BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ERLANGER -- Congressional candidate Gex "Jay" Williams, known for running campaigns low on cash, has raised the most money in the Fourth District primary race over the past three months.
But Mr. Williams and the other candidates are still far behind Democrat Ken Lucas, the Boone County judge-executive, when it comes to overall money raised.
Mr. Williams, a Republican state senator from Verona, reported raising $67,681 during the first three months of this year and had about $52,000 cash as of March 31, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Lucas, of Richwood, raised $65,706 and had $212,614 cash; Republican Rick Robinson of Fort Mitchell raised $57,859 and had $53,640 cash. The report was not available for Republican Jim Kidney of Fort Thomas, but in an interview Monday he said he raised about $50,000, most of it his own money, and has about as much on hand.
The campaign finance report of Democrat Dr. Howard Feinberg of Russell was also not available. His campaign did not return phone calls to comment.
"I've never been in a position where I've had close to the same amount of money as my opponent," Mr. Williams said in reference to Mr. Robinson.
In the three statehouse races he has run and won, Mr. Williams was always outfinanced, sometimes as much as 4-to-1.
"We still have more to raise to execute our plan, but being in this kind of financial position in a campaign is new to me," Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Williams claims he has also raised about as much overall as Mr. Robinson, about $186,000 each.
But Mr. Robinson points out that Mr. Williams lent his campaign $14,000, an amount reported on the campaign finance reports filed in January.
"In the first quarter, over 500 contributors gave nearly $58,000 to my campaign," Mr. Robinson said. "We put a big push on donors who give under $50 during this quarter, so we expected the gap to narrow just a bit.
"But while (Mr. Williams) was busy trying to narrow the gap in fund-raising, we further broadened the gap in our grassroots base by adding new donors."
There is ample evidence of Mr. Robinson's spending some of his campaign money.
He's done two direct mail pieces in the 22-county Fourth District, including an eight-page piece loaded with photos, several portraying Mr. Robinson's family, and slices about his campaign platform. Mr. Robinson also began the first radio ads of the campaign last week. And his campaign signs can be found throughout Northern Kentucky. "Our billboards are up, we're on the radio and our direct mail is having a tremendous impact," he said.
Mr. Kidney said he is bankrolling most of his own campaign so he is not beholden to any special interests or people wanting favors in the future. Through a combination of loans and what he called "small contributions from my supporters," he said he has raised about $90,000.
Supporters of the other candidates, however, contend privately that Mr. Kidney can't raise much money from contributors.
But Mr. Kidney said he has enough money to get his message out, noting he recently sent more than 50,000 pieces of mail.
While the Republicans are sniping at one another about their money, none are close to the amount of cash Mr. Lucas has on hand. Mr. Lucas, the Boone County judge-executive, has about four times the cash of any of the Republicans. And he also leads the GOP candidates with almost $254,000 raised.
"We're happy," Mr. Lucas said Monday. "I haven't had to spend money like some of the other folks in the race, and we've really been getting out on the trail, meeting the voters and talking about our platform and the issues."
The primary is May 26. The seat is open because Rep. Jim Bunning, a Southgate Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate.
