbecue, fresh veggies, home-made desserts and the opportunity to sweat off a good 20 pounds in the customary sweltering heat aren’t enough to entice into making the long drive down the Western Kentucky Parkway to the Aug. 1 Fancy Farm Picnic, think of the potential entertainment value if both Bunning and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attend.

Now that McConnell is giving Bunning a dose of the treatment he gave former Gov. Ernie Fletcher during the low points of his administration, watching the two senators interact on the same stage could be, well, amusing.

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Chatter has it that Gov. Steve Beshear will name Mongiardo’s replacement for his 2011 slate the week of July 20, with Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson being the most likely candidate.

Chatter sometimes gets it wrong, of course. But this chatter sounds fairly solid.

If it is on the mark, I’m not sure what Abramson adds to the ticket, since Beshear already is strong in Jefferson County.

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His four previous gubernatorial races left Gatewood Galbraith 0-fer. He’ll still be O-fer after 2012.

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That $55.7 million hole in the state budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30 reminds us again of just how unstable Kentucky’s revenue base is.

And it will never be stable until the state’s 20th century tax structure gets a remodeling that includes adapting it to the 21st century service economy.

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With an extra C, KACo could stand for the Kentucky Association of Campus Cuties Outings.