Sunday, October 17, 1999
Gun law is new weapon in jail fight
Proposal draws gets notice but could backfire
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Elsmere council members aren't just shooting their mouths off over the city's proposed gun law.
In what will go down as either one of the most shrewd or one of the worst political moves in recent memory, some members of Elsmere City Council are using a radical firearms law to fight construction of a new county jail in the city.
Last week Councilwoman Bonnie Sage proposed a law that would require every home and business in Elsmere — a working-class city of about 7,000 — to maintain a firearm.
The law is needed, Mrs. Sage said, so people can protect themselves from prisoners who might escape from the jail.
It's not clear if Mrs. Sage and other council members really want the law or are just using it to grab some attention about their fight against construction of the jail.
If that was their intention, it worked. All the region's major news media have done stories on the proposal and Mrs. Sage was a guest last week on a popular WLW radio talk show hosted by Mike McConnell.
“Council is serious,” said jail opposition organizer Neva Collins. “We want to make a statement.”
The plan could backfire. Many residents who talked to the Enquirer don't want the gun law, even though they are also opposed to the jail.
The city could come off looking desperate and reactionary. Or, it could shed light on just how passion ate leaders are about making sure the jail is built somewhere else.
Stay tuned as we follow this issue. Council may vote at its meeting next week, or it may just keep the gun law tabled to keep the buzz going.
Jail fight II
At last week's Elsmere Council meeting, lots of residents were talking about a rumor involving another site that was considered for the jail.
Kenton County Fiscal Court had looked at building the jail on 3L Highway in Covington on land just off Interstate 275. But the court said environmental problems that had to be taken care of before the jail could be built made the site too expensive.
Elsmere isn't buying that excuse. Some feel one of the reasons the jail location was changed was because Wal-Mart wants to build one of its superstores at that site.
A union organizer who represents grocery store workers even attended last week's council meeting, asking residents what they knew about the rumor.
Kenton County Commissioner Adam Koenig, a Villa Hills Republi can, said he knows of no plans for a Wal-Mart store at the 3L site.
Wal-Mart, known for not revealing plans for new stores, isn't talking.
Dems raise big bucks
Republicans have a reputation as the big fund-raisers. But Gov. Paul Patton, an eastern Kentucky Democrat, has shown he really knows how to bring out the bucks.
Last month Mr. Patton helped raise $300,000 for the state Democratic Party and his own re-election campaign during a fund-raiser at the Syndicate restaurant in Newport.
At the time it was the largest state party fund-raiser of the year.
But last week at a fund-raiser in Mr. Patton's native Pikeville, the Democratic Party raised a whopping $700,000 at a single event, according to the some of the state Democratic elected officials who attended.
Asked about the event during a Northern Kentucky campaign visit last week Mr. Patton — normally not shy when it comes to talking money — said he “did not have a report” on how much the event had raised.
Could be. Or it could be that Mr. Patton wasn't too eager to talk about the event because of where it was held — at the home of road contractor Leonard Lawson, a big Democratic contributor who gets lots of state road contracts.
Republicans love to beat up on Mr. Patton and the Democrats for being so close to road contractors, which the GOP claims get state work because of their ties to the Dems.
The law of politics
Law firms are often hotbeds of political activity in Northern Kentucky.
Some of the more active firms include Deters, Benzinger and La-
Velle, whose partners include Democratic Party players and contributors Mark Guilfoyle, Charlie Deters, David Kramer and Patrick Hughes; Adams, Brooking, Stepner, Wolterman & Dusing, where the political activists include Wes Worthington, Stacey Graus, Jeff Mando and Jim Wolterman; and Greenebaum Doll & McDonald, which features political power broker Bill Robinson and Kenton County GOP Chairman Greg Shumate.
But it's the Covington firm of Taliaferro & Mehling that claims attorneys on Democratic executive committees in all three counties.
They are Michelle Snodgrass in Campbell County, Chris Mehling in Kenton County and Howard Tankersley in Boone County.
It's not a stretch to say that the firm's leading partner, Phil Taliaferro, fosters a political environment in the firm. He's close to plenty of Northern Kentucky pols and is hosting a Oct. 29 fund-raiser at his Erlanger home for U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas.
The fund-raiser has a list of more than 200 co-hosts and looks like a page from the Northern Kentucky Bar Association directory.
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.
