BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURLINGTON -- To illustrate the growth of Republican political clout in Boone County, party faithful like to point to the 1995 Kentucky attorney general's race.
Woodford County Democrat Ben Chandler, grandson of the late governor, U.S. senator and baseball commissioner A.B. "Happy" Chandler -- one of the most popular and well-known politicians in state history -- easily whipped an Eastern Kentucky lawyer named Will T. Scott.
Across Kentucky Mr. Chandler carried the largest margin of any of the seven Democrats elected to statewide office that year, including Gov. Paul Patton.
But in Boone County, Mr. Chandler didn't even come close to Mr. Scott, who beat the better-known, better-funded and better-organized Democrat by nearly 20 points. "Will Scott was a good candidate, but he didn't have near the name recognition or political history of a Ben Chandler," said 4th District Republican Party Chairman Damon Thayer of Grant County.
"Yet Scott carried Boone County by a pretty darn good margin. T
hat shows just how strong the Boone County Republican Party has become." Twenty-nine years ago in Boone County, Democrats out-numbered Republicans by 6,400 registered voters. In 1996, the Democrats still led, but the spread had closed to 17,174 registered Democrats to 14,865 Republicans.
As of the May primary earlier this year, the registrations were just about dead even, 18,979 Democrats to 18,339 Republicans. Boone County Republican Party leaders predict that by year's end, they will overtake the Democrats and become the largest Republican-controlled county in Kentucky.
GOP candidates this fall are hoping to parlay that growth into victories, including capturing the county courthouse for the first time in history.
Local and state political leaders, from Mr. Thayer to state GOP Chairman Tom Jensen to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, have lauded fast-growing Boone County as one of the true GOP bastions in Kentucky. "People in Frankfort, and really across the state, pretty much know they can count on Boone County to go with Republicans in elections," said State Sen. Gex "Jay" Williams of Verona, a candidate for Congress.
"It's been that way for the past several years, and there are really no signs that is going to change anytime soon, if ever," he said.
It's hard to argue with that statement, given the party's recent history in the state's second-fastest growing county.
All four members of the Kentucky General Assembly who represent portions of Boone County are Republicans -- Sen. Dick Roeding, Lakeside Park; Rep. Paul Marcotte, Union; Rep. Charlie Walton, Florence; and Rep. Jon David Reinhardt, Alexandria.
In the 1996 federal elections, Mr. McConnell and U.S. Rep. Jim Bunning of Southgate, now running for the Senate, won their races by more than 10,000 votes out of about 23,000 cast in both races.
Also in 1996, Democrat Bill Clinton carried Kentucky in winning re-election to the presidency but lost Boone County to Republican Bob Dole by about 7,000 votes.
"People are finding that the Boone County Republican Party listens to their concerns, and a lot of those concerns are about less taxes and less government," said Gary Moore, the Republican candidate for Boone County judge-executive.
"People vote their principles, and those principles match what the Republican party offers nationally and in Boone County," he said.
Democrats, however, say it isn't local politics that has fueled the rise of the Republican Party in Boone County.
It's the growth.
"Look at all the people that have moved in over the last 20 years or so," said Boone County Administrator Jim Collins, the Democrat running against Mr. Moore for the top courthouse slot. The county's population has grown from around 50,000 in 1980 to more than 70,000 today. Many of those people have moved in to take high-paying jobs that have been created over the last two decades in Boone County and the rest of Northern Kentucky.
"Let's face it, a lot of those new people moving in are affluent, and affluency is more associated with the Republican Party," Mr. Collins said.
Many people in Boone County and Northern Kentucky say they vote Republican but register Democrat because that is the way they were raised. And in generations past, when Republicans fielded few if any candidates in local and statehouse races, people registered as Democrats so they could vote in primaries and have a voice in the elective process.
Six-term county judge-executive Bruce Ferguson, 70, a farmer and Democrat from Union, said while growing up in Boone County "everybody was a Democrat."
"Farmers were Democrats, or New Dealers who supported (Franklin) Roosevelt," Mr. Ferguson said. "Or their families were Southern sympathizers during the Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln was the northern president and a Republican." County Commissioner Shirley Meihaus, a Union Democrat, said she doesn't believe partisan politics influences most voters.
"This is a local race, and people don't look at party, they look at the candidate and the job we're doing," said Mrs. Meihaus, challenged this year by Republican Rob Arnold of Union.
The Republicans are showing both momentum and better organization. While it's true the GOP has benefited from new party members moving into the county, there has also been a rise of staunch, social conservatives, many influenced by religious beliefs.
Members of the Christian Coalition, the grassroots faith-based organization credited with helping spur the national Republican Revolution of 1994, has a base in Boone County.
And candidates such as Mr. Williams, a three-term state legislator, have helped to establish, and benefited from, the rise of social conservatives -- a group that seems to favor Republican candidates and which doesn't stay home from the polls.
"My politics, and my values, reflect Boone County today," said Mr. Williams, running in the 4th District vs. former Boone County Judge-executive Ken Lucas, a Richwood Democrat.
Mr. Williams and his current campaign manager, former Boone County resident Craig Hendricks, helped stage a takeover of the Boone County Republican Party a decade ago. The social conservatives have maintained a strong base ever since. But the Boone County Democratic Party has been going through a power struggle.
There were deep divisions in the party's May primary and evidence that the leadership was split between two groups -- those who held the courthouse and those who wanted it. For the most part, the former prevailed in the spring.
"People are past that and we're coming together as a party," said Mr. Collins, who held off two challengers to win the primary.
