By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - The race for Kentucky attorney general pits a state lawmaker being sued for child support against a one-time judge twice disciplined on the bench and an independent who says he is "anti-drug" yet regularly smokes marijuana.

"I have the same concerns that other citizens would have," said Allen Trimble, commonwealth's attorney for Whitley and McCreary counties. "We expect our attorneys general to kind of take the moral high plain. If they fall from that, it kind of hurts them."

The Democrat in the race is Rep. Greg Stumbo, majority leader of the Kentucky House who likes to talk about how he would fight drug crimes if elected.

His Republican opponent, Jack Wood, insists on talking about something else - a lawsuit filed against Stumbo by a woman with whom he fathered a child during an affair. The lawsuit seeks $43,000 in back child support.

Wood pours it on when he gets Stumbo in front of an audience.

Last month, at a stump-speaking picnic in western Kentucky, some in the audience taunted Stumbo with placards bearing slogans such as "Greg, will you take a DNA test?" and "Greg are you my dad?"

When Wood got his turn at the microphone, he recounted his experience pursuing child-support cases as an assistant prosecutor in Louisville. Turning to Stumbo, Wood said: "Does that give you nightmares at night, Greg?"

The lawsuit against Stumbo was filed in Lexington by Travis Fritsch, who worked in the Attorney General's Office when she and Stumbo had a relationship in 1987. Their son was born in 1988.

Stumbo said he has made support payments since 2002, when a DNA test confirmed he was the father. Fritsch wants $43,000 in back support.

The suit has been sealed by a judge. Fritsch could not be located for comment. Lawyers for both sides did not return calls.

Stumbo was divorced after the Fritsch affair and has since remarried. He says the lawsuit should not be an issue, though the attorney general is chairman of a state commission that oversees collection of child support statewide.

While opponents raised the issue in the Democratic primary, Stumbo won a three-way race with 36 percent of the vote. No independent polls have been conducted for the general election, to be held Nov. 4. If he loses, Stumbo still will be House majority leader through at least January 2005.

A one-time District Court judge in rural southern Kentucky, Wood twice was disciplined for alleged deceptive election advertising in the early 1980s. He also feuded publicly with his court clerk and a former law partner.

"If I had a record like Jack Wood, I'd be ashamed," Stumbo said.

Wood said Stumbo's flaws are worse: "If you take his dirt and throw it on the wall, and you throw mine, and you take a pressure washer, his stays up there and mine goes to the floor."

Women's advocates have said little about the case.

"Our main concern is that women review all of the candidates and their records and make intelligent and informed decisions and go to the polls," said Betsy Nowland-Curry, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Women.

Gatewood Galbraith, the independent, has run three times for governor and twice for Congress as a Democrat, Reform Party member or independent. He first gained political attention by advocating legalization of marijuana.

He now advocates marijuana only for medical use and claims to have a marijuana prescription from a California doctor to ease asthma and emphysema.

The fact that Wood is the Republican nominee was a shock to the state GOP leadership, which was tacitly backing a former federal prosecutor.

Wood spent little money - $1,700 - and did virtually no campaigning in the public eye. But only 13 percent of Republicans voted in the attorney general primary, and Wood won the three-way race with 39 percent of the vote.

Trimble, the commonwealth's attorney, said he was supporting Wood along with the rest of the Republican ticket. He said it would be easier than having to "carry the baton" for the other two prosecuting cases for drugs or flagrant nonsupport.

But Todd County Attorney Harold M. "Mac" Johns, a Democrat, said the lawsuit against Stumbo was unlikely to be a factor in a local case and was far outweighed by Stumbo's political clout.

"My preference is someone who has courtroom experience and someone who has been involved intimately in the legislative process and can assist in helping us attain the appropriate funding," Johns said.