I never thought I would see the day when Northern Kentucky pols — most gearing up for a big 2002 election season — basically declared a truce from trashing one another.

        But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have left Northern Kentucky's political community numbed, humbled, scared, sad and in a mood to — at least for awhile — get along.

        There is a quiet movement to put aside partisan differences to grieve for the dead and hope for the future.

        A political operative called me last week to talk about the attacks and not the campaign he's gearing up to join.

        “We have some stuff about (our opponent) that we want to roll out, but now's just not the time,” he said. “I don't feel like talking about it, and nobody feels like listening to it.”

Plenty of news awaits

        And frankly, I don't feel like writing it.

        But there is news brewing.

        A Kenton County Democrat wants to load up on the all-GOP county fiscal court. A candidate for countywide office in Campbell County wants to announce a fund-raiser but doesn't want to seem insensitive. Another pol is waiting for a better time to announce a run for office.

        What is taking place here is not unlike what is happening in Washington, where Democrats and Republicans are putting their battles aside to concentrate on the awesome task at hand, going to war with a largely faceless and scattered network of bloodthirsty butchers who won't be surrendering to TV crews like Saddam Hussein's brave troops did a decade ago.

        These guys fly planes full of people into buildings. They frighten the hell out of me. Imagine how our military feels right now.

Sharks? What sharks?

        The perspectively challenged news media are finally concentrating on a story people care about. We haven't heard much about shark attacks, Gary Condit, the Williams sisters, tax cuts, the awful Reds or any of the other media minutiae that seemed so important Sept. 10.

        That, of course, is a good thing. But it came at a terrible price.

        It won't be long until the political news begins churning again, because there are stories to tell on the local campaign front.

Democratic effort

        Kenton County Democratic leader Mark Guilfoyle showed off his protege, Patrick Hughes, at an intimate political gathering in Frankfort last week attended by, among others, Crit Luallen — Gov. Paul Patton's chief of staff — and state Auditor Ed Hatchett.

        In about two weeks, Mr. Hughes will officially become the Democrats' candidate for judge executive when he announces his campaign to unseat Republican Dick Murgatroyd.

Commission issue

        Republicans and businesspeople are wondering how the mostly Democratic Covington City Commission could complain when that same Kenton County Fiscal Court wanted to keep the county jail in downtown Covington — the argument being that a jail would stifle development — and then promote turning roughly the same area into a Sexually Oriented Business District.

        There are more stories. There are always are.

        But now is not the time for them to be written.

       Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics. He can be reached at (859) 578-5581, or by e-mail at pcrowley@Enquirer.com.

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