The "Old Fifth" Defined and In-Depth

Over the past few weeks a common theme has emerged in the Republican gubernatorial primary: the importance of the “old fifth” among the chattering class. Ryan Alessi recently reported that the area could no longer be considered the GOP’s Gibraltar; Bryan Mills has compared candidates’ attempts to woo this area to picking blackberries; and the KY Enquirer’s Pat Crowley wrote that Anne Northup’s pick of Jeff Hoover as her running mate was part of an effort to “corral the Old Fifth.” (Notice the capitalization in Crowley’s column.)

Despite its obvious importance, there’s the real possibility that there are a still a few readers who’re wondering whether this is some reference to a Masonic rite, a mysterious organization that stresses the number “5” as a part of its philosophy, or even an area similar to that facility in Nevada called “Area 51”, where Kentucky keeps aliens and spaceships. In fact, the Old Fifth is, perhaps unfortunately, nothing quite so mysterious or fascinating.

The “old fifth” refers to Kentucky’s Fifth Congressional District as it was constituted prior to the 1990 census and the ensuing 1993 redistricting. Today, Kentucky has 6 Congressional Districts; prior to the 1990 census it had 7.

In 1990 the 5th C.D. (the “old fifth”) contained 28 counties and ran from Monroe, Metcalf, Green and Taylor County to Bell, Leslie, Owsley and Lee County. It included Garrard and Lincoln as well as Madison and Jessamine County. The common theme binding most of these counties was their Appalachian heritage. They were either mountainous or semi-mountainous foothill counties (with the obvious central Kentucky exceptions.)

These counties had been represented in Congress by Republicans going back all the way to the 1950’s and beyond. By the 50’s the area was split between the old, old 8th and the even older 9th. In the 50’s these seats were held by James S. Golden, Eugene Siler- father of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Eugene Siler, and William Lewis- the grandfather of current Republican Party of Kentucky Executive Committee member and attorney Warren Scoville.

Since shortly after the Civil War, these counties had been counted in the Republican column. This latter fact is an important one. While the Republican Party has gained strength in many areas over the past few decades, it’s been dominant in the “Old Fifth” for nearly 150 years.

Harry Caudill ascribed this fact to the fallout over the Civil War. Caudill believed Appalachian folk, mostly subsistence farmers who chose to scrap a tough, isolated living out of the mountain soil, blamed the misery of the Civil War on the Southern Planter Class and their party, the Democrats.

In the History of Appalachia, Richard Drake adds another dimension to Appalachian loyalty to the Republican Party: that of Whig Resurgence in the party leadership. According to Drake, mountain voters were also drawn to the party because of its continued adherence to the economic development, internal improvement policies first articulated by Henry Clay. It can be argued that this trend continues to this day, given the strong belief in government spending to spur local economic development.

Regardless of the root reasons behind this longstanding partisan affiliation, the tradition has served to somewhat insulate the mountainous region from many of the ideological trends that have driven through the party since the 1980’s. In fact, to this day old 5th Republicans tend to be much less ideologically conservative than the rest of the GOP faithful. Mountain voters are conservative, but they’re less dogmatic than many other GOP voters.

At this point it’s important to note that these Republican tendencies weren’t exclusive to the area now known as the old fifth. In point of fact, they were common throughout Appalachia. But where other parts of Appalachia witnessed large scale industrialization in the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s, and became the subject of mostly successful unionization and turned to the Democrats, Kentucky’s western Appalachian counties were never thoroughly industrialized and remained Republican.

For most of the 20th century pols from the old fifth provided much of the leadership to the Kentucky’s Republican Party. Of five Republican Governors since 1900, one was from Pulaski and another was from Knox. A third, Louie B. Nunn, was a single county removed from the “old fifth.” Four of Kentucky’s ten U.S. Senators elected in the 20th century were Republicans; including the legendary John Sherman Cooper who was Ambassador to India and a member of the Warren Commission. And, more recently, old 5th Republicans like Senator David Williams and Chief Justice Joe Lambert have tended to dominate their particular branches of state government.

Today the counties in the old fifth contain the largest concentration of Republican voters in the Commonwealth. According to Alessi's analysis, there are “231,000 registered GOP residents in the 23 most Republican southern Kentucky counties.” While these voters don’t always vote in the same proportion as other GOP voters, they remain an incredible force to be reckoned with.

But how did we get a “new fifth”? Since 1980 Kentucky’s 5th C.D. has been represented by Wayne County native Hal Rogers. Following the 1993 redistricting Rogers district was merged with the old 7th district, at the time represented by Chris Perkins, the son of the late (and legendary) Carl D. Perkins. The 7th Congressional District consisted of a swath of Eastern Kentucky counties running from Perry, Breathitt, Wolfe, and Menifee in the west, and encompassing all the counties east of this line. When Kentucky lost that district, most of its counties were submerged in the district currently know as the U.S. 5th C.D. Overnight the 5th C.D. went from being an overwhelming Republican district to one with a slight Democratic majority. While the old 5th’s easternmost counties, from Wayne to Leslie, remained in the new 5th, most of the counties were added to the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts. Obviously Gerrymandering wasn’t far from the legislature’s mind.

Following redistricting, old fifth Republicans found their area split among four Congressional districts in an obvious attempt to dilute their voting power. But they were to have the last laugh. Their presence in the 1st C.D. is widely viewed as the key to Ed Whitfield’s initial success. In the 2nd District they’ve help provide Ron Lewis with a cushion. And with the creation of the new 5th C.D., Kentucky’s legislature introduced voters from Pike County to Rowan County to the one Republican who could potentially have won and held that seat for so many years- Hal Rogers.

When the polls close on primary day, Bill Goodman and the cast at KET will begin their election coverage. It’s likely that the panel will consist of seasoned observers like John David Dyche and Al Cross, both from the old fifth. At some point they’ll get a question about what we should be watching for as the returns come in. You can almost be certain that someone will say, “as goes the old fifth, as goes the Republican primary.” They’ll be correct, and a 150 year old tradition will continue.

A footnote: The one part of the state that rivaled the old 5th in its Republican tradition was Louisville. It was home to one of the GOP's five Governors as well as Senators Sackett, Morton, and Cooke... not to mention Kentucky's most accomplished Senator since Henry Clay, Mitch McConnell.