FLORENCE — Even though some big names have backed off, it appears Northern Kentucky Republicans will have a contested primary in next year's U.S. House race.

        Michael Wiley of Florence, a former radio talk show host in Florida now working for a Cincinnati construction firm, said Friday he will run for the 4th District seat now held by Boone County Democrat Ken Lucas.

        He is likely to face an intra-party challenge from Geoff Davis, a Boone County businessman who has been preparing for months to run and who recently said he is close to entering the race.

        But neither candidate is well-known and each faces the difficulty of not only taking on an incumbent but also building name recognition in an area where neither has lived for very long. Mr. Wiley has lived in Northern Kentucky for a year; Mr. Davis moved here in 1998.

        By contrast, Mr. Lucas is a Northern Kentucky native who has lived in the region all his life.

        “I still think this race is winnable by a Republican who can show a contrast to Ken Lucas,” said Kentucky Republican Party Vice Chairman Damon Thayer, the former head of the Fourth District GOP.

        However, the two Kentucky statehouse Republicans many party leaders had expected to enter the race — Sen. Katie Stine of Fort Thomas and Rep. Jon Draud of Crestview Hills — have decided not to run.

        Mr. Wiley, a former Democrat, said he is not daunted by running against Mr. Lucas, a two-term House member who may raise $1 million or more to spend on his re-election campaign.

        He ran unsuccessfully against Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Hugh, in a 1994 U.S. Senate primary.

        “I don't expect it to be too difficult,” Mr. Wiley said Friday. “In May of that election year I was polling at one percent, but I finished with 25 percent of the voting. I have a whole year this time.”

        Mr. Wiley said his platform will include calling for the elimination of the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; ending federal taxes on alcohol; and return of more control to local governments. He also opposes abortion and gun control.

        He plans to run a “grass roots” campaign that will focus on “getting out in the district, meeting and greeting people and getting my name out by word-of-mouth,” he said.

        Mr. Wiley said he switched political parties a few years ago because of his conservative stance on most issues.

        “I used to be a conservative Democrat, and I know what happened when I tried to speak out on conservative issues,” he said. “Nobody really wanted to hear those ideas.

        “I know (Mr. Lucas) means well but he just can't get that much done as a Democrat ... when we have a Republican Congress and a Republican in the White House.”

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