QUIET PRIMARY IN KENTUCKY

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) When Kentucky voters decided their state officers
should be allowed to serve more than one term, supporters argued it would
reduce the turmoil of a statehouse turnover every four years.

It has worked beyond expectations.

Incumbent Democratic Gov. Paul Patton is unopposed in Tuesday's primary
election and little more than token Republican and independent opposition
loom in the fall.

"Running against nobody, I think I can win that one," Patton joked.

He is the first governor in nearly two centuries eligible for re-election.

The state's first constitution allowed it and James Garrard served two
terms from 1796 to 1804.

Governors were later barred from seeking re-election, but voters changed
the constitution in 1992 to allow succession in constitutional offices
beginning after the 1995 election.

This year, no Republicans filed for any constitutional office except
governor, virtually guaranteeing a second term for the three of four other
Democratic incumbents who are seeking re-election.

As for the governor's race, even GOP leaders acknowledge they are sitting
out this election for all intents and purposes.

Die-hard Republicans some 834,829 registered voters do have some choice:
Peppy Martin and running mate Wanda Cornelius, and the husband-and-wife
slate of David L. Williams and Joanna Williams.

Martin is a publicist who served for a few months as a secretary in the
last Republican administration in Kentucky in 1971 and unsuccessfully
sought the GOP nomination for state representative in 1981.

Martin, who calls herself "a very Kentucky girl," has criticized Patton for
raising the subject of casino gambling and overhauling the state workers'
compensation system. She tried to associate Patton with President Clinton's
efforts to regulate tobacco.

But what drew the most attention to her campaign was the work of some
computer hackers earlier this month. Her Web site was sabotaged and altered
to present bogus positions on gay rights and gun control.

It was by far the most publicity for a candidate who has raised less than
$10,000 and found her running mate only two weeks before the filing
deadline at a Federation of Republican Women meeting. And Cornelius has
said she wouldn't have entered the race if she had known she would have to
resign from the Taylor County school board.

Williams, the other GOP candidate, is a former utility contractor who is
disabled from throat cancer and speaks only with the aid of a mechanical
device. He has spent only $796 on the campaign $500 of that was his filing
fee and has disconnected his telephone and refused interview requests.

As for the fall campaign, Gatewood Galbraith, who has lost two previous
tries for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on a platform that
included legalization for hemp, has registered as an independent and is
expected to file this summer.