BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON -- From the pummeling he took on statewide TV from Republican Gex Williams, Democrat Ken Lucas may be lamenting his decision not to attend Thursday night's 4th District Congressional debate.
Mr. Williams, a state senator from Boone County, took every chance he could to jump on Mr. Lucas for canceling his appearance at the KET forum.
"I'm sorry my opponent is not here," said Mr. Williams, who spent the 30-minute program answering questions from reporters and talking about his campaign platform. "The voters deserve to see us together . . . discussing the issues."
Mr. Lucas chose to meet with an eastern Kentucky police union in hopes of winning an endorsement rather than attend the debate. But Craig Hendricks, Mr. Williams' campaign manager, said Mr. Lucas is hiding from Mr. Williams and afraid to debate him.
"I guess the question is, Is a forfeit better than a knockout?" Mr. Hendricks told reporters after the program.
With Mr. Lucas unable to defend himself, Mr. Williams tore apart his opponent's stance on a number of issues, including claiming the Democrat would support a single-payer health care system. The Lucas campaign has strongly denied that is a part of Mr. Lucas' platform and has accused Mr. Williams and Mr. Hendricks of distorting comments Mr. Lucas made in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Hendricks also questioned whether Mr. Lucas will attend a debate the candidates are scheduled to attend Saturday at Northern Kentucky University.
"Is he going to back out of that one, too?" Mr. Williams said after the program ended. "He backed out of this at the last moment."
Mr. Lucas plans to attend Saturday's debate, according to John Lapp, his campaign manager.
During Thursday's program, Mr. Williams answered questions about a state investigation into $60,000 worth of land he sold to one of his campaign supporters last year. The Legislative Ethics Commission is to meet Tuesday to discuss and possibly rule on the investigation.
As he has done since the May primary, Mr. Williams said Thursday the land deal was legitimate and he will be vindicated by the ethics commission.
Mr. Williams also discussed several planks of his campaign platform, including:
Taxes. Mr. Williams said he voted for $350 million in tax cuts while a member of the Kentucky General Assembly and that he would work to do the same in Washington, including cutting the federal inheritance tax and removing the so-called marriage penalty on married couples.
National defense. Mr. Williams said he supports a strong military, which he claimed has been "hollowed out" under the Clinton administration. But he does not support sending American troops on peace-keeping missions or into battle under the direction of the United Nations. Infrastructure. Mr. Williams said he would work to secure federal money to build sewer lines and treatment plants, water lines and roads -- including an interstate highway that would run from Chicago through Cincinnati to Ashland and on to Charlotte, N.C.
Education. More federal dollars could be sent back to the states, Mr. Williams said. Kentucky receives $25 million annually from Washington but that could be increased by $15 million if the federal bureaucracy overseeing education were reduced.
Social Security. He does not support reducing benefits or raising taxes to fund Social Security, but Mr. Williams thinks the Social Security system should begin allowing people to put some money into private investment accounts similar to individual retirement accounts or 401k plans.
