The Not So Great Debate
By John Butwell

---

"Ben Chandler and Bruce Lunsford tore into each other," in their first KET debate, reports Charles Wolfe of the Associated Press.

Curious to see the lust for torn dress shirts or slashed ties, I logged onto ket.org to see what all the commotion was about.

The debate is archived there, and you can access it online, along with the Republican debate the previous week. But you can watch the entire affair without seeing any blood or ripped fabric-until you turn the volume up.

Mostly you'll see four middle-aged men in suits and ties, with varying degrees of political experience, gesturing and posturing, pursing their lips, working their jaws, visually trying to be more "just folks" than the other guy.

There's little doubt dark horse Otis Hensley, Jr., a demolition man from Harlan County, was included out of fairness, not because he might win.

Ben Chandler

Bruce Lunsford

Chandler was ready for the fight, having been attacked by Lunsford as a candidate who'd be a slave to his contributors.

Chandler, pointing out Lunsford's six figure contributions to primarily Republican candidates and conservative causes, said, "It seems to me you are in fact a special interest yourself."

In responding to Lunsford's promises of state reorganization, Chandler observed, "Mr. Lunsford's experience in that area seems to be limited to Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code."

Lunsford denied that his Vencor nursing home chain really went broke since it spawned profitable successors. And he described Chandler as an example of "an unholy alliance between the career politicians and special-interest groups."

Even the two candidates' websites are already spattered with mud, with Lunsford's announcing April 15 he would be campaigning in a bus dubbed the "Fed Up Express," two months to the day after he announced his campaign for "Total Change in Frankfort."

Chandler's website counters with "What others are saying about Bruce Lunsford" as its lead item, coupled with a photo of Chandler himself speaking at Hillbilly Days in Pikeville.

He's apparently trying to out-hillbilly Lunsford, who got in trouble for his unauthorized use of The Beverly Hillbillies song in a campaign ad.

Not surprisingly, Albert Benjamin "Ben" Chandler III's campaign bio holds forth on his two terms as attorney general, but says nothing about his grandfather Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler I, the famous former governor of Kentucky and Major League Baseball commissioner. (Any gain he gets by the association, he's already won. Actively highlighting the connection drags in the baggage of: dynasty, career politician, and any residual bad feelings that might still linger around ill-chosen phraseology committed by his grandfather in his twilight years.)

His website DOES show him surrounded by a happy family consisting of his wife Jennifer and three young sons-including Albert Benjamin Chandler IV.

Richards, referring to both his major opponents during the debate: "I do not intend to buy the governor's office. I do not intend to inherit the governor's office. I intend to earn it."

The speaker has a point. Lunsford is financing his campaign entirely by himself, without taking donations, to the tune of $4.25 million, claiming he "has chosen to self-finance his campaign so he can remain free from the special-interest influence that has caused much of the mess in Frankfort."

But that sure sounds like "buying" the governorship to Richards, who has raised only about one-tenth of Lunsford's war chest so far.

Chandler has come in second with about $2 million in contributions, exceeding Republican frontrunner Ernie Fletcher's total by about half a million dollars.

But Chandler has a financer too, a Louisville lawyer-turned-businessman and political wanna-be just like Lunsford: Chandler's running mate for lieutenant governor, Charlie Owen.

Chandler and Lunsford's similar political philosophies give the lie to the notion that there's any real difference between them-or between them and Republican candidates who say we can get by without raising new revenues by just cutting waste.

Williams killed the public financing of governor's races by holding the state budget hostage last year, and now we're paying the piper as next month's primary literally appears "up for sale."

Still, Richards appears in tune philosophically with the common man Hensley, whose best quote in the debate was: "I worry about people's bills. Light bill, phone bill-everything's so high, it's hard to make a living."

It's about time somebody worried about THAT, which Chandler and Lunsford seem to be addressing only rhetorically. Instead, they're amusing themselves (if not the rest of us) by trying their best to plant knives in each other's backs.