Time now for a midweek check in of some major political developments in Kentucky with our friend Ryland Barton, who's managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you, Ryland.

It's you, too, Renee.

So we're just a few weeks away from the May primary and the candidates and the governor's race in the GOP primary are really kicking it up when it comes to these joint appearances and debates.

How are the candidates setting themselves apart?

What's their messaging?

And is it consistent?

I mean, one thing I would say is that it's actually pretty consistent within the candidates.

This is the season in which they are trying to differentiate themselves from each other in some way.

And we're not seeing a huge gap between a lot of the candidates.

Yeah.

So the two most recent forums being in the Kentucky Sports radio debate, there was one in Paducah yesterday.

Daniel Cameron showed up to the one in Paducah, but Kelly Kraft didn't.

Kraft showed up to the one with Kentucky Sports Radio, but Cameron didn't.

So there's a little bit of jockeying for when those two frontrunner candidates are showing up.

I think that's one of the most interesting things happening at this point.

But yeah, they're still they're still trying to find a way to set each other apart.

It's not totally happening besides just in the way that they're trying to get their own names out there.

They are.

They're not really going after each other too hard on the on the personal level, although they are criticizing one another for not showing up to those debates right now.

Right now, the opponent is still feeling very much Andy Beshear, the person that they hope that they will be running against in the general election.

There was a recent poll released last week with Emerson College and why Fox 56 TV here in Lexington that shows that that race is tightening, which is to be expected with just a few days or a few weeks before the primary, where Kelly Kraft now is just six points behind Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

What does that say to you?

You know, that's a that's we've been waiting for this to happen, especially with how much money Kraft has been spending on television and broadcast ads and also supportive political groups have been spending on those sorts of ads.

So, you know, that happens especially as we're getting closer to the primary.

Those ads are coming out.

More people are becoming a little bit more familiar with the name.

But also agriculture Commissioner Ryan Corales having a big jump in that polling.

I thought that was that was very significant as well.

And actually, as of the most recent Haiti filing deadline, I believe he's the one with the most cash on hand at this point, although there will still be a lot more money to be raised and spent by the other campaigns going forward.

Not too many people vote in these primary elections in these off autumn, odd numbered years.

You know, back in 2015, during that crowded primary debate, a primary race there only 13% of registered voters cast ballots during that election in 2019 was about 19%.

So when you have such a small pool of people actually casting ballots, those sways in terms of favourability and how people ultimately actually vote on Election Day can change a change drastically.

And that latest poll, it shows that 20.7% of those Republican likely voters were still undecided.

So that's a substantial chunk of people who haven't made up their mind yet.

Right.

And that really is that could go almost any way.

I mean, in that poll, Eric Peters, the suspended attorney from northern Kentucky, he was polling in 6% with that.

And granted, it's very unlikely that, you know, the 20% of undecided people are going to rush to one particular candidate.

But no matter what, there's a lot of voters out there who are still not sure how they're going to cast ballots.

And they can you know, they could go any number of ways.

Yeah.

So getting back to the messaging, so now it's heating up a little bit on the airwaves where you have a Daniels supported political action committee who's put out a negative ad against Kelly Kraft.

And here's a little bit of that.

But you know what's really strange?

Kraft worked for President Trump, and Trump endorsed Daniels, not Kraft.

This is the first time a camera in or Cameron supported political action group has started going after, you know, the closest challenger, according to polls, former U.N.

Ambassador Kelly Kraft, going after her for her record as the ambassador to Canada.

That's a 2019 Politico article that was referencing her attendance and the lack of attendance at some United Nations or at some of her functions as the Canadian ambassador.

And then also just digging in on this point of trying to push put chairman ahead as the recognizable law enforcement entity.

So I think that we're starting to see some of that maneuvering starting to happen where they're trying to trying to prop themselves up on the pedestal, but also doing that by pushing some of the other candidates away.

And so far, again, the candidates and their campaigns haven't been doing a lot of that heavy lifting.

They've been leaving it up to these political action committees through TV commercials.

So final point, because of what had happened last week, of course, and Louisville and at the time we talked, there was just one mass shooting.

And then we know that there was a subsequent one over the weekend.

But there was a poll done in the middle of that time with Fox, 56 News and Emerson College about gun perspectives of Republican voters.

And it looks like 87, almost 88% believe they're just right or too strict.

Only 11.5 view them as too lenient.

How much of a conversation will be had in these final days, weeks about gun laws, do you think, in the Republican primary for governor?

I don't think that there's going to be a lot of difference in how they come out on some of these issues.

I mean, we've heard it in the debates recently.

They're really most of the candidates are pushing away the concept of red flag laws.

If anything, the policies that are on the table are, you know, whether, you know, to permit local jurisdictions to destroy firearms that are confiscated during criminal activities.

That's something at least Somerset Mayor Alan Keck has said that he would be in favor of.

It's kind of like the lowest bar of policy decisions here.

But I think what that poll shows you is that there's still a lot of you know, a lot of Republicans who think that the, you know, the current state of gun laws are just fine and they're not really interested in doing anything to to really boost gun safety from the government level.

Thank you.

Ryland Barton, good to see you.

Thanks, Rene.