Fischer's travels take him West and back this weekend

This weekend will find Democratic Senate candidate Greg Fischer continuing his campaigning around the state, as the Louisville businessman has stops scheduled in western Kentucky, Louisville, and Radcliff.Greg Fischer (D-Louisville)

On Saturday, Fischer will make several stops in the "Purchase" area - the western extreme of the state.

There, he will stop at the Lone Oak Little Castle Restaurant in Paducah, for an 8:00 am breakfast. Then, it is on to Mayfield for a 9:30 meet-and-greet at the Farmer's Market. Next, it's an 11 am stop at the Murray County library to court the Calloway County Democratic Executive Committee. Then, another meet-and-greet, this one scheduled for 2:30pm at Timmons Restaurant in Hopkinsville. The candidate will also squeeze in a parade appearance in Graves County.

Saturday evening, Fischer is expected 230 miles back east in Louisville for another event.

Fischer's campaign often touts their candidate's extensive travel throughout the Commonwealth in their press releases.

After Fischer appeared at the "Hillbilly Days" event in the eastern Kentucky town of Pikeville, a campaign dispatch said Fischer had travelled more than 850 miles by car that weekend and claimed opponent and frontrunner Bruce Lunsford travelled to the event via "private plane."

The campaign now says Fischer has hit seventeen counties this week already, for a campaign-long total of 61 of the 120 counties of the state.

Fischer's staff says the hand-to-hand politicking involved in this travel is going well for their candidate, even when the frontrunner makes an appearance.

"The crowds collect around Greg, wear his lapel stickers, request more information, and commit their vote," said Nicole Candler, a campaign spokesperson. "Greg is outworking Lunsford and it shows when you see the flood of lapel stickers at the events he attends--even when Lunsford drops by."

Fischer's extensive retail politics are now accompanied by two television ads - one which takes a swipe at Lunsford - currently running in multiple Kentucky markets.

The dual effort is needed if Fischer is going to make up the gap between himself and Lunsford. Fischer is currently polling second in the Democratic Senate primary field, 38 points behind Lunsford.

In recent weeks, Lunsford has been lining up prominent labor support in the state, garnering endorsements from the Kentucky AFL-CIO, the Indiana-Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, and the state's Change to Win labor coalition. Lunsford has also grabbed the endorsement of former Democratic primary candidate Andrew Horne and former University of Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall.

Fischer's campaign says they are looking beyond this support of their opponent, and argue Lunsford's endorsements were products of external influence.

"On May 21 the only endorsements that matter are those of individual voters and that's why Greg and his team hit the road at 5 a.m. and hit the bed after midnight," said Nicole Candler. "Lunsford's endorsements stem from the early support he received from the Washington establishment, who sought him out as a self-financing candidate. Around here, we consider each dollar an endorsement and when those dollars come in small amounts from many Kentucky voters it ads up to lots of votes."

"Our support from individual votes is overwhelming," Candler continued. "If that means we miss a shout out from a former basketball coach, we're okay with that. Greg is focused on getting endorsements from
the folks he meets and that's a campaign strategy that's working in Greg's favor."

Candler also indicated Fischer was working on getting endorsements of his own as he moves around Kentucky.

"We're collecting a series of endorsements as Greg travels the state and we're planning to share the details beginning next week," she said.