GATEWOOD GALBRAITH RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR AGAIN

Gatewood Galbraith is once again running for governor -- and he's
quit smoking marijuana to prove he's serious.

"I gave up smoking pot about two months ago after 40 years," he said
Monday during an interview with The Gleaner. "I want people to trust
that I'm going to be as clearheaded as I can possibly be."

This is the fifth time the Lexington defense attorney has run for
governor; the first time he made headlines with his outspoken
advocacy for legalizing marijuana. He's not pushing that issue as
hard as he once did, but it's still in his platform.

"We were the world's largest producer of cannabis for over 100
years," he said. "I want it licensed and regulated in all of its
aspects as an industrial textile crop."

Medical marijuana could save the state between $500 million and $1
billion a year in health-care costs, he said, asserting that it cured
him of asthma. But the real gold mine is in hemp's prospects as an
alternative fuel. "Rudolph Diesel originally patented the diesel
engine to run on seed oil so farmers could create their own fuel."

Galbraith has usually run as a Democrat, although one year he ran
under the Reform Party banner, but this time he's running as an
independent "because neither party can produce a candidate who can
disengage from the partisanship long enough to work with the other
side and get the job done.

"I'm courting the voters who identify themselves as the Tea Party,"
but that doesn't mean he's allied with that loosely affiliated
movement. He and running mate Dea Riley of Frankfort "don't want any
party affiliation. I don't have a party affiliation and don't want
one. We don't want any dogma. We don't want any baggage. We don't
want to be beholden to anybody."

Some have noted that Galbraith holds key Tea Party positions, such as
smaller government and less taxes, as well as a fierce "don't tread
on me" attitude. But when people accuse him of trying to hop on the
Tea Party bandwagon, his response is:

"I've been out here 30 years talking this stuff. Where the hell have
you been?" He likes to refer to himself as "a Barry Goldwater
conservative" and considers founding fathers George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin as his guiding lights.

Galbraith said his main goal is re-stoking people's fire for
participation in government, which has smothered by "the bickering
and the vituperation."

He agreed he's been called a perennial candidate before, but
"Kentucky's got perennial problems. If the people who beat me the
first time had solved the problems I wouldn't have had to run again.
But they didn't, and they haven't and they can't.

"Because neither party can produce a candidate who can disengage from
the partisanship long enough to work with the other side and get the job done.

"I don't have all the answers, but there are a lot of smart and
intelligent people out there who do. If we can attract them into the
process I'm going to get out of the way and let them do it. I'm not
going to get in their way because of an ego thing."