Friday, April 21, 2000
Lucas seeks 2nd term
BY Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SOUTHGATE — Congressman Ken Lucas was standing Thursday in a Southgate School classroom as a pupa crawled across the lapel of his blue pinstriped suit.
“A pupa,” explained second-grader Corey Lohstroh, “is what a worm is before it turns into a worm.”
Insects — the pupa was the advanced larval stage of the darkling beetle — weren't on the itinerary for Mr. Lucas' nearly weeklong campaign kickoff, which took him from one end of the 22-county Fourth District to the other.
But Mr. Lucas made all the other typical stops a candidate makes on a campaign swing — schools, hospitals, veterans facilities, senior citizens centers, fund-raisers — as he spent Monday through Thursday opening his 2000 re-election bid.
“We're getting out, telling people about what we've done and what we hope to do,” Mr. Lucas said during his stop at the school. “We're asking them what's on their minds.”
Two years ago, Mr. Lucas had to win the Democratic primary over Greenup osteopath Dr. Howard Feinberg, and then beat Republican Gex “Jay” Williams in a tough general election contest before he could claim the U.S. House seat a Democrat had not held since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.
This year, Mr. Lucas is unopposed in the Democratic primary and will face one of three Republicans in November:
• Don Bell of Oldham County, a former Secret Service agent who has run unsuccessfully for local and statewide office.
• Scott Tooley, a newcomer to Kentucky politics who only recently moved to Shelby County after a brief stint working for Republican Congressman Chris Cox of California.
• Howard Thoney of Highland Heights, who has never run for or held office.
Two of the Republicans are not from Northern Kentucky, where about half the district's voters live and an area where Mr. Lucas enjoys considerable bipartisan support, and Mr. Thoney is little known even within his own party.
None has raised near the money that Mr. Lucas has amassed.
As of April 15, Mr. Lucas had $370,814 cash and had raised more than $500,000 since his election, according to his campaign's Federal Election Commission report.
The Republicans have raised less than $15,000 combined.
Mr. Lucas is the front-runner because he is a moderate to conservative Democrat who represents the views of the people of the Fourth District, said Southgate Schools Superintendent Bernie Sandfoss, a Democrat supporting Mr. Lucas.
“Ken Lucas represents what people want as well as anybody we've ever had in Congress,” Mr. Sandfoss said Thursday as the candidate toured the school's computer lab, where 6- and 7-year-old students were doing research on the Internet.
Mr. Lucas has voted with House Republicans, and against most of his fellow Democrats and the White House, on issues such as abortion, gun control and taxes.
But in a district represented for more than 30 years by the GOP and in a presidential election year when George W. Bush could win and have long coattails, the Lucas camp says it is taking nothing for granted.
“We're talking about the issues that are important to the people of the Fourth District,” said Travis Sowders, who is on leave from Mr. Lucas' Washington office to run the campaign.
“Protecting kids from predators on the Internet. Expanding the prescription drug benefit for senior citizens. Improving technology in schools.”
Mr. Lucas is also working to secure better benefits for veterans and increase the pay for men and women serving in the military, Mr. Sowders said.
Mr. Lucas picked up an endorsement Thursday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a pro-business group typically aligned more closely with the GOP.
“Lucas has a strong pro-business record in Congress,” said Dick Castner, a chamber spokesman. “He will support business on critical issues like taxes, trade and legal reform.”
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