The Paducah Sun from Paducah, Kentucky • 3

The Poducah Sun SA WdMiay, May 27. 1 992 ikeville lawyer trounces Carol Hubbard in 5th BY ALLEN Q. BREED ASSOCIATED PRESS WHITER PXEVILLE, Ky. Pikevffle Attorney John Doug Hays rode to an overwhelming victory Tuesday over Carol Brown Hubbard and six other Democrats vying for their party's nomination in the redrawn 5th District Hays, a former state senator who ran a modestly funded campaign, had 18,439 votes to Hubbard's 10,434 with all precincts reporting, according to unofficial returns from the secretary of state's office. "When you don't have the money, you have to work harder," said Hays, who celebrated his win at a w- I precincts.

The Democrats were seeking to replace VS. Rep. Chris Perkins, who announced his retirement in January after his 7th District was carved up and lumped in with Republican portions of the 5th. The resulting 27-county district is only about 55 percent Democratic, and Perkins won the 1990 general election by a mere 2,000 votes. Republican Rep.

Harold "Hal" Rogers, of Somer-' set didnt just sit back and watch the Democratic fight this year. He already is running television ads and has spent $90,000 in his bid for a seventh term. John Brock, former state schools superintendent had also entered the race but later pulled out Perkins had held the seat since 1984, when he won a special election to replace his late father. Carl D. Perkins, a legend in mountain politics, held the seat from 1948 until his death from a heart attack.

The race to replace Chris Perkins started out calmly but grew acrimonious toward the end. Hubbard drew criticism from several opponents particularly Rowe for her large reliance on money from her husband's contributors. A large portion came from political action committees, or PACs. Hubbard also ran into trouble when the widow of Carl D. Perkins, Verna Perkins, deplored Hubbard's use of the later statesman's photograph in her TV ads.

Mrs. Perkins all but called for a boycott of Hubbard's campaign, and Hubbard's consultants blamed the whole situation on a disgruntled Chris Perkins. Hays said he thought the PAC issue and the fact that she was married to an incumbent congressman hurt Hubbard. He said people himself included thought it "wasn't right to have two people in the same house running for Congress." Pillersdorf, who shunned PAC money, relied on support from environmentalists and other "underdogs" he has represented in his law practice. He was particulalry disappointed by the low turnout in Magoffin County, where he has given free counsel to a group fighting a 300-acre landfill.

HUBBARD Pikevffle restaurant He said the victory showed "you dont have to have exorbitant sums to run races," Hubbard, the wife of U.S. Rep. Carroll Hubbard, D-lst District, spent nearly $300,000 on her campaign and was considered the early front runner. But she slipped from second to a surprising fourth with 16.8 percent of the vote. "I think I've not only been running against seven men, I was also running against two major newspapers," Hubbard said from her brother's home in Somerset "I know I worked harder than anyone else in the race.

"The (Louisville) Courier-Journal is trying to ruin Carroll politically," she said, referring to a recent two-part series outlining his connections with banking and other interests that lobby his congressional committees. Prestonsburg civil-rights attorney Ned Pillersdorf was second and fellow Prestonsburg attorney Bobby Rowe Jr. followed. "I think the low turnout throughout the rest of the district made it impossible to overcome Pike County," said Rowe, who was second in fund-raising only to Hubbard. Hays got 59.9 precent of the vote in the district's biggest Democratic county, carrying all 54 3 Associateo Press John Doug Hays is congratulated by Nelle Johnson and her husband WOlard Johnson, at right, after winning the Democratic primary election in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District Tuesday night in Pikeville.

In 'ji i 1 1 1 rtTTTrrTT i ii'gg fi "gi vt rr: jt Jii li i RETURNS BY COUNTY ASSOCIATED PRESS Hoc an the latest, inofficial retina from Kentucky by county in the Democratic primary for US. House HUBBARD BARLOW DistnclL fy(Jy CZ3 BANKEN good man, a good candidate and we're going to go head-to-head on the issues." Hamrick agreed that it will be an active campaign, but that he has a chance to wm because of redisricting, which added seven counties to the district, six of which have a Republican majority of more than 2-to-l. "The vote wasn't for Tom Barlow, it was against Carroll Hubbard," Hamrick said of Tuesday's Democratic primary. "The dissatisfaction with Hubbard is the only thing that has changed since Barlow ran against Hubbard six years ago and got only 20 percent of the vote." Hamrick said a race against Barlow won't be as expensive as a race against Hubbard. He said a successful race against Hubbard would have cost more than $200,000.

