FANCY FARM — With Kentucky's U.S. Senate race getting national attention,Fancy Farm organizersasked attendees to tone down the picnic's famed heckling.
Fancy Farm ended up drawing a record crowd,said Bill Cunningham, the picnic's political speaking emcee and a Kentucky Supreme Court justice. Could pleas for more civility work in the midst of a major Senate race and a bigger-than-ever audience?
We asked some of the attendees on Saturday. Here's what they had to say:
Maybe you'd rather hear for yourself. During the speeches, I positioned myself in the middle of the crowd—right between Republicans and Democrats.
The signs hoisted above the crowd wavered from side to side, close to other onlookers' faces. To my left, a man puffed on a cigar between hoots. To my right, a Kentucky state trooper swooped in to break up a brief shoving match between a young supporter of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and an older supporter of Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Here's what I heard during some of the crowd's most intense heckling of Grimes and McConnell.
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As a side note, not everyone thought more civility was needed.
“As far as I am concerned, it’s a good deal—if you’re going to give guff to someone you better expect to get some back,” London, Ky., resident Charles Hayes told me.
