FANCY FARM — By slapping a campaign sticker on his chest at a picnic Saturday, Gov. Paul Patton might have headed off the potential of a contested Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate next year.

        Mr. Patton took the opportunity at the Fancy Farm picnic to endorse Lois Combs Weinberg for the Senate in 2002 against incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell.

        “She's shown she's willing to do the things it takes to win the race,” Mr. Patton said.

        As for Louisville businessman Charlie Owen, Mr. Patton said he did not appear to be a candidate and it's too late to start acting like one. “I think the time to start running is past,” Mr. Patton said.

        Mr. Owen did not attend the picnic at St. Jerome Catholic Church, the political event of the year in Kentucky. But he had spent most of the past week acting like a candidate while making the rounds in western Kentucky.

        At a breakfast sponsored by the Graves County Democratic Party, he proclaimed he represented the conservative values favored by 85 percent of the people in the 1st Congressional District. And he predicted the area

        west of Interstate 65 is where the Senate race will be decided.

        Mr. Owen, though, has not demonstrated he is much of a candidate. He lost a Democratic primary for Congress in the 3rd District and then finished second in 1998 when he ran against fellow Democrats for the U.S. Senate seat later won by Jim Bunning. But Mr. Owen remains an attractive figure to many, largely based on the personal fortune he could sink into a race against Mr. McConnell, who is the best fund-raiser in Kentucky political history.

        There are no elections on the ballot this year, yet politicians still flocked to the 121st annual picnic and church social.

        Mr. McConnell's campaign provided the most fodder for platform speeches and stunts, though the incumbent was not there to respond.

        “The senator is AWOL,” Mr. Patton shouted. On cue, a woman with a bloodhound on the prowl emerged from the audience. “Somebody's got the hounds looking for the senator,” Mr. Patton said.

        It was a bit of political irony. Mr. McConnell deftly used a television commercial of a bloodhound searching for then-Sen. Walter “Dee” Huddleston when Mr. McConnell upset that incumbent.

        Ms. Weinberg, the daughter of former Gov. Bert Combs and a longtime civic activist who is mak ing her first political campaign, struggled a bit to deliver her skewers at the picnic amid the taunts and hecklers that are also part of the tradition.

        Ms. Weinberg said Mr. McConnell should make public the names of the donors to the program that bears his name at the University of Louisville, which the senator at one point said was “none of your business.”

        Republicans were in short supply. Former Gov. Louie Nunn was a featured speaker for the GOP, but Mr. McConnell and Mr. Bunning were no-shows. The chairman of the Maryland Republican Party was the speaker at the county GOP breakfast.

Voinovich keeps fiscal watch
Taft strives for environmental legacy
Incoming students get 'virtual' school tour
Bikers pedal into sunrise
Activist aims for seat on council
Blue Ash offers taste of classic rock
Kids love wet playgrounds
Local Digest
Math teacher learns the score in Japan
River improvement suggestions sought
Schools to ask larger levy
Small-plane pilot hurt in crash landing
You Asked For It
4 historic buildings lost to fire
Congrats
Fifth person dies from fair explosion
Floods destroy homes, families
Patton endorses Senate seeker
Kentucky political rhetoric in finest Fancy Farm form
Amtrak seeks to expand Indiana service
Numbers give broad Ky. picture
Ohioans stay where ancestors settled
Pharmacists struggle to fill prescriptions, job openings