Louisville Courier-Journal

Democrat Steve Beshear, in a smashing return to Kentucky politics after more than a decade on the sidelines, won a landslide victory last night over Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Beshear won nearly 60 percent of the vote in defeating Fletcher, a Republican seeking to become the first member of his party to serve two terms as governor, by a margin of 18 percentage points.

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"The people of Kentucky have spoken, and they turned the reins of the government over to us," Beshear -- surrounded by his wife, Jane, and the rest of his family -- told a roaring crowd at the Farnham Dudgeon Civic Center in Frankfort last night.

Beshear said his dream is for a time when all children will have health insurance and senior citizens won't have to choose between food and prescription drugs.

"My friends, that time is here and that time is now," he said.

He promised to work with Republicans and Democrats alike.

"We need everyone … to come together if we're going to make this commonwealth a better place to live."

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Beshear won traditionally Democratic counties that he was supposed to win and made it close in those where Republicans have typically run well. In Boone County, for example, where 63 percent of the voters are Republican, Fletcher won by less than 2 percentage points, and he won only by a small margin in heavily Republican Oldham County.

In all, Beshear carried 92 of the state's 120 counties. Four years ago, by contrast, Fletcher won 86 counties.

Most of the counties Fletcher carried this year were in south-central Kentucky. He even struggled in Republican-performing Northern Kentucky, where he won only Boone County.

Beshear carried Eastern Kentucky, which normally votes Democratic, and Western Kentucky, which has been trending Republican in recent years.

In Jefferson County, where Fletcher lost by just 5,536 votes in 2003, Beshear won by roughly 67,000 votes.

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