BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
VILLA HILLS -- If you are reading this in the evening, if you're registered to vote and if you live in Kenton County, you could soon be hearing a knock on the door.
It just might be Adam Koenig, a Republican from Villa Hills. Or maybe it's his wife, Elaynea, or even his mother-in-law, Mary Louise Smith, who comes down from White Oak in Ohio to stump for her son-in-law.
"We hit it every night, and every day on the weekends," Mr. Koenig said Monday morning over a light breakfast before heading into Covington to his job as a market research manager.
"It" is what most political candidates -- at least those who work hard and believe in getting out to actually meet the voters -- do at this time of an election year.
They are out on the hustings, knocking on doors in the suburbs and neighborhoods of Northern Kentucky. A vote is what Mr. Koenig and the others are after.
At the very least, they want a friendly, cordial response. Most of the time, that's what Mr. Koenig encounters. A very few hide and refuse to answer. Nobody has slammed the door.
"I've lost some weight," Mr. Koenig laughs between bites of his eggs, sunny side up.
The office Mr. Koenig seeks is the Kenton County Commission seat held by Democrat Steve Arlinghaus, also of Villa Hills.
Mr. Arlinghaus has a few very important advantages in the race, not the least of which is incumbency. Mr. Arlinghaus has a name that is well-known in Kenton County, and in a race where advertising will be minimal on both sides, there is little substitute for name recognition.
But Mr. Arlinghaus also has a few negatives to deal with. He is part of an administration shaken by scandal over the resignation of Judge-executive Clyde Middleton in a controversy involving the awarding of a courthouse construction bid to Covington-based Corporex Cos.
Mr. Arlinghaus was not directly involved in showing the bids of other developers to Corporex Chairman Bill Butler, an act that felled Mr. Middleton, but he could be tarnished in the "throw the bums out" posture Mr. Koenig has taken.
"We need to restore leadership and integrity to the fiscal court," Mr. Koenig said.
Though he denies it to this day, Mr. Arlinghaus nearly switched political parties a couple of years ago, according to several GOP county leaders he consulted with.
"I don't blame him for wanting to switch," Mr. Koenig said, reveling in the fact he is in the party Mr. Arlinghaus reportedly wanted to join.
A former member of the Villa Hills City Council, Mr. Koenig lost after just one term. But he made a political comeback of sorts, at the ripe age of 27, by beating Don Freese, a man more than twice his age who was tied in to the Kenton County Republican Party establishment. Mr. Koenig attributes his victory in the primary to working hard on the campaign trail, which is what he's trying to do now.
So he'll be out there tonight, and tomorrow and every other night in the campaign. One reason is that money is tight, tighter than he thought it would be.
He goes to the mailbox daily, hoping for those checks to arrive. But anybody who has ever waited for money knows the drill -- it's in the mail.
The county party has been a huge help, Mr. Koenig says, supplying him with voting lists, advice and support. That's why in the last week, voters along Hands Pike and in the precinct known as "Erlanger No. 2" may have seen him trudging up and down their streets and cul-de-sacs, his hand holding the campaign fliers he leaves at every door.
"Those are precincts where people vote on a pretty consistent basis," he said. "You can't hit every street in the county, though sometimes it seems like we try. So you try and hit the streets where you might have an impact."
So does door-to-door work?
"It seems to. People are nice. They don't have too many questions. I hope it does. We're working hard at it."
He tries to talk issues. Where to put a new county jail, and the need to make it big enough for now and in the future, are things Mr. Koenig really wants to discuss.
He wants to know whether people are happy with the growth of the county. Is it coming too fast, or is this what people want? Are recreation, roads, services and police protection adequate?
It's rare somebody wants to listen. They are polite. They shake his hand, take his flier, bid him goodbye.
Will it make a difference? He'll find out Nov. 3.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.
CROWLEY ARCHIVE