LOUISVILLE — Many editorial pages across Kentucky are taking a wait-and-see attitude about allegations of official misconduct against Gov. Paul Patton by a western Kentucky businesswoman.

        Some newspaper editorials have focused on Tina Conner's allegations that Mr. Patton sicced state regulators on her nursing home after she broke off an affair with him in 2001. One television editorial called for his resignation Tuesday.

        Mr. Patton admitted Friday to having a sexual relationship with Ms. Conner, who is suing Mr. Patton and state government.

        The Executive Branch Ethics Commission is meeting this week to consider whether Mr. Patton used his influence to help or harm Ms. Conner.

        “If it turns out that the governor used his position to either protect or harm the situation with the nursing home, then we'll strongly speak out about that,” said David Waters, editorial page editor at The Daily News of Bowling Green. “But if it was just a personal indiscretion, we've seen that before, and we've seen leaders survive that.”

        At the Courier-Journal, the state's largest newspaper, editorial page editor David Hawpe said, “The parameters of this incident are not clear to us yet — the legal parameters are not — and so I think it's premature to make a judgment about whether he ought to go or not,” Mr. Hawpe said. A Tuesday editorial in the newspaper did ask that Mr. Patton renounce the 2004 U.S. Senate race.

        But an on-air editorial Tuesday by WDRB-TV, the Fox affiliate in Louisville, sternly asked for Mr. Patton's resignation.

        “If you really do love Kentucky, Gov. Patton, you know the right thing to do is to resign now,” General Manager Bill Lamb said.

        The editor of Mr. Patton's hometown newspaper in Pikeville, the Appalachian News-Express, said the staff is working on its first editorial on the subject for today's editions.

        “Most people here I think pretty well assumed that we would have a guy living down the street from us in the U.S. Senate in a couple years, but now that looks very unlikely,” David Gross said.

        The Lexington Herald-Leader wondered Saturday whether Mr. Patton can be trusted after he lied about the affair with Ms. Conner.

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