By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - The man elected chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party less than five months ago might have to fight to keep the post at the party's state convention June 19.

Bill Garmer said he has been the object of a telephone survey of convention delegates. The party's executive director, Eddie Jacobs, said one of the questions being posed is whether the delegates would prefer Garmer or the man he defeated for the chairmanship in January, former state Rep. Jerry Lundergan of Lexington.

Lundergan said he had nothing to do with the survey.

Garmer and Jacobs said the state convention would not include an outright election of a chairman. They said delegates would instead vote on whether to ratify the chairman's election, which was by an executive committee.

"There have always been rumors because my election was a contested election," Garmer said.

Dale Emmons, a political consultant who supported Lundergan in January, said there were "a lot of unhappy troops" in the party, specifically over fund raising and organization.

Garmer is a lawyer in Lexington. Unlike most of his predecessors, he is heading the party in his spare time and without salary.