Sunday, April 18, 1999
Time ticking away, 4th District race short a candidate
GOP still searching for someone to run
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It would be easy, even tempting, to pile on the Republicans right now.
But this question must be asked: Is Ken Lucas going to be given a pass?
Mr. Lucas is the Boone County Democrat who pulled what must be considered an upset victory last November in snatching the 4th District U.S. House seat the GOP had held for 32 years.
All the votes weren't even tallied election night when Republican Party leaders were vowing to whip Mr. Lucas and take back the seat.
That's going to be tough without a candidate. Five months removed from that election and less than a year from the filing deadline for the 2000 race, a Republican Party that has looked so strong and confident at times curiously and surprisingly can't find anybody to take on Mr. Lucas.
Last week Jon Draud, a well-liked and respected former educator and first-term state representative who probably would have run a better than decent race, took his name out of consideration.
That put the pressure back on Villa Hills attorney Lawson Walker and Fort Thomas state Sen. Katie Stine. Both said they are still considering the race, though neither is too eager.
After all, the main reason party leaders such as state GOP Vice Chairman Damon Thayer, 4th District Chairman Jay Hall and U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning courted Mr. Draud is because Mr. Walker and Mrs. Stine hadn't made up their minds or were giving strong “thanks, but no thanks” signals.
Republicans squirm
And get this? Mr. Draud backs out after getting the hard-sell from Mr. Bunning, who held the 4th District seat for 12 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in November and who has made finding a candidate a bit of a personal crusade.
“I thought Jim Bunning was more persuasive than that,” quipped Lucas strategist Mark Guilfoyle, a top-notch political mind but also a nasty strongman when it comes to going on the attack in campaigns.
“I'm just really surprised” — read elated — “that Jim Bunning couldn't convince Jon Draud, or apparently anybody else, to get in this race at this point.”
It's too early to gloat, the Democrats will tell you. The filing deadline is still months away.
But the Dems figure it's not too early to have a little fun at the GOP's expense, watching them squirm as they hustle to find a candidate and as Mr. Lucas continues to rack up a conservative voting record that would make Newt Gingrich look like Ted Kennedy.
Let's face it, the last few years have been lean times for the Democrats. They've lost two of the three county courthouses, all three judge-executive seats and the statehouse caucus.
Scared of Lucas?
Democrats don't even have a 4th District chairman, or if they do he or she is doing a better job staying hidden than Jimmy Hoffa.
But they did win the 4th District seat, which seems to have spooked the Republicans.
Are potential candidates so afraid of being put through the grinder by Mr. Guilfoyle and the Lucas political machine? Or has Mr. Lucas' conservative voting record, which is scoring points with business people and Reagan Democrats, flustered the GOP leadership and left them wondering how a Republican will appeal to voters when matched against the incumbent?
And how about Mr. Hall, basically throwing out a net and asking if there is “anybody out there” who wants to run? What is it, open mike night at the Club Desperate?
This isn't a Republican Party that has run scared in the past. Republican Jack Westwood was a nobody when he took on, and beat, Democrat Joe Meyer — one of the toughest, best-funded and most organized pols around — in Kenton County's 1996 Senate race.
Republican Steve Pendery was hardly known outside his native Fort Thomas when he beat Democrat Ken Paul, one of the region's most accomplished and hard-working politicians, in last year's Campbell County judge-executive race.
The GOP hasn't backed away from challenges before. But it sure looks like it is now.
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, or by e-mail at crowleys@cinci.infi.net..
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