Let's talk buzz.

        Not like the noise made by bees, or the feeling one gets after hitting a Happy Hour on the way home from work.

        Buzz as in political campaigns, as in finding an issue or topic that gets voters talking about a candidate.

        When there are several hopefuls jockeying for attention in a political race — say, oh, the 2003 Democratic gubernatorial primary — buzz is good.

        All those Dems who want the nomination are out there right now looking for that buzz.

        Jody Richards has buzz because he is speaker of the Kentucky House.

        Former Gov. Brereton Jones has buzz because he is a former governor.

        Crit Luallen has buzz because aside from being in charge of Gov. Paul Patton's Cabinet, she may be the toughest, smartest person in Frankfort.

        Lt. Gov. Steve Henry has some buzz because he is lieutenant governor, but more buzz because his wife, Heather, is the former Miss America and the co-host of a morning TV show in Louisville.

        Then there is Attorney General Ben Chandler, who has so much buzz right now he's practically slathered in honey.

        Mr. Chandler has buzz as the top law enforcement officer in the commonwealth and because of family lineage. His late grandfather, A.B. “Happy” Chandler, was a two-term governor and a U.S. senator with one of the most loved names in Kentucky political history. Who didn't mist up when he belted out “My Old Kentucky Home” at UK games?
       

The phone ranger

        But what is really going to create some buzz for Mr. Chandler is the telemarketing bill Kentucky lawmakers passed last week.

        Don't forget — and come election time Mr. Chandler will surely remind us — it was the attorney general who began pushing for the bill more than three years ago.

        He traveled all over the state, talking to groups, consumer advocates, reporters — really, anybody who would listen — about Kentucky's need for a law allowing residents to block most phone calls from telemarketers.

        The bill was filed, Mr. Chandler testified on its behalf and then the lobbyists for the telemarketing industry got their mitts on it. They convinced enough lawmakers to water it down so that when it passed, 95 percent of calls still got through to residents.

        So with lawmakers in Frankfort for the 2002 General Assembly session, Mr. Chandler got another, tougher bill filed. Once again it was designed so people who put their name on a no-call list compiled by the Attorney General's Office could block more than 95 percent of calls.

        And once again Mr. Chandler worked it. Two weeks ago he was hitting the state's major media markets, putting some pressure on lawmakers to pass a bill that had some teeth.

        In addition to talking to reporters, Mr. Chandler also took part in radio ads sponsored by the Kentucky Democratic Party that were couched to put even more heat on legislators, particularly Senate Republicans who gutted the bill last year.

        “We've tried to get through to some of these senators ... but the Republicans in the Senate have killed it each time,” Mr. Chandler said.

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

        They must understand pressure, though. The ads started on a Monday; the bill passed on a Wednesday.

        And as of last week, nearly 10,000 people had signed up for the no-call list, bringing the total to about 135,000.

        Now, everybody who is on that list has a phone, obviously. Quite a few of them vote. And when they quit getting telemarketing calls later this year when the bill is signed into law, they'll be reminded that is was Attorney General and gubernatorial hopeful Ben Chandler who made that possible.

        That, my friends, is buzz to die for.

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

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