GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP) – The fate of the last legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats is in the hands of a few thousand Kentucky voters in four House districts scattered throughout the state.
Those voters will choose four state representatives Tuesday in a series of special elections created by resignations and two strategic appointments by new Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. Democrats have 50 members and Republicans 46 in the Kentucky House of Representatives, where Democrats have held the majority for nearly a century.
A Republican sweep would mean Democrats would not control the chamber for the first time since 1920 and hand Bevin a trump card as he tries to push through $650 million in state spending cuts.
The closest races appeared to be in Greenup County, near the state line with West Virginia and Ohio, and Scott County in central Kentucky, just north of Lexington.
In Greenup County, former state judge Lew Nicholls faces longtime Republican county commissioner Tony Quillen in an election hinging on union politics. In Scott County, Democrat Chuck Tackett is running anew for a state House seat that has eluded him in a historically Democratic district. He faces Republican Phillip Pratt, the owner of a landscaping business who is making his first run for public office.