Author Topic: After attending pro-cockfighting rally, Senate candidate Matt Bevin says it's a state issue  (Read 492 times)

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Offline truth_seeker

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http://www.kentucky.com/2014/04/02/3175612/after-attending-pro-cockfighting.html

After attending pro-cockfighting rally, Senate candidate Matt Bevin says it's a state issue


By Sam Youngman  April 2, 2014

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin believes the legality of cockfighting should be decided by states and not the federal government, his spokeswoman said Wednesday following a news report that Bevin attended a pro-cockfighting rally over the weekend.

"Matt doesn't believe this is a federal issue, and the state government can handle it," said Rachel Semmel, Bevin's spokeswoman.

The News Journal in Corbin reported Wednesday that Bevin, who is seeking to defeat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the May 20 primary, spoke to about 700 people at an event in Corbin last Saturday that was organized by Michael Devereaux, director of the Gamefowl Defense Network.

Bevin told the newspaper that he didn't know he had attended a pro-cockfighting rally, although organizers told the paper there was "never any ambiguity" about the purpose of the event, which was to rally support for changing laws that outlaw cockfighting.

Bevin said he thought the event was a rally for states' rights. He spoke to the crowd in the morning before attending the county's Lincoln Day dinner that night.

"I was the first person to speak and then I left," Bevin said. "They knew I was here. They asked if I would be interested in speaking. I'm a politician running statewide, any chance I get to speak to a few hundred people I'm going to take it."

Semmel's statement about Bevin's belief that cockfighting is a state issue came in response to a question about whether the candidate supports the controversial practice, in which two roosters often fight to the death in a ring called a cockpit. She did not respond to a follow-up question asking again whether Bevin personally supports the practice.

The McConnell campaign, which has repeatedly accused Bevin of dishonesty, was skeptical that Bevin didn't know the purpose of Saturday's event.

"Only Matt Bevin would go to a cockfighting rally and claim he didn't know what they were doing there," McConnell spokeswoman Allison Moore said.

As the Herald-Leader reported in February, McConnell enraged cockfighting enthusiasts when he voted earlier this year in favor of farm legislation that contained an amendment making it a federal crime to be a spectator at an animal fight. In response, a McConnell spokesman said a representative of the senator's would be willing to sit with the group and hear their concerns.

The new law makes attending a cockfight or dogfight a federal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and $100,000 fine. It makes bringing a minor to such fights a federal felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The penalties included in the new federal law put serious teeth into what is already criminal activity, although Kentucky law enforcement officials have rarely cited individuals for the misdemeanor offense.
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Doesn't know the theme of an event he attends?  Doesn't believe in legal letters he signs?

The guy inherited his Dad's business.

This is an example of some more Tea Party political discipline and smarts.
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Offline sinkspur

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This "legitimate rape" incident illustrates that Matt Bevin--who will never be  a Senator from Kentucky--certainly qualifies for president of the Michael Vick fan club.
Roy Moore's "spiritual warfare" is driving past a junior high without stopping.

Offline Atomic Cow

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"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline jmyrlefuller

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Seems to me like a desperate attempt to gin up controversy.

This is the same approach Andrew Cuomo used to win his first gubernatorial election.
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Offline sinkspur

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Seems to me like a desperate attempt to gin up controversy.

This is the same approach Andrew Cuomo used to win his first gubernatorial election.

Only white trash and low class ethnics have anything to do with cockfighting.  Why would Bevins go to something like this?
Roy Moore's "spiritual warfare" is driving past a junior high without stopping.

Oceander

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Cock-fighting can certainly be regulated under the Commerce Clause, at least insofar as buying and transporting the birds is concerned.