Time now for a midweek check in of some major political developments so far this week with Rylan Barden, who's managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you, as always.

RYLAN To see you, too, Renee.

So let's talk about the gubernatorial candidates are making their rounds of interviews, one on one, either with editorial boards or with journalists.

Governor Andy Beshear talked with the Lexington Herald-Leader editorial board, and he made some news by saying that he was going to be committed fully to a second term.

Tell us about this.

Yeah, nobody had asked this question yet, I don't think, as there's just been a lot of speculation as to what would Andy Beshear, his political future is.

You know, even if he gets reelected, there's been a lot of talk that maybe he has a future in some future Democratic administration, whether that's in the cabinet or on some sort of ticket.

He is, you know, especially if he wins this election, he will have kind of shown how a Democrat might how there's a road map for Democrats to win statewide elections in the South.

I mean, he's already done it one time, but twice might really seal that deal.

But he's he said during this interview he committed that he wouldn't be jumping ship for a for one of those types of jobs or running for the U.S. Senate halfway through the term.

So, yeah, finally answered that question.

He says he's committed to, if he gets reelected, staying in Kentucky's top executive for four years.

And Daniel Cameron's been asked that question before.

I recall someone asking the question a few months ago and of course, he says the same.

So how much stock can you put into that?

And Daniel Cameron, we should remind viewers also when he was attorney general, he ran for that office in 2019.

He said, you know, I'm going to I'm going to be fully involved in being an attorney general.

And that's not a stair step to me to be governor.

Yeah, it certainly is.

One of those questions that there's only one answer a candidate can really provide if they were to provide any sort of different answer or hem and haw at all.

And it would just get buried by with questions in by political opponents pointing that out.

And as you point out, there is nothing that really binds a candidate to fulfilling that that promise that they make during the campaign season when they're in office.

So minds change a lot.

I'm think back to Rand Paul saying that he would be he wouldn't serve longer than what was it, three terms in office.

And he's made it and made it there.

So, you know, positions of all on these sorts of questions.

Yeah.

So let's talk about there were a couple of polls that came out last week after we had talked on Wednesday.

One was a partizan poll that showed that Governor Andy Beshear had a six point lead over Daniel Cameron.

But talk to us about this Emerson College poll.

Yeah, the the the polls showing Beshear ahead keep on rolling in.

Even the ones that Republicans are celebrating.

Show him with you know with a still substantial lead that one one of them showed them the six six percentage point lead in love last week.

His favorables are still low.

You know, it is also important to question to take some of these polls with a grain of salt, especially after some of the polling that we got to say around seven, eight years ago during the governor's race, when Matt Bevin won in 2015, the U.S. Senate race in 2014, when Mitch McConnell trounced Alison Lundergan Grimes, those were polls that showed Democrats really performing very well shortly before Election Day.

And the results really bore out a completely different results.

Polling has been a little bit better in recent years.

This poll that was released last week tracks with some of the one tracks with a lot of the other polling that we've seen.

But also they have predicted other races pretty well in Kentucky.

So, you know, we'll never know until the ultimate poll on Election Day that shows really where voters are at.

But I think the one thing that gives me some some credibility to these polls is just that they have consistently shown similar results, even between different polling firms.

So a grain of salt.

But the only way you can get a better idea is through more data points like that.

But Republicans have punched holes in that Emerson College poll that they say that, you know, Emerson tried this back in the May primary and it didn't really turn out to be the way they had surveyed.

So they are already saying it's not necessarily a valid poll.

Right.

They're saying there's instead and pointing out rightly, that Daniel Cameron, the spread of victory was, you know, much smaller in their polling results versus what he ultimately got on on Election Day.

So there is that for sure.

Yeah.

So a final point.

We heard earlier in the program, a clip of an interview I did with Daniel Cameron about race and this governor's race and asking him about his position on programs, etc., and if he thinks Kentucky is ready to elect a black governor.

And we heard his response.

Why hasn't race necessarily been a big conversation in this contest this time around?

Yeah, it certainly it hasn't come up so much yet.

I mean, I think that people have been pointing out that, you know, is, you know, Kentucky's first black attorney general, he would be the state's first black governor.

He would be the first black Republican governor in the nation.

But yeah, this hasn't really come up in reporters questions with him.

And I mean, I think it's an oversight.

This is an important issue, but it also reflects a bit of of of Cameron's approach to this issue.

And I think in some of the responses that he's provided both to you and elsewhere, he he really doesn't want race to be part of his his identity going into this.

And his policies are kind of transcendent or his positions transcend race and race above them.

I think that, you know, a lot of his political opponents and others sort of would point out that, you know, as as much as the race is an arbitrary thing, it is a real thing in both American history and just in how things have borne out and and govern, how things in and how systemic racism is a reality in this country.

And I think that his opponents to point out that, you know, that that's what we've seen in Kentucky and across the nation, especially in 2020, with disparities, disparities and policing and the death of Breonna Taylor, and that they really want to wanted Cameron to step up at that moment and and acknowledge that, you know, that race played a factor there.

And I think that that's something he's been avoiding talking about.

And and it's something that we as journalists should talk more about and talk to candidates more about.

Yeah, well, we'll have to leave it there.

It's good to talk to you always.

Rylan.

Take good care.

Thanks, Renee.