Campaign ads continue to run their course, but at this late stage candidates spent the weekend hustling to get their core supporters to the polls. And the best way to accomplish that is just getting out and talking to people, several candidates and their operatives said Sunday.

ELECTION 2004

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"Right now, it's retail politics," said Justin Brasell, campaign manager for 4th District congressional candidate Geoff Davis, a Boone County Republican. "You want to get the base out, get to the people you know are going to vote for you to make sure they get to the polls," Brasell said.

An estimated 450 volunteers went door-to-door for Davis Saturday in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.

On Sunday, the effort continued as Davis campaigned at grocery stores and shopping centers in Boone and Kenton counties.

Later he headed to Covington to greet voters heading to Sunday night's rally for President George Bush at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

Davis was at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to greet Bush and then ride in the president's motorcade to the rally.

In Northern Kentucky, where Bush is expected to put up a big margin over Democrat John Kerry, the linkage to a popular president will certainly provide a boost for Davis, Brasell said.

"That ought to bring us some good attention," he said.

Davis' opponent, Augusta Democrat Nick Clooney, spent Sunday campaigning in some of the outer 4th District counties, places in eastern Kentucky where Democrats traditionally run well - Greenup, Boyd, Elliot and Carter counties. He'll spend today in Fleming, Mason and Robertson counties and hold a 2 p.m. rally at the Augusta High School gym in Bracken County, according to the Clooney campaign office in Fort Mitchell.

"It is essential that we continue to work hard and fight for every vote in the next two days, and to do this we need your help," Clooney said in e-mail sent to supporters Sunday afternoon.

Bunning at ballpark

Also attending the Bush event was U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Northern Kentucky Republican running in a surprisingly close race with Democrat Daniel Mongiardo, a state senator from the eastern Kentucky mountains.

Bunning also met Bush at the airport and traveled with his entourage to the Cincinnati rally.

Mongiardo planned to attend a Louisville rally late Sunday with Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate hopeful from Illinois who delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

In Northern Kentucky's three hard-fought statehouse races candidates were emulating Congressional hopefuls by going door-to-door in targeted areas.

One race erupted into controversy over the weekend when a candidate's wife called her husband's opposition to complain about campaign tactics.

Denise Hayden, the wife of Wilder Republican Mark Hayden, called Democrat Dennis Keene Saturday evening around 7:30 p.m. Hayden and Keene, also of Wilder, are running in Campbell County's 67th House District. The candidates live within a mile of one another in the Johns Hill Road area

Keene described Hayden as "ranting and raving" as she "screamed" about "me running their family, and hurting her husband."

"I was shocked," Keene recalled Sunday.

Mark Hayden said he and his wife were both angry over a piece of campaign material Keene has recently distributed in Dayton. It quotes Hayden as calling Democrats "lazy" and attributes a long statement to Hayden that Hayden said he did not make.

Candidates in spat

The quote ostensibly came from an August forum - though Keene's material incorrectly said it was held in September - that Kentucky Women in Action sponsored at Northern Kentucky University.

Hayden, a lawyer, reviewed the tape of the forum and said he is completely misquoted in Keene's piece.

"This is meant to incite the people of Dayton," he said. "It was done so I wouldn't have time to respond. That's wrong."

Hayden defended his wife's actions.

"She's a strong, independent woman," Hayden said. "I don't tell her what to do."

Denise Hayden said she called Keene but denied raising her voice. She said she made the call because Keene has been lying about what her husband said at the forum. She said she asked Keene to retract his statement.

"I wasn't screaming or yelling," she said. "He told me he didn't know what I was talking about and hung up on me."

For Fort Mitchell Democrat Kathy Groob, who is running for Kenton County's 17th District Senate seat against Republican incumbent Jack Westwood of Crescent Springs, volunteers were out in Covington, Erlanger and Fort Mitchell.

"That is our base," Groob said Sunday morning.

Westwood was also out campaigning Sunday, according to GOP party officials.

E-mail pcrowley@enqurier.com