By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - Fourth Congressional District candidates Ken Lucas and Geoff Davis talked jobs and traded jabs Saturday during their last encounter of the 2002 campaign season.

Mr. Lucas, the Democratic incumbent seeking a third and what he says will be his final term in office, and Mr. Davis, his Republican challenger, squared off during a 45-minute debate televised by WSAZ -TV in Huntington, W.Va. The station is not in Kentucky, but it broadcasts to many of the 4th District's eastern counties.

While Mr. Lucas has been favored to win re-election, Mr. Davis has run a strong campaign. Both camps have admitted in recent days that the race has tightened and could likely go to the wire Tuesday.

The debate was similar to how the campaign has unfolded, a vigorous discussion of issues interwoven with attacks over character, fund raising, and past professional and political performance.

Much of the substance of the debate focused on job creation and farm policy.

Throughout the campaign Mr. Davis has criticized Mr. Lucas' vote on Trade Promotion Authority, also known as fast track, that allows the president to negotiate foreign trade agreements with minimal input from Congress.

Though President Bush pushed for the bill, Mr. Davis has said he would have voted against it, claiming it has and will cost Americans jobs because of companies moving operations overseas and into Latin America.

Mr. Davis cited 400 jobs lost at Newport Steel in Campbell County, a layoff he said was caused by foreign trade agreements that allow other countries to sell cheaper steel in the United States.

"How in good conscience can you justify that vote considering the direct industrial implications" it will have, Mr. Davis said of Mr. Lucas.

"First of all," Mr. Lucas responded, "your president pushed for this. One of the most important issues to the president of the United States was this situation."

Mr. Lucas then detailed what he said were contributions he has made to job growth, including securing $1 million for an eastern Kentucky job training facility and helping start a regional job recruitment agency - Northern Kentucky Tri-ED - while he was active in local government during the late 1980s.

"Mr. Davis, you never brought one job to Northern Kentucky or this district," Mr. Lucas said.

Mr. Davis criticized Mr. Lucas for not sponsoring or passing any farm-related legislation despite being the only Kentucky congressman on the House Agriculture Committee.

Mr. Lucas countered by saying he is a co-sponsor of a bill that will offer a buyout to growers who want to leave the business, but maintain a government-subsidized price support program for farmers who want to continue growing tobacco.

Mr. Lucas pointed out he's been endorsed by the Kentucky Farm Bureau.

"I grew up on a tobacco farm" in Grant County, Mr. Lucas said. "I understand that issue ... and that's why I need to be in Congress instead of you."

The candidates also battled over Social Security, with Mr. Lucas claiming Mr. Davis filled out a campaign survey earlier this year indicating he would support privatizing Social Security by allowing taxpayers to invest their contributions in private investment accounts.

Mr. Davis said he does not favor privatizing Social Security and that a member of his staff made a "clerical error" in filling out the survey cited by Mr. Lucas.

Mr. Lucas went on the offensive over contributions the Davis campaign accepted - and eventually returned - from the 4- and 5-year-old daughters of a Davis supporter. Taking money from minors is, in most instances, a violation of federal election law.

"I don't understand how ... you could be that sloppy in record-keeping or that desperate for money that you would take money from 4- and 5-year-old children," Mr. Lucas said.

Mr. Davis explained that once the campaign discovered the money was contributed in the name of children it was returned "within 30 minutes."

Mr. Davis then said he was tired of Mr. Lucas' "petty personal attacks" and borrowed a line former President Ronald Reagan used in a debate, turning to Mr. Lucas and saying, "There you go again, Ken."

"Instead of talking about the issues (you're) assassinating my character ... and engaging in the politics of personal destruction," Mr. Davis said.

The Republican then brought up the fact that Mr. Lucas has taken past campaign contributions from disgraced Northern Kentucky homebuilder Bill Erpenbeck, who is under a federal investigation for allegations of bank fraud, and Gov. Paul Patton, who is embroiled in a sex and alleged influence-peddling scandal in Frankfort.

Several times during the debate Mr. Lucas repeated a charge he unveiled in a debate broadcast statewide last week, that Mr. Davis did not pay Boone County taxes for the business consulting firm he runs out of his Hebron home.

Mr. Davis has repeatedly denied the allegation and earlier this week released 10 years of his business' tax returns in an effort to show that all his taxes have been paid.

"More petty personal attacks," Mr. Davis said, adding that Mr. Lucas voted eight times in committee to kill Mr. Bush's 2001 tax cut that resulted in millions of consumers receiving tax rebate checks.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com