Petitions, allegations, denials: Democratic Senate primary stays combative

The Democratic Senate primary has undoubtedly turned negative over the last several weeks. The two candidates atop the field are engaged in a back-and-forth that took another turn today. This morning, the campaign of frontrunning candidate Bruce Lunsford unveiled an online petition calling on primary opponent Greg Fischer to stop his attacks.

In a release announcing the petition, the Lunsford campaign said the attacks are benefitting Republican incumbent Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) - the candidate the winner of the Democratic primary will face.

"Against the will of Democratic leaders and the people of the Commonwealth, Greg Fischer continues to play right into Mitch McConnell's hands with these shameless personal attacks," said Lunsford spokesperson Allison Haley in a release announcing the petition. "If Fischer insists on continuing to help Mitch McConnell, we will be forced to treat him like Mitch McConnell. But we would much rather focus on positive solutions for change in Washington."

The petition - available here - had 106 signatures at press time, including representatives from organizations that have endorsed Lunsford, elected officials, Lunsford staffers, and other supporters.

The petition was initially released with a batch of 17 signatories, all from people or organizations that previously endorsed Lunsford's candidacy. The preliminary group of names includes former Senate candidate Andrew Horne, former Governor Julian Carroll, and Kentucky AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan.

Since the unveiling, several dozen others have added their names to the list, including union members and several political bloggers. Prominent additions to the petition include State Representative Joni Jenkins (D-Shivley), Lunsford's campaign manager Brad Katz, and the campaign's consultant, Achim Bergmann.

The Latest Defense

The construction of an anti-attack petition is the latest move by the Lunsford campaign to snap back at Fischer's offensive against their candidate, which spiked in intensity with the April 25 release of an attack ad. The ad - and subsequent attacks - focused on allegations of business impropriety at Lunsford's Vencor chain of nursing homes, which agreed to a $104.5 million settlement in 2001 over charges of overbilling and "failure of care claims." The Fischer campaign also has since targeted Lunsford for his past financial and political support of Republican candidates.

The Lunsford response to Fischer's attacks has been multi-faceted. Initially, the campaign of the frontrunner called on television stations to stop running the ad due to its failure to meet FEC disclaimer requirements. As the Fischer onslaught continued, the Lunsford campaign dispatched press releases claiming the ad was false and misleading. Last week, the campaign circulated a letter from four prominent Kentucky Democrats - none of whom have endorsed Lunsford -telling Fischer continued attacks would benefit McConnell's bid for re-election.

In that letter, the authors bemoan Fischer's decision to eschew an "Oath of Honorable Campaigning" circulated by the Kentucky Democratic Party. Signatories to that oath pledged to avoid personal attacks on other Democratic candidates. Fischer was the only candidate in the seven-deep Senate primary field to not sign.

In response to the calls to cease the attacks, Fischer instead held a press conference last Friday announcing he would not halt his criticism of Lunsford, declaring it was part of the primary process.

Lunsford Returns Fire

Since then, the Lunsford campaign has responded with some swings of their own at their opponent.

Earlier this week, the Lunsford campaign accused Fischer of "hypocrisy" for his investments in mutual funds with holdings in Vencor's successor companies. Fischer's campaign subsequently defended the investments as unrelated to Vencor and noted the funds in holding had relatively small interests in the successor companies..

Today, the charge of "hypocrisy" was again leveled, this time with Lunsford's campaign pointing to three donations Fischer made to Republican candidates.

"Greg Fischer attacks Bruce Lunsford for supporting a Republican in the past, but Fischer has his own record of supporting Republicans," read a release entitled "Bandwagon Hypocrisy," sent from the Lunsford campaign.

Fischer's Latest Response

In response to the new wave of attacks from the Lunsford campaign, a Fischer spokesperson acknowledged the Lunsford camp may be breaking the campaign pledge they signed, and then charged the "hypocrisy" accusation was pointed in the wrong direction.

"If I were an individual who would run for governor who would abandon my campaign, and abandon my party, and support a Republican Governor, and then serve on his transition team, I would be careful who I would call a hypocrite," said Fischer's Communications Director, Ken Shapero, directly referencing Lunsford's 2003 gubernatorial bid.

In that race, Lunsford ran in a contentious Democratic primary against Ben Chandler only to drop out before the primary election and ultimately endorse the Republican nominee, Ernie Fletcher.

Asked if the attacks now raining on Fischer did in fact breach the campaign pledge, the Lunsford campaign said it was their opponent's attacks that precipitated the ugliness.

"Fischer violated the Oath by first, not signing, and second, launching these personal negative attacks that leading Democrats have condemned. When Fischer stops his misleading negative attacks, we'll stop telling folks about his new baggage," said Lunsford spokesperson Allison Haley in a statement emailed to PolitickerKY.com.

No enforcement mechanism was included in the pledge, even if it were to be broken. Fischer and Lunsford's fellow primary candidate Michael Cassaro earlier decried the lack of "sanctions" in the pledge, proposing violators be forced to pay a fine or withdraw from the race.

From the Fischer campaign's perspective, nonetheless, the pledge and the calls for attacks to cease are part of a calculated effort by the Lunsford campaign.

"The attempt with this pledge is that they don't want to have any light shined on Bruce Lunsford's public record," said Fischer's Communications Director, Ken Shapero. "Anyone who signed that pledge and then talked about [Lunsford's] record, they were going to call a hypocrite."

While just yesterday each campaign released positive television ads not referencing their opponents, it still appears more sparring between the two camps in the lead up to the May 20 primary.

Today, Shapero reiterated Fischer's position that he would continue targeting Lunsford's past, arguing the offensive was part of the nature of the primary campaign.

"The real question is: what is the purpose of a primary?" said Shapero. "Are we not supposed to examine the public record of officials who are running?"