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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin believes the legality of cockfighting should be decided by states and not the federal government, his spokeswoman said Wednesday following a news report that Bevin attended a pro-cockfighting rally over the weekend.
"Matt doesn't believe this is a federal issue, and the state government can handle it," said Rachel Semmel, Bevin's spokeswoman.
The News Journal in Corbin reported Wednesday that Bevin, who is seeking to defeat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the May 20 primary, spoke to about 700 people at an event in Corbin last Saturday that was organized by Michael Devereaux, director of the Gamefowl Defense Network.
Bevin told the newspaper that he didn't know he had attended a pro-cockfighting rally, although organizers told the paper there was "never any ambiguity" about the purpose of the event, which was to rally support for changing laws that outlaw cockfighting.
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As the Herald-Leader reported in February, McConnell enraged cockfighting enthusiasts when he voted earlier this year in favor of farm legislation that contained an amendment making it a federal crime to be a spectator at an animal fight. In response, a McConnell spokesman said a representative of the senator's would be willing to sit with the group and hear their concerns.
The new law makes attending a cockfight or dogfight a federal misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and $100,000 fine. It makes bringing a minor to such fights a federal felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Here's a case of someone being exactly right, and yet being wildly wrong at the same time. Bevin is exactly correct: there is absolutely no need for a federal law banning cock-fighting. That's not within the purview of the federal government. But you don't go announcing this at a cock-fighting rally! Sheesh. You may as well go announce that hate crimes legislation is contrary to the Constitution at a Klan rally. Right message, wrong venue.
Bevin is done. Too bad. I had high hopes for the guy, and he IS right on the issues. But if he's either too myopic to see what a dumb idea it is to lend his presence to a cock-fighting rally, or if he's simply too ill-informed to know who is his host at some event, then he really just doesn't belong in the Senate.
*sigh*
Another six years of Milquetoast McConnell.
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