By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - The moves Gov. Paul Patton made in pardoning four campaign workers and commuting the death sentence of a convicted murderer have given Republicans a major campaign issue in this fall's gubernatorial race.

Patton's actions Wednesday afternoon continued to generate a buzz Thursday among nearly 80 Kentucky lawmakers who were in the region for two days of committee meetings and tours of area attractions.

Patton was a major target of speakers at a Thursday morning campaign fund-raiser for state Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, a first-term legislator who represents southern Kenton County. Thayer raised $12,000 at the event, which attracted about 50 contributors.

"Things like that are not going to happen in a Fletcher-Pence administration," said Republican lieutenant governor candidate Steve Pence, a former federal prosecutor and running mate of Ernie Fletcher, the GOP candidate for governor.

Fletcher, a Lexington congressman, is running against Democrat Attorney General Ben Chandler in this fall's gubernatorial race.

"It's inappropriate," said state Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs. "I don't think it is going to help Ben Chandler at all; it's going to help the Republicans. But it's not a good thing for the commonwealth. We're getting ridiculed and laughed at again, and I'm tired of this."

Patton made no bones that the pardon of four men who faced charges of breaking election laws in his 1995 gubernatorial campaign was, at least in part, a direct shot at derailing Chandler's candidacy.

"It's obvious Ben Chandler is trying to make this a political show," Patton said about Chandler's prosecution of the four men.

Chandler responded by calling for Patton to resign, but the governor said he has no intention of stepping down before his second term ends in early December.

Patton sent shock waves through Kentucky's political establishment with the pardons of the four men who worked on his campaign: Andrew "Skipper" Martin, his longtime chief of staff; Danny Ross, the governor's liaison with organized labor; and Teamsters Lon Fields and Robert Winstead. Earlier this week the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of their indictments.

He also plans to commute the death sentence of Kevin Stanford, 39, who was given the sentence for a murder he committed at age 17. Patton said he wouldn't sign the death warrant because of Stanford's age at the time of the crime.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said Patton - already tainted by an admitted sexual affair - "is bringing disrepute to our state."

"It becomes more evident that those who had called early for Gov. Patton's resignation, in hindsight probably had some vision," Williams said. "The last six or seven months have been miserable ... because of this administration.

"I pity Paul Patton for getting himself in a situation where he is so emotionally strung out by his own shortcomings," he said.

Even Democrats expressed dismay over Patton's actions.

Rep. Joe Barrows, D-Versailles, said Patton should have waited until after the election before pardoning his campaign workers.

"I didn't think it was a particularly good idea because it does give the Republicans something to talk about," Barrows said before a meeting of the Appropriations and Revenue Committee, which met Thursday at Northern Kentucky University.

"Whether it actually catches on and sticks, you just don't know how that is going to play out," Barrows said. "It may be irrelevant by then. You just don't now."

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com