GALBRAITH SAYS HE MAY RUN FOR 6TH DISTRICT SEAT THIS FALL

Says Civil Liberties Have Been Abused Since Sept. 11

Standing on a street corner in the rain, Lexington lawyer Gatewood
Galbraith announced yesterday that he might try another run for public office.

A frequent underdog since his 1983 bid for Kentucky agricultural
commissioner, Galbraith is again looking at Congress. He said he might try
a second time for the 6th District seat, which U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher
first won in 1998.

Fletcher defeated Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Scotty Baesler in 2000,
with 53 percent of the vote versus Baesler's 35 percent. Galbraith,
campaigning as a Reform Party candidate in that contest, captured 12 percent.

Fletcher, a Lexington Republican, is unopposed in his re-election bid this
year. Stopping short of declaring his candidacy for governor in 2003,
Fletcher, 49, announced this week he was forming an exploratory committee.

Galbraith, 55, has until Aug. 13 to collect 400 signatures to get his name
on the ballot as an independent candidate. He said he'll decide whether to
go through with a race based on the support he gets as he tries to sign up
voters in the 6th District, which contains all or parts of 16 counties.

Besides the agricultural race and his last stab at Congress, Galbraith has
run for governor three times. He used to talk about unorthodox topics such
as legalizing hemp.

He's got a new issue now: what he sees as an abuse of liberties in response
to terrorism. Instead of "groping" women and children at airports, he said,
screeners should focus on Middle Eastern men ages 17 to 45. "What the hell
is wrong with profiling those people?" he said.

But most of his platform seems aimed at criticizing Fletcher, who has about
$630,000 in his campaign fund. Galbraith accused Fletcher of "blind
ambition" and "arrogance" in expecting to keep his 6th District seat while
also campaigning for governor.

Daniel Groves, Fletcher's chief of staff, said Galbraith's statements were
"nutty."

"I just can't imagine that he would gain any credibility with the folks of
Central Kentucky when he primarily wants to support marijuana," Groves said.