Pubdate: Sun, 05 May 2002 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 2002 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240 Author: Lee Mueller Races Crowded On Many E. Ky. Ballots CANDIDATES COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK TO SEEK ELECTIVE OFFICES Mack Fultz, a two-term Letcher County magistrate, says he always has opposition, but nothing close to the 15 candidates who want his job this year. "Anybody can win with this many running," said Fultz, 55, a Thornton coal miner. "One thing about it -- the voters can't complain. They've sure got plenty to choose from." Nearly a third of Kentucky's near-record 7,146 candidates live in 30 mountain counties, state records show. In Letcher County, with a population of 25,000, the overall ballot contains 109 hopefuls -- nearly twice as many as Fayette County, with a quarter-million people and second only to Jefferson County, which is 28 times bigger. "There's more running than voting here," said Fultz, laughing. What's going on in Letcher County -- a backlash against a stubborn fiscal-court majority that Fultz says has somehow spawned a horde of first-time candidates -- is not necessarily the reason for large ballots in other mountain Kentucky counties, experts say. Political consultant Dale Emmons says ballots often are glutted in rural areas because private-sector jobs are rare. Public office, with good pay and status, looms as an attractive opportunity, he said. "It looks easy if you grab this job, but it's not as easy as it looks," Emmons said. But Danny Briscoe, a Louisville political consultant, says there's a more basic reason some former judge-executives and sheriffs want their old jobs back this year. "Power is an aphrodisiac," Briscoe said. "Being county judge is like being the governor of a small state. And being sheriff is like being the local commandant. Both can be very powerful, lucrative jobs." More than 2,100 of the county candidates statewide are, like Fultz, running for magistrate, including 60 in Pike County and 58 in Letcher. But the hottest races in Eastern Kentucky are for sheriff and county judge-executive, political observers say, with some overlapping. At least two former sheriffs whose civil rights have been restored after convictions on federal drug charges -- Ray Clemons in Breathitt County and Roger Benton in Morgan County -- are running again for the same office and being taken seriously by opponents. Both men contend they were set up by drug dealers who wanted them out of office. Increasingly, however, sheriff offices in the region are being sought, and occupied by, retired state police officers. "Obviously, if you're going to be in law enforcement, it helps to have a law-enforcement background," said Denny Pace, a former state police detective who retired at age 41 and now is jailer in Harlan County. But the recent slayings of Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron and former Harlan County Sheriff Paul Browning, both of whom apparently were killed while campaigning, has changed this election, said Delzinna Belcher, a former Harlan judge-executive who is seeking to recapture her old office from incumbent Joe Grieshop. "We're not in a day and time now when we can knock on any door, not knowing who lives there and not knowing who's at home," Belcher said. "I don't go anywhere anymore if I don't know the community." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth