By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BELLEVUE - Kentucky's gubernatorial candidates staged dueling Campbell County rallies Thursday night to fire up supporters for a final campaign push this weekend.

The candidates stressed the importance of getting core voters to the polls.

With Tuesday's statewide election looming, Republican Ernie Fletcher gathered about 200 backers at Newport on the Levee after a day of campaigning across Northern Kentucky.

"The main thing we have to do is continue to run hard," said Fletcher, who traveled to Newport by helicopter after attending a similar rally in Maysville, an Ohio River town about 50 miles to the east. "When you're in a basketball game and you're a few points up with two minutes to go, you press.

"Well, we've got a few days to go, we're a few points up so we're going to press," said Fletcher in a reference to independent statewide polls that have shown him leading Democrat Ben Chandler by as many as nine points. "We'll continue to be out and around and let people know that we really want to be the next governor and we're the only ticket that can bring real change to Frankfort."

Earlier in the day, Fletcher made campaign stops in Edgewood, Covington and Falmouth.

Less than a mile from Newport on the Levee, Chandler held a rally of his own at the Bellevue Vets, a neighborhood bar and social club and longtime gathering spot for Democrats.

A crowd estimated at 300 turned out to greet Chandler, who had spent the day campaigning in Louisville and to the east in Morehead before arriving by plane at Cincinnati's Lunken Airport.

A charged-up Chandler told supporters his campaign's internal polling shows the race "dead even."

"If we get our people out, we are going to bring this thing home," Chandler said during a 15-minute speech. "If we don't, then we get what we deserve."

Chandler continued his criticism of Fletcher's campaign ads, which the Democrat has repeatedly called untrue and "misleading."

"He can't talk about his own record, so he lies about mine," Chandler said.

Campbell County is viewed as the last Democratic holdout in Northern Kentucky, though GOP leaders have pledged to carry the county for Fletcher.

Former Campbell County Judge-executive Ken Paul, a Fort Thomas Democrat, joined other Democratic activists the last five nights in working the phones on behalf of Chandler and reminding Democrats to get to the polls on Tuesday.

"A lot of people aren't excited about the race - there's been no spark to fire them up," Paul said. "So that makes it even more crucial for us to get our people out. And if we do that, we can win this county."

But earlier in the day, state Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Crescent Springs, said the typically Republican stronghold of Northern Kentucky will turn out big for Fletcher on Election Day because of the region's conservative leanings.

Fletcher appeared at the New Hope Center in Edgewood, which provides counseling to young pregnant women. Westwood is chairman of the center's board of directors.

"We're conservative up here, and he has the conservative values voters up here, and really across the state, look for in a candidate," Westwood said. "And the ideas he is espousing - economic development and growth, education, a change in Frankfort - that's what we are for up here."

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com