As summer winds down, Northern Kentucky's Fourth District congressional race is heating up.

        The contest between two Boone Countians - Democratic U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas of Richwood and Republican challenger Geoff Davis of Hebron - has already taken on a post-Labor Day tenor. Both camps are running ads, traveling heavily in the sprawling 24-county district and gearing up for what will be a long stretch toward the Nov. 5 election.

        The intensity of the campaign, which comes earlier than the traditional Labor Day weekend start, is a testament to the competitiveness of the race.

        As Republicans battle across the country to hold their advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Fourth District race is among a handful of contests being watched by the rest of the nation, said Amy Walter, who covers House races for The Cook Report, a Washington-based political newsletter.

        “Lucas still has the advantage, but it's a competitive race,” Ms. Walter said last week. “This seat should be a Republican seat when you look at the numbers, and that puts Ken Lucas on the target list of the Republican National Committee.”

        Two years ago, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush carried the Fourth District - which runs from Ashland in the east to near Louisville in the west and includes all of Northern Kentucky - with 61 percent of the vote. Yet that year, Mr. Lucas won a second term by beating Oldham County Republican Don Bell, a candidate who had poor name recognition, little money and suffered from a lack of support from many Republicans.

        Because Mr. Lucas garnered just 54 percent of the vote against such a lackluster opponent, Republicans think they have a good chance to win this year with Mr. Davis, a more focused, better-funded candidate. Mr. Davis still trails Mr. Lucas in raising campaign funds. As of the end of July, Mr. Lucas had $686,089 campaign cash on hand, compared to $272,182 for Mr. Davis. Yet Mr. Davis' cash total is more than four times the entire amount Mr. Bell raised in the 2000 race.

        “Davis does seem to be more competent than Lucas' past opponents,” Ms. Walter said. “He seems to be getting on the field with all the necessary parts and pads, but I still don't know if that's enough to win the game.”

        Ms. Walter argues that Mr. Lucas, who often supports the GOP agenda in Congress given the Republican leanings of his constituents, actually benefits from Mr. Bush's being in the White House.

        “Lucas would be in a lot more trouble if Al Gore were president,” Ms. Walter said. “With Bush in the White House, Lucas has put together a consistent moderate record that has made it tough for Geoff Davis to get traction with some of the bigger national issues. I think it is hard to find the message that Lucas is someone out of touch with the district and a closeted liberal.”

        Not that the Davis camp hasn't tried to link Mr. Lucas with liberal congressional Democrats.

        Mr. Davis rarely makes a stump speech or gives an interview without mentioning that when House leadership elections are held, Mr. Lucas will be voting for Richard Gephardt for Speaker, a Missouri Democrat Republicans view as a strident liberal.

        And last month, the Davis campaign put out a press release noting that Mr. Lucas accepted $44,000 in campaign contributions from fellow House Democrats - in some cases political action committees - who voted on July 24 against a House resolution that would have banned late-term abortions. Opposition to abortion has long been a major issue in Fourth District and Northern Kentucky politics.

        But Mr. Lucas voted for the abortion ban, saying in a statement announcing his vote that “we have to defend all life ... (and) a ban on partial-birth abortion is a step in the right direction.”

        In the first television commercial of the campaign - it began airing last week on stations throughout the district - Mr. Lucas touts his cooperation with Republicans. And, in a pattern that has evolved in other ads from the Lucas camp, nowhere does the candidate mention he is a Democrat.

        Also last week, Mr. Lucas went on a four day “listening” tour of the district that included a joint visit to a Harrison County manufacturing plant with Gov. Paul Patton, a Democrat. The appearance with Mr. Patton was about as partisan as Mr. Lucas typically gets in an election year.

        For instance, during the 2000 campaign, he refused to attend the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles because of differences he had with Mr. Gore over abortion, gun rights and other issues.

        This week, Mr. Lucas will preview a trip he is taking later this month to visit American troops in Afghanistan by taking large banners around the Fourth District for residents to sign and write message to the soldiers.

        Mr. Davis has been far more eager to tout his party affiliation on the campaign trail. In recent weeks, the House of Representatives' top three Republicans - Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Whip Tom Delay - have come into the district to stump and raise money for Mr. Davis.

        With the help of the Kentucky Republican Party, Mr. Davis beat Mr. Lucas to the radio waves. Over the last few weeks, the state GOP has been running radio ads on Mr. Davis' background and experience with the Army Rangers in the Middle East during the 1980s.

        A campaign briefing on the 2002 congressional races prepared by Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, also boosted the Davis campaign. In the briefing, Mr. Rove cited Mr. Lucas as one of the 10 most vulnerable House Democrats in the nation.

        “We're working hard, and that hard work is going to help put us over the top,” Mr. Davis said last week. “We're out in the trenches, where we need to be.”

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