Republicans have to be holding their noses over the recent performance of Murg's Machine, which has been sputtering lately amid an onslaught from the Democrats and their judge-executive candidate, Fort Wright lawyer Patrick Hughes.

        The Dems started making noise about cozy relationships at the Sanitation District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky, where the board is loaded with Murgatroyd campaign supporters, fund-raisers and operatives.

        Questions were raised about engineers who landed sweet gigs with the district and then handed over some dough to Mr. Murgatroyd's re-election campaign. The region's other judge-execs — who, like Mr. Murgatroyd, oversee the district's budget — didn't like what they were hearing. They demanded changes.

        Mr. Murgatroyd jumped on the bandwagon and joined the call for the district to adopt bylaws. Why an agency with an annual budget of almost $100 million has no bylaws is another issue.

        Heck, the boosters club at my son's school has bylaws, and they meet in a bar. But that's another column for another time.

        Murg's Men — including deputy judge-exec Scott Kimmich and Kenton GOP head Greg Shumate — bust on the Dems, moaning about negative and personal attacks when Mr. Hughes has actually been raising legitimate issues such as the operation of the sanitation district, the proposed merging of the county's emergency dispatch systems and tax increases in the county.

        In Murg Mail, which is blast e-mailed to Murg supporters, the judge-executive pledges to “deflect the onslaught of negativism by a small group of opportunists interested in advancing their personal agendas.”

        But it's the Republicans who are lobbing the personal bombs.

        When lawyer Mark Guilfoyle, the Hughes campaign henchman who antagonizes the Republicans simply by existing, made comments about Mr. Murgatroyd supporting a sewer service rate increase, Mr. Kimmich made a crack about the rates at Mr. Guilfoyle's law firm.

        When Mr. Hughes called for the sanitation district to bid out professional services — including work done by engineers and lawyers — Mr. Kimmich jumped on a lobbying contract former Democratic state Sen. Joe Meyer has with the city of Covington, as if that had anything to do with how the sewer district operates.

        But Mr. Meyer is working on Mr. Hughes' campaign, which in the minds of Murg's Men makes him a legitimate target for an attack.

        When Kenton County Democratic Party Chairman Nathan Smith questioned the county's purchase of the 501 Main St. building, which has yet to fulfill its potential as a site for county offices, Mr. Kimmich pulled the mortgage on Mr. Smith's home to make a half-baked comparison between the purchase of a private residence and a building bought with taxpayers' money.

        Now, who is it that's getting personal?

        Murg's Militia can't even seem to fill out a campaign finance report without smelling up the joint.

        Mr. Meyer filed a complaint with the state, alleging all sorts of misdeeds. Most turned out to be true, Murg's Money guys have admitted in a response to the complaint.

        Contributions exceeded the $1,000 contribution limit, were double-counted or not counted at all. Computer files were lost. Inaccurate information was listed on the reports.

        “Judge Murgatroyd unfortunately oversees the finances of Kenton County the way he oversees the finances of his campaign,” Mr. Meyer said. “Sloppy and without regard to the law.”

        Murg's Mavens did make some positive headway last week by going up on television with a slickly produced campaign commercial. And this is still Murg's race to lose, which, if the campaign stays on its current course, could very well happen.

        Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics. e-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com or call 859-578-5581.

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