Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Chandler has professed no support for legalized casino gambling in Kentucky. But is he placing a risky bet by making President George Bush a prominent target of stump speech attacks?

Chandler, the state's two-term attorney general, is running against Republican Ernie Fletcher in the race for governor. Yet it is President Bush, specifically his administration's economy policy, that Chandler continues to talk about as he crisscrosses the state trolling for votes.

Fletcher fits into the equation because as a three-term congressman from Lexington he voted in favor of Bush's economic policies, including a big tax cut that Chandler contends has fueled budget deficits and job losses.

"Everybody's asking about budget deficits (and), how are we going to handle the deficit? Well, the reason we have the (federal) deficit is because of the Fletcher-Bush policies in Washington, which are causing job loss," Chandler said Wednesday during a summit children's issues in Louisville, according to an Associated Press dispatch.

Chandler isn't the only one discussing this issue.

The topic of Bush's handling of the economy is becoming more prevalent in newspapers and on cable news shows.

Democratic presidential candidates, particularly Howard Dean, are all over the president when it comes to the economy.

But Republicans seem to think it is a big mistake for Chandler to run against Bush. Fletcher, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and most other GOP officeholders and party officials have indicated the president and his policies are popular in Kentucky.

They surmise that by taking on the president Chandler is playing right into the hands of the Republicans.

Fletcher defends vote

Fletcher, appearing at the same Louisville event as Chandler, defended his vote for Bush's tax cut by saying it will help boost the state and national economy.

"It provided a lot of money coming back to Kentucky," Fletcher said, according to the Associated Press. "I think it provided a lot of stimulus to the economy and (Chandler) opposes it and I'm for it, and I think the people of Kentucky ought to know that."

Chandler and the Dems are careful not to criticize Bush on the war. But maybe they have hit a nerve when it comes to the economy.

A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll put out Friday shows that Bush's job approval rating has fallen to 53 percent, about where it was pre-Sept. 11. And it is down from 58 percent in July.

The poll indicates that people do in fact want the president to focus more on the faltering economy, with 57 percent of respondents saying the economy is a more important presidential priority compared with 27 percent who said the war on terror is the most pressing priority.

Republicans, meanwhile, are ratcheting up their rhetoric on Democrats' greatest liability, Gov. Paul Patton and his sex scandal.

Bush vs. Patton?

Friday, while appearing before the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce, GOP lieutenant governor candidate Steve Pence went off on Patton. He and Fletcher have alluded to "cleaning up the mess in Frankfort" throughout their campaign, but have actually said very little about Patton.

Looks like that is about to change.

"We've seen a lack of both professional and personal discipline," Pence said, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. He added he had to turn off the television to avoid explaining to children "why the governor's crying on TV." That's a reference to last September when Patton tearfully admitted the affair during a televised news conference broadcast across the state.

Chandler will do his best to distance himself from Patton, and he has a case. As attorney general, Chandler dogged - some Dems say unnecessarily - Patton and his administration for nearly eight years, launching several investigations related to the governor.

But there is guilt by association in politics, and the GOP will certainly get plenty of mileage heaping Chandler in with Patton's problems. That's how politics works.

So this fall, Chandler and Fletcher will be on the ballot. But at times, it will seem like it is Bush versus Patton.

E-mail Patrick Crowley at pcrowley@enquirer.com. Crowley interviews Kentucky Speedway Communications Director Tim Bray this week on ICN6's "On the Record," which is broadcast daily on Insight Communications Channel 6.