He feels a race can be won against Barlow for $100,000. Barlow didn't say how much he plans to spend in November, but predicted donations will flow in easier than in his race against Hubbard. Barlow said he spent about $40,000, most of it on newspaper advertising. BARLOW Continued from page 1 in the savings and loan scandal. Barlow said Hubbard, as chairman of the House Banking Oversight Committee, could have prevented the scandal by holding more hearings and calling banking regulators to task when the savings and loan industry began to fall apart.

"The issue had credibility with the business leaders and with the political leaders in the district. I think that was the final issue that brought him down." Barlow feels he ran a positive campaign, although he was accused by Hubbard of being negative. "All we did was talk about the issues. We punched away at him, but it wasn't negative. We were giving people facts and he was never able to overcome those facts." Barlow in November will face Republican Steve Hamrick of Hop-kinsville.

He said it will be an active, issue-oriented campaign. "The Republicans are going to spend a lot of money," Barlow predicted. "Steve Hamrick is a TP PR Banker Barlow Hubbard Adair 51 ZS SOS Allen 11 11 190 2 Ballard 1J a 13 K4 Butler a Caldwell IS IN 1,1 2i Calloway 31S 2, 1,537 Carlisle 7 7 37 IN Christian 31 3,171 tJ2 Clinton 13 13 73 150 Crittenden 11 11 30 515 Cumberland II 5 59 121 Fulton 17 17 IN Ml 1,090 Graves 31 31 333 4,097 4,055 Henderson 36 2,691 3,474 Hickman 11 13 6M 514 Hopkins 41 Ml 2.1M 2,260 Livingston 10 90 945 (91 Logan II 19 140 1.2M 1,627 Lyon I 51 McCracken 55 55 534 6,649 4,40 McLean I I 111 431 541 Marshall 22 22 236 2,969 1,889 Monroe 12 12 14 J2 IN Muhlenberg 27 27 233 1,375 2,234 Ohio 23 23 146 655 645 Russell 16 16 45 112 105 Simpson 13 13 41 408 331 Todd 13 13 135 9K 969 Trigg 14 14 113 905 688 Union 16 16 246 1,095 1,359 Webster 14 14 156 Ml 1,151 Totals 512 59! 1,111 41,114 37,181 LYN McDANIELThe Sun ja 1 COST i I 1 1 RASCHE Continued from page 1 instructor at Paducah Community College who came in second in the three-way race, said he worked hard and did the best he could, but didn't have the money to compete with Rasche. "It was a clean, positive race nothing negative. I congratulate Mr.

Rasche. He did a good job," Watkins said. Watkins, who began door-to-door campaigning Jan. 2, said after reviewing the numbers that he will look "very strongly at making another race in '94 and challenging whoever wins in November." He said he loves state politics and is interested in statewide issues. Stewart, Paducah fire chief and a lobbyist for 20 years, said he plans to continue being fire chief but didn't elaborate on his political future.

Hubbard added that he sometimes wonders whether it would have been smarter to campaign in his district rather than staying in Washington. He then said he was sure he had made the right choice. Hubbard said a Bible verse tells of there being a season for everything. He said in 1974, it was the season for him to take the 1st District seat from Frank Albert Stubblefield. "Now it's the season for someone else to take over," he said.

Noting the loss to Barlow in his home county of Graves by 42 votes, Hubbard said he was "naturally disappointed." He said he lost a lot of counties that he considered "heart-breakers." "Personally I could not name you one person in Carlisle County that I can think of that would have voted for my opponent. But he carried the county by about 30 votes." Continued from page 1 as congressman to help con-istituents over his 18 years in office. But he said the vote shows the people want a change. "I accept that change," he said. Asked about his plans, Hubbard said he planned to fry to be a good congressman for the rest of his term.

