By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Lt. Gov. Steve Henry on Tuesday ruled out a run for governor, a race he predicted would set records for spending and acrimony.

Henry also said the scandal of Gov. Paul Patton's extramarital affair was a factor.

Henry

"The office of governor has been tarnished to some degree," Henry said at a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda.

Though he and Patton were never close, "I'm part of an administration. ... In the end, that would have been used against me," he said.

Henry, an orthopedist, also is being sued in federal court, accused of overbilling the government in his medical practice.

He denied any wrongdoing and has countersued, claiming he actually was underpaid by Medicare and Medicaid.

"I was not going to be politically extorted to sign a settlement agreement," he said.

The federal case was a minor factor, Henry said. It paled beside the probable cost of this year's race, for which Henry had once predicted he would need $4 million.

U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher, who heads a field of four Republican hopefuls, raised more than $500,000 in December, his first month as a candidate.

Attorney General Ben Chandler, the apparent leading Democrat, raised $268,500 in the same month.

Since then, Bruce Lunsford, a multimillionaire who has said he intends to use his own money, also has entered the Democratic primary.

Henry said he probably would have been a candidate if the state had not abandoned the use of spending limits and partial public financing of gubernatorial campaigns. "How you compete with millionaires is beyond me," he said.

In addition, Henry said his wife, Heather French Henry, was against his running. The former Miss America stood beside her husband, holding their 1-year-old daughter, Harper.

Henry becomes the first lieutenant governor since Wilson Wyatt in 1963 who will not ascend to the governorship or run for governor from the lower office.

Other Democrats in the race are House Speaker Jody Richards of Bowling Green and Otis Hensley Jr., a demolition contractor from Wallins in Harlan County.

Henry said he expected to run for some other office at some other time. He declined to elaborate.

He also said he might endorse one of the Democratic candidates. He spoke warmly of Richards and said he had talked "in vague terms" with Lunsford.

Other Republicans in the governor's race are Rebecca Jackson, the former Jefferson County clerk and judge-executive; state Rep. Steve Nunn of Glasgow; and state Sen. Virgil Moore of Leitchfield.