BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press
LEXINGTON
November 04, 2007 01:34 am
—
Democrat Steve Beshear got an assist from a famous coach and then stuck to his campaign playbook Saturday, hammering away at the political scandal that embroiled Gov. Ernie Fletcher. the Republican he wants to oust Tuesday.
Former University of Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall gave a rousing pep talk to about 250 Democrats filling a parking lot near Rupp Arena on a frosty morning. Beshear then took over the cheerleading, saying Democrats were on the verge of a big victory.
"We're going to blow this bunch out of the water," he said of the Republican ticket.
Wherever he went during the campaign season, Beshear brought up the investigation into whether Fletcher's administration violated state hiring laws in an alleged scheme to reward political supporters with state jobs.
Beshear, trying to pull off a remarkable comeback after a decade out of the spotlight, hit on the same message as he kicked off a full day of campaigning Saturday.
"After four years of scandal and corruption, people are crying out all over this state for some honest, decent, competent and experienced leadership again," Beshear said.
Fletcher, Kentucky's first Republican governor in more than 30 years, was indicted last year but the charges eventually were dropped in a settlement with prosecutors.
At least 14 of the governor's aides and associates also were indicted. Fletcher pardoned everyone in his administration except himself.
The governor maintains the investigation was a political witch hunt.
Now, with the job he's long wanted seemingly within grasp, the 63-year-old Beshear said he liked media polls showing him with a double-digit lead.
But he told supporters that a lot of work remained before Tuesday.
"It is time to kick the afterburners in," he said.
In his pep talk, Hall compared Beshear's advantage in the polls to a basketball team holding a big lead at halftime.
"You don't get complacent," Hall said to cheers. "When you've got him down, that's when you want to put him away."
Lillian Press of Lexington said Beshear will "outdo all expectations" if he's elected governor. Press said she liked Beshear's proposals for education, from expanding preschool programs to a scholarship program allowing a year of college tuition to be forgiven for each year a recipient worked in Kentucky following graduation.
"We are education needy," she said.
At a later rally in Louisville, Beshear lampooned Fletcher as "the great unifier". "He's unified everybody in this state, all of whom want to throw him out of Frankfort."
Beshear exhorted his supporters not to let up. If they follow through, he predicted the result will be "one of the biggest victories that's ever been seen in this commonwealth."
T.J. Bell was among the supporters who flocked around Beshear afterward to shake his hand or snap a photo. Bell is a Democrat but said he's not interested in party labels. "I vote for the man I think is going to do the job, and he's going to do the job," he said of Beshear.
If Beshear topples Fletcher from office, it would cap a remarkable comeback.
Beshear rose through the ranks in the 1970s and 1980s with stints as a state legislator, attorney general and lieutenant governor. Then his political career stopped in its tracks. He lost the 1987 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Beshear later was beaten by Republican Mitch McConnell in a 1996 Senate race.
After that, Beshear turned his attention to practicing law in Lexington.
Last year, Beshear was trying to persuade other prominent Democrats to enter the governor's race. When they decided to sit out the race, Beshear jumped in. Beshear recruited a well-known Democrat as his running mate — state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo of Hazard, who nearly upset Republican Sen. Jim Bunning in 2004.
Then Beshear, the son of a small-town preacher, latched onto a high-profile issue — casino gambling.
He supports a ballot referendum that would let voters decide whether to change the state constitution to allow casinos. Beshear says he wants to limit the expanded gambling to race tracks and a handful of communities along the state's borders. Beshear estimates that casinos would generate about $500 million in additional tax revenue that the state could use on such priorities as education and health care.
In the spring, Beshear won a crowded Democratic primary outright without a runoff.
Casino gambling quickly emerged as a contentious issue in the fall race.
Fletcher spent a lot of time and campaign money warning Kentuckians that Beshear's idea would bring a host of social ills, including more crime, divorce and bankruptcies.
However, a pair of media polls during the campaign showed that a large majority of Kentuckians favor getting a chance to vote on whether to legalize casino gambling.
Beshear supporter Pete Steilberg, at a recent rally, said Beshear's proposal reflects reality — that lots of Kentuckians flock to casinos just across the border.
"If people want to gamble they are going to gamble," Steilberg said. "Why not keep those Kentucky tax dollars here rather than letting them go across the river to the other states."
As the campaign wore on, Beshear spent less and less time talking about casino gambling.
Instead, Beshear focused on proposals to help young and old alike.
He talked about providing health-insurance coverage to Kentucky's 81,000 uninsured children, expanding early childhood education and assisting senior citizens who struggle to afford their prescription drugs.
Beshear also talked about bringing Democrats and Republicans together to pursue common goals.
"For so long now, we've just been fussing at each other," he said.
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