Time now for end of week review of the major political news of the week with two political pundits on screen left.

Do you see?

Will Carley, who is the president and founder of Alpine Strategies.

He is a Democratic consultant.

And on screen right, we have Abby Piper, who you often see sometimes with cheese with her husband, Jared.

But we're giving him the day off, right?

She's with Piper Smith at Government Relations Boutique.

So appreciate both of you being with us today.

The big news of the week politically was how abortion and these ads have really surfaced to the forefront of this governor's race in the campaign and the campaign messaging.

I'll go to you first, Abby, about that ad that came out featuring a woman who was now 21, who told the story when she was 12 years old.

She was raped by her stepfather.

And it's a pretty compelling and jaw dropping ad.

Yeah, it is.

And kudos for the bravery of that young woman for speaking out on that issue.

That's got to be difficult.

I think that the reason this is becoming such a wedge issue is because we've seen that this is one of those big issues that does divide Republicans.

We saw on the ballot last year for the constitutional amendment that Republican women came to the polls and they said, no, we don't want our legislators involved in this decision.

And so I think that, you know, those on Bashir's side are smart to use that to try to to gain some some ground in this race.

It's obviously going to be a tight race.

But I think that that's the reason you see that focus emerging now.

And I think you'll see it in other Republican states from now on into how are they long have the the elections that they've got going on.

And the Republican challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, has said this week that he would, if the law makers present him a bill that provides exceptions for rape and incest.

Essentially, he would be for that.

It's unfortunate, but Andy Beshear is running the most despicable campaign in Kentucky history.

Now he lectures us on Partizanship and Unity then runs disgusting, false attacks.

I've said if the legislature were to bring me a bill with exceptions, I would sign it.

Do you think?

Well, Carly, that that makes a difference.

And could that hurt him with his base?

I think Daniel Cameron's run a really poor campaign.

I think that he has been zeroed in on wedge issues that Abby kind of alluded to before, especially on abortion.

At the very beginning in a primary, you know, he was going to defend the law and never waver on it, as is now that he's in the general election.

And he's figured out that people in Kentucky, in the Commonwealth aren't really that excited about voting for an extremist candidate like Daniel Cameron and his extreme points of view.

He's trying to backtrack.

And I think those die hard Republican voters, where this is their number one issue.

Mike jumped ship on him.

So I think he's going to have to do a little bit of damage control and probably try to bring those people back in the fold and so that they can get an understanding of where Daniel Cameron actually is on reproductive rights for women.

Abby, there was a piece while back a couple of weeks ago Austin Horn wrote in the Lexington Herald-Leader about how Attorney General Daniel Cameron is really almost like the titular head of the Republican Party.

Do you see it that way, even if he's not successful in November?

Well, the fact is that we knew that Republicans would have to whoever came out of that Republican primary would have to shift more to the middle.

And that's just the way it works with primaries in general.

In a state like ours.

So we knew that that would happen.

I don't know that I think that he would be the spearhead of where we are.

There are a lot of different kinds of Republicans in Kentucky right now.

All of them have their own sets of core beliefs and quite frankly, their largely regional beliefs.

So things that Republicans are really holding on to in northern Kentucky are very different from things that Republicans in West Kentucky care a lot about right now.

So I don't know if there's anyone that could really be considered just that single person.

Yes.

So I want to ask you, well, if we look about and you mentioned this before, how the governor has been polling, and it seems like that could be widening a little bit.

Give us your assessment of where we are in the governor's race and what viewers and voters can be in for.

And these last, what, five, six, seven weeks?

I think Gary Hart, being Governor Bush's pollster, we sent out a memo last week where Governor Bush was up by nine points.

That's mirrored another public poll from a couple of months ago where he was up by nine points that the committee issued.

I think because of his spreading lead, you're going to see Governor Beshear close by drawing a sharp contrast between the two realities.

Right.

And the reality of another four years of Andy Beshear and record breaking prosperity and common sense government that brings people together.

Well, in contrast that with Daniel Cameron's extreme out of control ideology that wants to divide Kentuckians and put us back another 20 years.

I think the Cameron campaign's probably going to go hyper negative.

And they have been with their allies, wanted out-of-state money with special interests, have spent tens of millions of dollars now attacking Governor Beshear.

But none of it seems to be working.

Daniel Cameron's eventually going to have to give Kentuckians a reason to vote for him and maybe not a reason to vote against an Andy Beshear.

And we know that that outside money is about evenly split and attacking one or the other.

Right.

Whether it's Beshear supported PAC or a PAC that supports Daniel Cameron.

The other night at the Kentucky Chamber dinner, Abby Piper, we heard Daniel Cameron talk a lot about how he has the ability to work with the Republican dominated Kentucky General Assembly, that he talked to them about his platform on education and public safety and other issues.

Do you think that's a convincing argument for other voters not connected to the bubble that is Frankfort?

I certainly do, because you have to remember that people know by and large they're local representatives, but they don't know the governor.

Most people don't ever meet the governor.

Right.

Depending on where they are in the world.

So I think that that certainly does matter.

And I think you saw a lot of that impact when Ryan Quarrels was building his ground game for governor.

And you had a lot of House members and Senate members coming out and endorsing Ryan calls.

So I do think that it does matter.

And you've seen a lot of those folks now back behind Cameron and doing that work locally as well.

I would also say that, you know, Bevin was eight points down and the first year that he won.

So polls are polls.

I don't know if I would be surprised by anything that happens on Election Day anymore, especially in Kentucky.

But Beshear is in a good position.

I will say that I think Cameron has name ID, but he doesn't have name ID like Beshear does, especially in some of those pockets in West Kentucky.

She is a big name, and that's largely due to Bashir's father having his legacy out west as well.

Well, we thank you both.

Well, Kali and Abby Piper for being with us and have a great weekend to come.

Thank you so much.