Time now for a midweek check in on some major political news this week so far with Rylan Barton, managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

It's good to see you in person.

Good to be with you.

So a lot to get to in the short time we have.

Let's talk about the governor's race first.

Of course, there's lots of ads and they are really ramping up in intensity and messaging.

So let's talk about what's happening just this couple of days or so.

Yes, I think the big discussion right now has to do with abortion rights and and whether or not there should be exceptions to Kentucky's near-total ban on abortion.

This is remarkable because this had largely not been part of the discussion throughout the race so far.

And just within the last week or two, it's become the central issue.

Part of this came to light when Governor Andy Beshear in his campaign issued an ad calling out Daniel Cameron for not supporting any any exceptions to the ban for like instances of rape or incest.

And that comes because Cameron has repeatedly said that he supports the the ban, as is he is.

When asked if he supported any exception, he would just say he supported the policy as is.

He has since kind of walked that back a little bit and said that he does support, you know, if the legislature would pass some sort of exceptions involving rape and incest, he would sign them so.

That he wouldn't push for them necessarily.

He has I mean, I guess he hasn't come out and said that yet.

And we'll we'll see as this discussion discussion continues to evolve in these final weeks of the campaign.

But I, I think it's really remarkable to see a, you know, a Democratic governor in a pretty conservative state, a state that has repeatedly elected a lot of, you know, anti-abortion lawmakers at every level of government to actually be advocating for some semblance of abortion rights here, actually be his campaign, be pushing for, you know, these exceptions of rape and incest.

It really kind of some of the the the smallest I mean, it depends to some some modicum of exceptions to to this near-total ban.

So it's really changed how people have talked about abortion for the first time in the in the post Dobbs era, the first time since the Supreme Court ruling last year.

And we're finally kind of starting to see, you know, Republicans shifting their messaging a little bit on it and the pre Dobbs era, it was really a, you know, the a full antiabortion message.

But now there's seems to be some nuance emerging here, some some change to the policy.

Well, and today there was a Bashir ad dropped that it features a young girl who talks about that at age 12, she was raped by her stepfather.

And here is part of that ad.

To tell a 12 year old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her.

It's unthinkable.

I'm speaking out because women and girls need to have options.

Can you?

Cameron would give us none.

So this is pretty compelling to have this first person testimonial, this lady from Owensboro, Kentucky.

This could move the needle in the conversation.

Yeah, it's a pretty jaw dropping ad and her calling out Daniel Cameron by name for not supporting these exceptions.

It's pretty quickly, I think, for Cameron and his campaign to come up with some answers here on what he actually would support.

So he came out with an ad saying, I released a video online trying to clarify some of his positions on it, saying that, again, that he would support some exceptions if passed by the legislature and then going and attacking Governor Beshear and really painting him with a very extreme brush, saying that he supports abortion up to the ninth month of pregnancy, which I don't think I've ever heard the governor said to say that.

And and saying that he's you know, these are similar policies to what happens in North Korea and China really kind of reacting pretty sharply to the governor's messaging in this.

It seems to really have hit a nerve with the with the Cameron campaign at this point in the in the race.

Yeah.

So just a few more weeks to go.

And we are also.

The Supreme Court's been busy this week.

Today, they had another hearing, but yesterday they took up the redistricting issue and some pretty interesting arguments were made there.

And this is about the House, the state House maps and the congressional district map.

Yeah, so that whole redistricting session happened last year.

This legal fight been going on for a while.

If you remember, a lower court ruled that, yes, the maps are gerrymandered.

The politics that did that did come into account when lawmakers drew these maps.

However, there's nothing illegal about about gerrymandering.

That is what the ruling was at the Franklin Circuit level.

So now the Supreme Court is taking up that that decision on appeal.

And it was really interesting to see how the judges were coming out and grilling the lawyers on this on this issue.

I think one really notable remark was from Justice.

Justice Nicol from the westernmost Supreme Court district, and he was calling out that one district in the congressional map, the first District, which extends from the western tip of Kentucky and hooks into into Franklin County in central Kentucky.

It didn't used to do that.

And this is James Commerce and.

This is James Commerce District.

He called it the so-called Comar hook, which I believe is a term coined by UK political science professor C Voss.

That being because Congressman Comber maintains residences in both Monroe County, in South central Kentucky and in Franklin County, it was interesting to see that he was you know, he was kind of it seemed like a little perturbed about that.

He said that if you know any anybody who wants to represent this district should should want to live in the traditional boundaries of that district and didn't want it to be drawn.

It drawn itself out of the kind of, you know, the conventional idea of what the western Kentucky district is.

And there were other justices who are expressing some skepticism about the maps, too.

But you never know, based on those discussions exactly how the court's going to rule.

But it's going to be soon.

Right?

They said they would make a ruling soon.

We don't know how soon Soon is, but we know that the filing deadline is earlier for the 24 races.

So it's like, I think the seventh or the 6th of January.

So hopefully a decision would come before then.

Yeah, this has happened a couple of times in a row for during these even numbered years, having to move that filing deadline around.

Secretary of State Adams hinted that lawmakers might have to push that back if a ruling.

It.

Or the court might force to force lawmakers do that.

This would also, you know, if the maps are struck down, force the legislature to take the maps back up, redraw them.

So you just couldn't to revert back to the previous decennial census.

If I remember correctly, there was they did do that a bit like ten years ago.

But that's the thing.

Every ten years something like this happens.

Yeah.

Now.

Well, thank you.

I will.

It's always good to see you.

Thanks, Renee.