BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FALMOUTH -- Veta Bell tapped a slender white cigarette from a near-empty cellophane pack, placed it between her lips and gently touched the end with a small flame flickering from the top of lighter.
"Don't get me started," she said firmly, a haze of blue-white smoke coming out of her mouth along with those words.
The topic was politics, specifically the congressional primaries that Kentucky will hold in one month.
But in a small, rural Kentucky town like this Pendleton County seat, where tobacco isn't an issue but an economic way of life, any conversation about politics quickly turns to the crop plenty of people grow and a whole lot more consume.
"If they, and I mean the politicians and the people in Washington, are going to come after tobacco, when are they going to go after alcohol" and fast food? said Ms. Bell, manager of the Bluegrass Discount Tobacco Outlet on Falmouth's Shelby Street.
"Those things are supposed to be bad for you. But this is a free country. People are allowed to make their own choices, including choosing to smoke. I wish the politicians would just leave (tobacco) alone and get on with trying to run the country."
Over on Main Street at McDonald's group of Falmouth senior citizens are chewing on the tobacco issue along with the final few bites of their late-morning breakfast.
"The flood nearly wiped us out," said 72-year-old Virgie Stair of Falmouth. She was referring to the March 1997 Licking River flood that devastated this town of about 2,400 35 miles from Newport. "You take tobacco away, we will be devastated economically. All these businesses will close," she said, waving her hand over her head. "So many people depend on tobacco for money here. It just means so much to us."
Others at Ms. Stair's table, including Harry Roberts and Betty L. Wright, slowly nod their heads.
But there is little, if any, evidence here that the people who will be deciding the crop's fate -- members of the United States Congress -- are running for office.
The roads in and around Falmouth, particularly U.S. 27, are full of campaign signs for candidates in local elections. But it's difficult to locate a sign for any of the Congressional candidates. Other than U.S. Rep. Jim Bunning, the Southgate Republican running for the U.S. Senate, the group at McDonald's were hard pressed to name, or even recognize, any of the candidates running for federal office.
That's a field that includes:
Republicans Mr. Bunning and State Sen. Barry Metcalf and Democrats Charlie Owen of Louisville, Lt. Gov. Steve Henry of Frankfort and Lexington U.S. Rep. Scotty Baesler in the U.S. Senate primaries. Democrats Ken Lucas, the Boone County judge-executive, and Dr. Howard Feinberg of Russell and Republicans Rick Robinson of Fort Mitchell, Jim Kidney of Fort Thomas and State Sen. Gex "Jay" Williams of Boone County in the Fourth District congressional primaries.
"Ken Lucas?" Ms. Stair asked aloud. "I don't think I know who he is."
All of the candidates have expressed support for tobacco farmers and fear of what new legislation will do to Kentucky's burley tobacco markets and growers.
But that message apparently hasn't reached Falmouth.
While there is some ambiguity about the candidates, the residents' concern about tobacco is clear.
In fact, in random conversations with the locals, it is the main, and in many cases only, issue that comes up.
"I'm not surprised people are talking about tobacco," said Dennis Kenner, the owner of Bluegrass Tobacco Discount Outlets in Falmouth and Williamstown in Grant County.
"It's the fairness of the issue. People, and include me in that, just don't think what is being talked about in Washington is the answer to anything."
Congress and the nation's largest cigarette makers are battling over tobacco-related legislation. The bill is designed to curb teen smoking and let the tobacco industry pay billions in lieu of future lawsuits.
But a bill that would require the industry to pay $516 billion over 25 years for anti-smoking programs and relief to tobacco growers is being assailed by cigarette-makers because it will raise the price of cigarettes by more than a $1 a pack.
"All that bill in Washington is is a tax increase," Mr. Kenner said. "If they really want to do something about teen smoking they need to give us a law with some teeth."
It's against the law for anyone under 18 to purchase cigarettes or tobacco products.
"If a kid was walking down the street drinking a beer, they'd be picked up by the police," he said. "But that doesn't happen with cigarettes.
"Increasing the cost of cigarettes won't cut down on teen smoking," Mr. Kenner said. "A tougher law probably could."
