Peppy Martin

Peppy Martin

Peppy Martin is a political figure in Kentucky. She was the Republican nominee for Governor of Kentucky in 1999.

Early career and campaigns

Peppy Martin served as an intern for United States Senator Thruston B. Morton and worked in the office of Governor Louie B. Nunn in 1971. She then went into a career in public relations, eventually running her own public relations business in Hart County, Kentucky.

Martin legally changed her name to "Peppy" from her given name of Josephine Ellen when she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Kentucky General Assembly in the 1970s.

1999 candidacy for Governor of Kentucky

In 1999, Martin ran for Governor of Kentucky against Paul E. Patton, the Democratic incumbent who, due to a change in the Kentucky Constitution, was the state's first governor who could run for a second consecutive term. Martin's running mate was Wanda Cornelius of Taylor County, Kentucky.

Martin and Cornelius defeated the slate of David Williams and his wife. The Williams slate won 18,295 votes (48%) to 19,248 (52%) for the all-female Martin/Cornelius slate.

Martin's general election gubernatorial campaign was marked by over the top remarks and name-calling, including her assertion in a televised debate that 80% of the state's elected sheriffs and state police officers were involved in drug trafficking. Martin later said the basis for that accusation was "street talk".

In August 1999 during a public speech at a large statewide political gathering at Fancy Farm, Kentucky, Martin called United States Senator Mitch McConnell's marriage to Chinese-American Elaine Chao his "Chinese connection". McConnell, the ranking Kentucky Republican, was angered by Martin's comment, left the state in disgust and refused to support Martin in any way or even acknowledge Martin's candidacy.

Martin's campaign platform included repealing or altering the 1996 reforms to the state's workers' compensation laws that Patton had championed; enacting new laws concerning health insurance; creating a health insurance pool that she claimed would allow every Kentuckian to buy a standard policy for between $130 and $150 per month; and cutting taxes, including elimination of the state property tax on automobiles.

Republican United States Senator Jim Bunning publicly endorsed Martin and contributed $1,000 to her campaign, but many other high profile Kentucky Republicans avoided any active involvement with or ringing endorsement of her campaign. Martin caused controversy by mailing campaign material that listed various people who wanted no part of her campaign or candidacy as holding positions in her campaign. Martin attributed this to letters she sent to some of these people which read in part "I have taken the liberty of having your name on a list of prominent Kentuckians whose leadership means something to everybody and whose inclusion here means a great deal to me. Regrets only." These mailings also included advertising pieces encouraging people to hire Martin's public relations firm.

On election night Martin wore a 1950s style formal dress and was defeated by Patton. In very low turnout, Patton won 352,099 votes (60.6%) to Martin's 128,788 (22.2%); Reform Party nominee Gatewood Galbraith won 88,930 votes (15.3%) and a Natural Law party nominee won 6,934 votes (1.2%). Patton won 114 of Kentucky's 120 counties; the only counties Martin carried (Clay, Harlan, Jackson (by 1 vote), Leslie, Letcher, Martin, and Perry) were coal-mining counties in the eastern part of the state where voters were livid at Patton over the workers compensation reforms that ended what had been a costly and easily-abused program. Those counties had very high numbers of former coal miners and their families living on disability due black lung claims under the old workers compensation program.

2000 Presidential candidacy

In 2000 Martin began mounting an abortive attempt to win the 2000 presidential nomination of the Reform Party, launching a website styled www.peppy4prez.com.

2000 candidacy for Congress

In 2000 Peppy Martin announced her candidacy as the Reform Party candidate for her local congressional seat. She aligned herself with Pat Buchanan in that contest, introducing him at a rally in front of approximately 50 supporters in Lexington and presenting him with a blue University of Kentucky ballcap. Martin, however, failed to gain ballot access for the fall general election.

2003 candidacy for Auditor of Public Accounts

In 2003 Martin unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the statewide office of Auditor of Public Accounts. She won 32,421 votes in the primary, finishing second behind Linda Greenwell's 50,366 votes but ahead of Osi Onyekwuluje's 16,596 and Basha Cannon Roberts' 25,216.

Martin demonstrated her electoral strength among Eastern Kentucky Republicans as well as her popularity in her home region of southern Kentucky as she finished first in fourteen counties: Barren, Clark, Clay, Elliott, Floyd, Harlan, Hart, Letcher, Magoffin, Metcalfe, Owsley, Perry, Pike and Powell.

Martin came close to winning other counties, losing by only one vote in both Estill County and Robertson County, 2 votes in Knott County, 3 votes in Leslie County, 4 votes in Breathitt County, 5 votes in Carlisle County, 7 votes in Jessamine County and Wolfe County, 8 votes in Todd County, 9 votes in Lincoln County and Morgan County, 10 votes in Garrard County, Marion County and Nicholas County, 11 votes in Ballard County, Green County and Lee County, 12 votes in Gallatin County, 13 votes in Fleming County, Fulton County and Menifee County, 14 votes in Carroll County, 17 votes in Hickman County, 18 votes in Livingston County and Pendleton County, 19 votes in Mercer County and Rowan County, 22 votes in Montgomery County, 24 votes in Monroe County, 25 votes in Edmonson County, Hancock County and Washington County, 26 votes in Bracken County and Harrison County, 27 votes in Caldwell County, 31 votes in Logan County and Martin County, 33 votes in Simpson County and Union County, 39 votes in Wayne County, 40 votes in Lawrence County, 41 votes in Owen County, 42 votes in Trimble County, 44 votes in Cumberland County, 45 votes in Lyon County, and 49 votes in Mason County and Woodford County. With the 'Chinese Connection' she mentioned during the 1999 campaign, Martin may have won more counties and perhaps the primary.

As shown above Martin carried 14 counties in the 2003 primary, would have carried 36 counties with a shift of just 99 votes, would have carried 52 counties with a shift of just 396 votes and would have carried 56 counties with a shift of just 491 votes.

2007 candidacy for Governor of Kentucky

In late August, 2006 Peppy Martin purchased a surplused toilet that had been used by governors of Tennessee. She told a reporter for Knoxville television station WATE 6 that one reason for the purchase was to inspire her own upcoming campaign for governor, indicating that she will again run for Governor of Kentucky in 2007. So far no announced Republican candidates hail from Martin's areas of greatest electoral strength in eastern and southern Kentucky.

ee also

*Kentucky gubernatorial election, 2007

External links

* [http://blogs.wate.com/?m=200608] WATE 6 reporting on Peppy Martin buying the Tennessee governor's toilet as inspiration for her own candidacy for governor


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