Williams' strength: Voters in his corner Democrat Lucas has fight of his life this year Thursday, May 28, 1998
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ERLANGER -- Is Gex "Jay" Williams unbeatable?
He sure has been. And he sure looks that way.
Like a heavyweight fighter working his way toward the title, Mr. Williams KO'd another contender in Tuesday's Republican congressional primary with his win over Fort Mitchell's Rick Robinson.
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Pendleton CountyThis one, a lot of local Republicans and even some Democrats were saying, was going to be different.
This wasn't an old-school Democrat like former state Rep. Bill McBee of Burlington, whom Mr. Williams beat in his first-ever political race in 1990. The rise of conservative politics in Boone County during the '80s passed by Mr. McBee, who never saw the right -- pun intended -- the Verona Kid used to lay him out.
This wasn't Walton Democrat Asa Rouse, who was simply beaten down in 1993 with political body punches from the muscle Mr. Williams was beginning to muster within a growing faction of the Republican Party that likes to mix religion and policy.
This wasn't Democrat Rodney "Biz" Cain, the now-interim Kenton County judge-executive and Independence businessman who knew more about running his business than this campaign. Despite heavily outspending Mr. Williams, Mr. Cain took one on the chin and lost by about 3,000 votes out of not quite 22,000 cast.
No, this election, this fight, was going to be different. This was Mr. Williams against a candidate the mainline Republican Party loved, Rick Robinson.
Mr. Robinson oozes GOP. Fort Mitchell. Attorney. Family man. Nice house in the 'burbs. Dog and cat, maybe even a couple of cats. Long history of service to the party.
And the kicker, the knockout punch that was supposed to be but was never thrown, was Mr. Robinson's corner-man, Congressman Jim Bunning.
Mr. Bunning literally wrapped his arm around Mr. Robinson and endorsed him in the primary. Mr. Robinson, of course, came up through the political game under Mr. Bunning's tutelage. This was going to be the passing of the seat from the mentor to the protege.
But the bell rang in the primary, and while it looked like a good fight, the result was not even close.
Mr. Williams pummeled Mr. Robinson from one end of the district to the next, winning nearly all of the 22 counties in the district including Kenton County, where Mr. Robinson was raised and now lives.
And he did it like he has in every other race. He inspires people and gets them to the polls.
Is Gex Williams a fundamentalist Christian who uses religion to make people want to vote for him? Yep.
But does he also profess the Republican mantra of smaller government, lower taxes, less government involvement in people's lives, opposition to abortion, a strong military, etc? Double yep.
A clean fight
And he does it, for the most part, with positive campaigning. He took some shots from the Robinson camp, shots the Williams people are calling below the belt. But he resisted sticking a thumb in Mr. Robinson's eye or taking a chomp out of his ear -- figuratively and politically speaking.
Call Mr. Williams far right, out-of-touch, too religious, whatever. You can't lay a glove on him with those charges. At least no one has yet.
So call him winner and call him champ of the GOP.
He looks like the favorite going into the November general election with Democrat Ken Lucas.
Certainly, Mr. Lucas matches up well with Mr. Williams on paper, as they say on the sports pages.
Needs a strategy
Mr. Lucas is not known as a flaming liberal. He opposes abortion, supports the right to own guns, is respected and liked by the business community and has a long, long record of political and community service, a record much longer than Mr. Williams'.
But until somebody steps between the ropes with Mr. Williams and beats him bloody, he is the king of ring.
The only way, it looks at this juncture, isn't to go negative on him, or dredge up some alleged skeletons from his personal and political closet.
It's to get more people to the polls than him.
Sounds simple, right? So simple it's laughable.
Well, keep smiling, Democrats. Because that's what Mr. Williams does better than anybody around. He gets his supporters to the polls, and he gets them to get other people to the polls.
And he does it through a message that excites and apparently enlightens voters more than anything they've heard from the candidates who have tried to take him down in the past.
Round one's begun
His detractors say he does it through churches, which is somehow bad in some people's minds. So what? Maybe the Democrats should try it. They sure used to in Cincinnati's German and Irish neighborhoods. Round one has already begun in Williams vs. Lucas. Both candidates were hard at work by Wednesday morning.
It's going to be war, a tough fight with lots of punches thrown, lots of blood spilled, some cheap shots and some head butts.
The Republicans have their reigning champ. The Democrats have their heavyweight challenger.
May the best man -- make that politician -- win.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.