Kentucky Attorney General

STUMBO CLAIMS EASY VICTORY

He'll Be State's Top Democrat

Democrat and veteran legislator Greg Stumbo won the race for Kentucky
attorney general yesterday, easily defeating Republican Jack Wood and
independent Gatewood Galbraith.

Stumbo won with about 48 percent of the vote, according to unofficial
returns last night. He declared victory around 8:15 p.m. in a speech at
Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonsburg, where he had gathered with
family and friends to celebrate.

"We are looking forward to the transition that begins tomorrow,'' said
Stumbo in the speech telecast on KET. "We will hit the ground running.''
Wood received about 41 percent of the vote and Galbraith about 11 percent.

Stumbo, 52, a lawyer from Prestonsburg and majority leader of the House of
Representatives, becomes the state's top-ranking elected Democrat following
Republican Ernie Fletcher's election yesterday as governor.

Susan Westrom, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said last night
that Stumbo's victory makes him the party's new leader.

Stumbo's win also triggers a contest for the House leadership post he has
held since 1985.

Reps. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, and Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, are
running for the job and have been seeking support from the 65 House
Democrats who will elect a new majority leader in January.

Whoever wins will face a tough job holding the caucus together while
forging a relationship with the Republican-controlled Senate and the new
Republican governor, said Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville.

"They'd better have a strong backbone because they're going to need it,''
Marzian said.

Stumbo, the best known of the three candidates, raised $400,000 for his
campaign and was the only one to run television commercials. Galbraith
raised a little under $20,000 and Wood, $6,000, and both relied on personal
appearances throughout the state.

Galbraith, 56, a Lexington lawyer, said given his limited funds, he was
pleased with the results. He captured 33 percent of the vote in his home
Fayette County.

"Obviously I'm disappointed not to win it, but I'm extremely pleased with
the results,'' he said. "Where people knew us and we got the message out,
we did very well.''

Wood could not be reached for comment.

Stumbo ran a campaign based mainly on his pledge to fight illegal drugs in
Kentucky with the slogan "Make Pushers Pay.'' As part of that effort,
Stumbo said he will create a Kentucky Bureau of Investigation to
investigate drug crimes and will assist local prosecutors in convicting
drug traffickers.

He said last night he intends to honor that pledge.

"The battle against those drug pushers begins tomorrow,'' he said.

In Louisville, solid Democratic support helped Stumbo.

"I voted Democrat because that's my party,'' said Dontai Jackson, 22, a
Jefferson Community College student who said he voted because "I'm trying
to make a difference.''

Still, Jackson said he didn't expect a lot of young people to vote because
they simply aren't engaged by the candidates.

"They don't reach out to us,'' he said. "They say they do, but they don't.''

Friends Sarah Rhodes and Maria Aponte of Louisville said they also voted
for Stumbo by voting the straight Democratic ticket.

"I've been a Democrat since I was a little kid,'' Aponte said.

Stumbo's victory came after a campaign marked by controversy about the
foibles of all three candidates.

Stumbo has faced repeated questions about whether he delayed paying child
support for a son, now 15, he had with a woman he was dating while married
to his first wife. The attorney general serves as chairman of the Child
Support Enforcement Commission, which administers collection of child
support statewide.

Stumbo has denied the allegations of a 2001 lawsuit brought by the boy's
mother. The suit alleges he reneged on a previous agreement to support the
boy. He began paying child support last year after court-ordered DNA
testing showed he is the father.

Stumbo yesterday in his speech brushed aside those matters and said that as
attorney general, he plans to look ahead to issues facing his office. "We
found out that's what Kentuckians wanted to hear,'' he said.

Wood, 52, has worked as a district judge and a prosecutor but had trouble
in both jobs. In Southern Kentucky, where he served as a district judge
from 1982 to 1986, Wood's pay was twice suspended for misconduct.

In Jefferson County, where Wood served as an assistant county attorney
enforcing child support collection from 1988 to 1998, his pay was suspended
for two weeks in 1991 for not doing his job, according to county personnel
records.

And Galbraith, who has run unsuccessfully for governor three times and for
Congress twice, is perhaps best known for advocating marijuana and
acknowledging he continues to smoke it regularly. Galbraith said he has a
prescription for the drug from a California physician and uses it to ease
emphysema.

Wood, unknown even to officials within the Republican party before he
emerged as the surprise winner of the May primary, spent $6,000 of his own
money and campaigned by traveling in his Chevrolet Blazer to all 120
Kentucky counties.

Galbraith raised almost $20,000 and relied mostly on personal appearances.

He said he doesn't plan to run for another office, saying it's too
difficult without a big campaign chest.