An interesting political phenomenon was on display in our recent local election — is party more important than anything else when choosing a candidate?

Many of us expected Tom Pope, the Democratic nominee from Harlan, to carry Harlan County in the race for the state representative seat in the 84th District against Chris Fugate, a Republican from Perry County. Fugate, however, ended up winning, even in Harlan County, where he received 2,686 votes compared to 1,950 for Pope.

We’ve heard quite a few complaints about the need for local representation in the General Assembly, since Harlan County doesn’t have its own legislative district these days, but it appears that voting a straight Republican ticket is more important to quite a few Harlan Countians than Harlan County and its future.

Fugate played on his Republican connections in a television ad that mentioned President Trump, noting that the same group that was “after President Trump” also wanted him to lose. My first thought on that ad was that Fugate flattered himself a little too much if he thinks that the rest of the nation, outside of Harlan or Perry counties, has any interest in the 84th District or puts him on the same level of significance as the president.

The strategy may be effective though, since so many candidates seem to want to bring national issues like abortion and school prayer into races where the winners have no power to do anything about either. You’d think the voters would be smart enough to see candidates are avoiding real issues that they may be able to control, but that apparently isn’t the case.

The next four years will give Fugate another opportunity to prove he is interested in helping Harlan County. This is one instance where being proven wrong would be a welcome surprise.

———

Responses after the news that Harlan County had received funding for several projects, including the airport and the extension of U.S. 421 at Cranks, was quite a bit more negative than I had imagined.

The major complaint was that Harlan County had much more pressing needs than an airport that most will never use. This, of course, is assuming that the people who give out the grant money on state and federal levels are asking for priority lists from Harlan County. That isn’t the way it’s done though — you take what you can get and you don’t turn down anything.

For me, the most exciting part of the news was that work will begin again soon on U.S. 421, toward Virginia. There will still be another section of the road, a little less than three miles, to be completed, but after several years with no progress even a half mile sounds like a step in the right direction.

———

That idea gets me back to the election where state senator Brandon Smith caught my attention with one of his ads when he talked about improved transportation, that had led to “four-lane roads from Hazard to Salyersville.”

Nothing against Smith, who has tried to help Harlan County on many issues, but I had to scream at the television at that point, asking “What about Harlan County!”

There were some recent complaints in the Hazard area about the delays caused by the expansion of KY 15 between Jackson and Hazard, which reminded me about my recent trip from Winchester to Harlan via the Mountain Parkway. The road is now four lanes through most of Breathitt County, which sent me to my list of county populations, the same one I go to every time I’m angry and jealous about other counties receiving new roads, while we wait and wait in Harlan County.

Breathitt County has approximately 13,000 residents. Harlan County, even with big losses in population over the last 30 years, still has over 26,000 people. Again, I ask — “What about Harlan County?”