Thursday, May 04, 2000
Underdog is undeterred in race against Roeding
By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This is the first of two stories on candidates in the 11th state Senate district Democratic primary.
FORT MITCHELL — The Democrats admit he is a long shot. The Republicans are convinced he will lose.
But Democrat John Stephenson is pushing forward with a state Senate campaign that is as unpredictable and undefinable as the candidate himself.
“I know there are some people out there that say I don't have a chance,” Mr. Stephenson said from his Beechwood Road home in Fort Mitchell.
“But Big John is going to prove them all wrong.”
Mr. Stephenson is running in the 11th State Senate District Democratic primary against Union Democrat Ed Kagin. The winner will run in the fall against incumbent Sen. Dick Roeding, the Senate president pro tem who has served in the General Assembly since 1990.
The district is practically a GOP candidate's dream. It takes in the heavily Republican Kenton County suburbs of Crescent Springs, Crestview Hills, Edgewood, Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright and Villa Hills, as well as all of Boone County, the largest GOP-controlled county in Kentucky.
Mr. Roeding is also widely known in the district and already has more than $70,000 in campaign money.
“If John wins this primary, it's going to be tough to beat Roeding in November,” said Kenton County Magistrate Steve Hoffman of Park Hills, a member of the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee.
“John's just never going to have the money to challenge what the Republicans are do ing,” Mr. Hoffman said. “But John does things different. That's his personality. And the kind of stuff he does in a campaign just might get noticed.”
Though known locally as a political gadfly, Mr. Stephenson is the last Northern Kentuckian elected to statewide office—a fact he frequently points out.
He was elected to the job of superintendent of public instruction in 1991, but by then the office had been stripped of its power and the salary drastically reduced by the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. In 1992 the office was abolished through a constitutional amendment passed by Kentucky voters.
A real estate agent by profession, Mr. Stephenson has spent much of his time since leaving elected office pursuing his passion for public-access cable television. He appears often on local channels playing gospel and country music, and he once traveled 42,000 miles throughout the state for a series on Kentucky history.
His campaign includes traditional stumping, such as visiting nursing homes to play music and lead prayer groups for residents, as well as innovations such as being the first statehouse candidate in Kentucky to use an Internet Web site to collect campaign contributions.
Mr. Stephenson also has attracted some diverse campaign endorsements, being backed by a traditional Democratic groups such as the AFL-CIO and a conservative organization such as Northern Kentucky Right to Life.
And he recently announced that Villa Hills resident Steve DeVoto, an activist in Kenton County politics, is heading a committee called Republicans for Stephenson.
Republican leaders say they aren't that impressed with Mr. Stephenson's campaign.
“His campaign is a gimmick,” said GOP strategist Dave Hatter, a Fort Wright city councilman and computer consultant who designs Web pages for Republican candidates.
“His Web site looks just like the ones I've done for Republicans. He might win his primary, but he's not going to beat Dick Roeding. There's just no way,” said Mr. Hatter, who is working for the senator's re-election.
But Mr. Stephenson and the Democrats think they are tapping issues that will resonate with vot ers:
ãMr. Roeding was among the lawmakers who voted for a state budget this year that included a tax hike and lots of local projects that some Republicans originally decried as pork before voting for them.
ãKentucky lawmakers also failed this year to cut the state property tax on automobiles after promising voters they would.
“Vote for me and Big John will get that tax cut,” Mr. Stephenson said.
He also pledges to work to improve education and conditions in the state's nursing homes.
“We're having a lot of fun with this campaign,” Mr. Stephenson said. “We're playing some music, meeting some people, talking about the issues. They better watch out, because I can win this thing.”
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Underdog is undeterred in race against Roeding
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