He said he had not made any plans beyond that' Hubbard told reporters he had not yet thought about what to do with his excess campaign money. Hubbard said he could not say how much is in his campaign warchest, noting he had spent "quite a bit" in this race. While discussing his intention of returning to Washington today to try to keep his 100 percent voting record for this session of Congress, A- ELIZABETH COURTNEYThe Sun Rep. Carroll Hubbard, realizing he had been defeated, faces reporters at his headquarters at the Mayfield City Hall. ironic twist Carrol! Hubbard beats himself reading such moods and responding to them in a self-advantageous way were not present in this election.

Perhaps victimized by the ease with which he had dispatched the Barlows and Bankens in his 18-year political wake, he picked the wrong year to underestimate the foe. Eight months before he upset Stubblefield, Hubbard told me he would win. He didn't say he hoped he'd win, he didn't say if he got enough money or help he'd win, he flat said he would win. The look in his eye and the edge in his voice were convincing. Ever since, no matter how token the oppostion, he campaigned as if he were the unknown underdog.

He aa nn nthpr in the mouths from the same family feeding off the treasury didn't go well with people down at the diner. He picked a poor way to deal with his House Bank checking problems. Victorious Tom Barlow hammered away, saying Hubbard should have fessed up immediately last fall when the Rubbergate scandal broke. The question of what Hubbard knew about his own checks and when he knew it fair or not struck a sour spot with people who pay $15 or $20 penalties for the slightest bank-balance shortcoming. Hubbard insisted that only the press and Tom Barlow were fretted by the checking business.

He issued an apology, and each time the subject came up, he said sincerely that the House bank wasn't really a bank, and that most of his overdrafts were the fault of late deposit postings. Fair or not, people are not in a mood to hear excuses, valid though they may be. He appeared feeble in responding to questions about the savings and loan debacle, and the sense emerged that he tried to distance himself from the mess by pointing at other federal agencies. People are in a mood to hear someone stand up and say he's going to fix a mess, instead of paining to tut-tut the mess-makers. For whatever the reason, Hubbard's acumen in Contempt for Congress smoldered in May 1974, the vear aggressive young state senator Carroll Hubbard retired courtly Frank Albert Stubblefield in a nail-biter of a Democrat primary.

Hubbard pounded home his post-Watergate message, that Washington needed a good cleaning, and an uneasy electorate agreed with him. On Tuesday, 18 years later, the same body of voters registered a contempt for Congress that mirrors the country. It is a roiling, boiling contempt, even now breeding the Perot Factor, the fed-up factor, the give-someone-else-a-shot factor. The victor then is the victim now. The unthinkable is thought.

The unbelievable is believed. Carroll Hubbard has gone down, hard. Hubbard might say, as Stubblefield did pn that other Tuesday night, "That's the way the winds blow and that's something that we can do nothing about. The late Gentleman Frank had no blood on his lhands, no particular reason to be sent home, and his statement was a valid summary of how the gale force of the era was taking anyone in its path. -In Hubbard's case, maybe he could have done something besides watch the wind blow.

But maybe his political life, his political power, his burning, driving passion for politics, conspired to foster his undoing. The greatest of ironies for the tenacious congressman is that with all his years of political sawy, for all his remarkable ability to cast off any would-be demon, nobody beat Hubbard. Hubbard beat Hubbard. It could be argued that in 1992, buzzards are circling over anything that moves in establishment Washington. But Hubbard has always known how to shield himself.

He knows every body and soul in his district by first name. That was always his endearing safety net. No one was better at tending the home field, and if anyone could escape the carnage of 1992 incumbency, surely it would be Hubbard. But he picked the wrong year to burden himself with the political ambition of a spouse. The idea of two rr wmwmm halls of the mighty, in the corridors of a church basement bake sale, at trade day in Kaler, homecoming in Milburn or hay-haulings in Harvey.

He and his staff are prolific in responding to constituents. So voluminous and coveted were his famous calendar mailouts that in later years, Hubbard was given to poking fun at himself over the calendar business. Now, the last leaf has been ripped from the calendar. It has expired, 6,570 nights after the Hubbard era began..