By saying that his dream job is athletics director at the University of Kentucky, as opposed to Governor or Lieutenant Governor, Richie Farmer gave us something to think about. Such as, if the UK A.D.’s job was put on the ballot, who would win an election between Farmer and incumbent Mitch Barnhart?

Barnhart couldn’t run on a pledge of no new new taxes, considering how he has just boosted the donor levels for basketball season tickets. That’s expected to generate around $3.5 million for the athletics department, which, coincidentally, is about how much it’ll take to pay off former hoops coach Billy Clyde Gillispie.

Richie lacks Barnhart’s experience in running a big-time college athletics department, one with a budget of more than $40 million, but he has apparently done a decent job of managing the Agricultural Department. If it’s a popularity contest, of course, Richie would win in a landslide — and that’s no knock against Barnhart because Richie would beat anybody, including Gov. Steve Beshear or Brad Pitt, one-on-one in a popularity contest.

Because of his legendary playing career at Clay County High and UK, Farmer is an icon in rural Kentucky. That’s why David Williams, the heavy-handed Republican despot who controls the State Senate, wants him as a runningmate. In some circles, Boss David is even less popular than Barnhart.

Personally, I’d like to see Richie run for Governor with somebody seasoned and more citified — Trey Grayson, maybe — in the second spot. I think that ticket would be a shoo-in to beat Beshear and his new runningmate, Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson. Even staunch Democrats have been disappointed in Beshear’s weak and ineffectual leadership. There’s no way Farmer could be worse — and he might even be better if he follows former Gov. John Y. Brown Jr.’s example and surrounds himself with smart and competent advisors.

Unlike the arrogant Williams, who has gone out of his way to make enemies, Barnhart is an introvert who pretty much stays bunkered up and comes out only when necessary. This is not a quality you want to have in an A.D. Since a big part of any A.D.’s job is raising money — the same as candidates for public office — it helps to have an A.D. who knows how to work a crowd, schmooze the media, and brush the flies off the biggest donors.

And speaking of schmoozing and donors, former Republican Lieutenant Governor Steve Pence’s decision to throw a fund-raiser for Beshear and Abramson wasn’t as shocking as his astounding comment that he liked the way Beshear had handled the expanded gaming issue. Jeez, that has been Beshear’s biggest failure. Oh, well. Pence threw the fund-raiser apparently to get a seat on the State Fair Board. Politics as usual.

But back to Barnhart.

He’ll be employed as long as Lee Todd is UK’s President. They are a package deal, 1 and 1A for you horse-racing fans, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. So Barnhart need not worry about a challenge from Richie just yet. And Richie needs to figure out that if he ties his political future to Williams, he will have no political future.

Outside the five small and backward counties who keep electing him, Williams has no noticeable support — especially in the cities, where he’s hated for blocking expanded gaming. The horse industry would spend whatever it takes to make sure Williams goes down to ignominious defeat. Why would Farmer want to get involved in that?

But nobody knows who’s coaching Richie now. Hopefully, it’s not a bunch of professional consultants who only care about where they’ll get their next paychecks. Both the last two Governors, Ernie Fletcher and Beshear, are guilty of surrounding themselves with yes-men, professional politicians, and outsiders who do not have the best interests of the Governor or the Commonwealth at heart.

If Farmer is smart enough to figure that out, he’s smart enough to be Governor. Or maybe even A.D. at UK.