FORT MITCHELL — Kentucky Attorney General Ben Chandler has taken his quest for tougher telemarketing laws on the road and onto the airwaves.

        Mr. Chandler, a Woodford County Democrat likely to run for governor in 2003, is scheduled to be in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati today talking to television and print reporters about a telemarketing regulation bill pending in the General Assembly.

        He has visited far western Kentucky and also plans to give interviews in the state's two major media markets, Lexington and Louisville.

        Fearing the bill will die or be radically changed in the Senate, Mr. Chandler is conducting the media campaign to put pressure on lawmakers to support the tougher regulations.

        “We've tried to get through to some of these senators on three separate occasions, but the Republicans in the Senate have killed it each time,” Mr. Chandler said Monday over a cell phone as he traveled to western Kentucky.

        “Being nice about this is not something they understand,” he said.

        Mr. Chandler is also featured in Kentucky Democratic Party-sponsored radio spots that will air in the districts of three GOP senators seeking re-election — Elizabeth Tori of Radcliff, Bob Leeper of Paducah and Charles Borders of Russell.

        In 60-second spots tailored to each district, Mr. Chandler says each senator “voted with the telemarketers and against Kentucky's seniors” twice in the current legislative session, on Jan. 17 and Feb. 5.

        Both votes were procedural, along party lines, on Democrats' attempts to advance their anti-telemarketing bill. A bill to regulate telephone solicitations passed the Democratic-controlled House 94-2 on Jan. 22 and is now being considered by a GOP-led Senate committee.

        The latest Democratic ads are meant to blunt GOP ads in which the senators pledge to pass the nation's toughest telemarketing law.

        Mr. Chandler said the Senate has squandered opportunities to pass tough laws.

        In 1998 he proposed legislation that included the ability of Kentucky residents to put their names on a “no call” list.

        The bill was passed by the House but Mr. Chandler said the Senate “watered down” the legislation by adding 23 exemptions that allowed 95 percent of telemarketing calls to still get through.

        Still, more than 120,000 Kentucky residents have signed up through the attorney general's office to be on the “no call” list, Mr. Chandler said.

        Kentucky residents can sign up for the “no call” list by calling the attorney general's office, 1-800-671-7701, or through the office's Internet Web site
       (kyattorneygeneral.com).

        “In my 10 years in public office I've never come across an issue that fires people up like this one,” he said. “It's not just that people don't want to be bothered, but in some cases these telemarketing calls are frauds that prey on senior citizens and others.

        Republicans in the GOP-controlled Senate have not said when the bill will be called for a vote.

       The Associated Press contributed.

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