By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT MITCHELL - U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas of Boone County is expected to announce todaythat he will break a 1998 pledge to serve just three terms and instead run for re-election next year, according to sources close to the Democratic congressman.

Lucas

Lucas, 69, will attempt to make the case in a statement, to be released later today, that despite signing the term-limit pledge, he believes his work in Congress is not done, two sources close to Lucas said Thursday.

"This week, the president's State of the Union Address put him over the top when it comes to continuing his service in Congress," one of the sources, a Lucas aide, said. "He heard the president's call for bipartisanship, for continued cooperation in Washington, and Ken feels obligated to continue his work in Congress. He feels this is not the time to step away when we are fighting terrorists in every corner of the world and making hard decisions on the economy.

"The usual rules don't apply at a time like this," said another source that has spoken with the congressman about his decision. "There is no need for Kentucky to unilaterally disarm and sacrifice senior leadership and experience."

His Washington aides said Lucas was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Lucas' decision comes at a time when Republicans, not expecting the incumbent to seek re-election in 2004, are jockeying for position to succeed him in office. Lucas' Fourth District seat - a 24-county area that stretches mostly along the Ohio River from West Virginia to near Louisville and includes all of Northern Kentucky - is the only one of Kentucky's eight congressional seats held by a Democrat.

Two Republicans have already committed to the 2004 spring primary: Boone County businessman Geoff Davis, whom Lucas defeated in November; and Erlanger lawyer Kevin Murphy.

Republican Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery of Fort Thomas is expected to formally enter the primary field Feb. 6. And two other Republicans - state Rep. Jon Draud of Crestview Hills and Lakeside Park developer Paul Hemmer Jr. - are considering the race.

Lucas had explored challenging Kentucky U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Southgate Republican, in the 2004 Senate race. But Lucas has also been contacting area Democrats as well as his strongest supporters and biggest contributors to tell them a re-election bid was likely, a leading Campbell County Democrat said Thursday.

"I got a call and was told Lucas wants to run again and that he had done polling and does not expect that breaking the term limit pledge will be a major factor," said the Kentucky Democrat close to Lucas, who also spoke on the condition of not being named.

Lucas will certainly face Republican criticism for busting the term limit pledge, which he signed in 1998 during his first campaign, a hotly contested race he won over Boone County Republican Gex (Jay) Williams.

But several members of Congress have broken term limit pledges, an idea heavily promoted by the GOP's 1994 Contract with America, a list of legislative priorities and proposals Republicans used in Congressional election platforms.

Among those changing their stance was Kentucky Second District Congressman Ron Lewis, a Republican from Elizabethtown. Lewis won his first term to Congress in 1994 and ran on a platform that included limiting himself to four terms.

But in 1998 Lewis told the Louisville Courier-Journal he made a "mistake" on limiting the number of terms he would serve. He is now in this fifth term.

At least two other Republicans broke similar pledges:

U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt of Washington, who was elected in 1994 - beating then-Democratic Speaker Tom Foley - on a platform that included running just three times for the office.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, who broke his pledge to serve six terms in late December when he announced he would seek a seventh term in 2004. In a Dec. 20 interview with his hometown paper, the Holland Sentinel, Hoekstra said he was wrong to make a term limit pledge.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com