Annual picnic more than political season kickoff

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Democrat Senate candidate Jack Conway delivers his speech Saturday during the Fancy Farm Picnic near Mayfield.
Republican senate candidate Rand Paul gestures Saturday during his speech at Fancy Farm.

August 9, 2010

By Ronnie Ellis CNHI News Service The Richmond Register Mon Aug 09, 2010, 08:35 AM EDT

FANCY FARM — The annual picnic and political season kickoff at Fancy Farm tickles the political and culinary palates with more than can be packed into just a couple of weekend stories, so here are some leftovers.

Bishop William Francis Medley of the Owensboro Diocese began the political speaking program with two prayers. The first was as appropriate as it was brief – and no doubt touched both of the Senate candidates, Democrat Jack Conway and Republican Rand Paul, each of whom has at times regretted things he has said.

“Lord, may our words be gracious and tender today,” intoned the Bishop. “For tomorrow, we may have to eat them.”

More than words were eaten. Greg Higdon, the President of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, also is a member of St. Jerome’s Parish which puts on and benefits from the annual Fancy Farm weekend. He said more than 19,000 pounds of pork and mutton were prepared and eaten or sold, more than 5,600 pieces of chicken were served and 830 pounds of fish were consumed. On the biggest day – Saturday – there are two sets of food servers in the Knights of Columbus Hall, one during the four-hour lunch shift and another beginning at 3 p.m.

“We never took a break during the lunch shift which is not normal,” Higdon said. “If this was not the biggest, then it was one of the top two or three picnics we’ve ever had.”

He said preliminary figures indicate more than $200,000 was taken in Saturday alone.

There were the usual theatrics. A Conway supporter, dressed as a cave man complete with beard and a club, billed himself as a “NeanderPaul” and walked through the crowd yelling, “Abolish government!” That was a satiric take on Paul’s calls for much smaller government.

Paul’s side wasn’t without its own characters. Two of them were outfitted in “Grim Reaper” costumes and carried signs saying Conway supports re-imposing the estate tax, which their signs and their candidate call “the death tax.” Their masks were so effective, some of the picnic patrons complained they were frightening children and the two Paul supporters were told to remove their masks by picnic officials.

The pageantry and politics were enough to draw even more press attention than in most Years, when the state’s political reporters descend on the small community located among cornfields and soy beans between Mayfield and Paducah in far western Kentucky.

Kentucky Educational Television network broadcast the speeches live and fed the broadcast to C-Span which telecast it nationally. Time Magazine contributor and political writer Joe Klein was on hand. They were drawn by the national spotlight on the Senate race and the national attention elicited by Paul’s campaign and its ties to the TEA Party.

“Isn’t that awesome?” exclaimed Mark Wilson, who organizes the annual political speeches, as he began the political speaking part of the day. “We have arrived!”

So much so that the Republican Minority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, Eric Cantor of Virginia, showed up, speaking to Republicans at their annual pre-picnic breakfast at Graves County High in Mayfield. He made clear the Republican strategy in this year’s mid-term elections – tie local Democratic candidates to President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Even in the relatively calm atmosphere of a basically Republican-only gathering, Cantor showed he understands the hyperbole of Fancy Farm political speeches.

Obama, Reid and Pelosi, Cantor said, “are absolutely committed to re-designing our economy, to re-designing our government and frankly re-defining what our country is.”

But, Kentucky House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, who served as master of ceremonies for the political speeches, took a moment to recall another Republican and regular at Fancy Farm – former state Senator and Supreme Court Justice Walter Baker, who died in May.

Hoover recalled Baker’s love of Fancy Farm but also his commitment to bi-partisan cooperation and civility. Then he recognized Baker’s widow, Jane, and daughter, Ann, who were seated on the stage.

As the out-of-towners began departing Sunday morning, some had already made reservations for next year’s 131st Fancy Farm, according to a desk clerk at Drury’s Inn in Paducah. As Wilson noted, Fancy Farm has arrived – and it appears it is here to stay.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com. The Richmond Register is a CNHI newspaper.

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Annual picnic more than political season kickoff

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