Pubdate: Tue, 12 Aug 2003
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact:  http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Ryan Alessi

GALBRAITH FILES FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Claims This Race Is His Best Chance To Win Election

FRANKFORT - Even though he had said he wasn't going to run for office this 
year, perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith filed papers yesterday to 
appear on the Nov. 4 ballot as an independent candidate for attorney general.

Galbraith, a Lexington defense attorney, dropped off 7,244 signatures and a 
$500 check yesterday to the Secretary of State's office one day before the 
filing deadline for independent candidates.

Flanked by two of his daughters, Galbraith told reporters in the Capitol 
rotunda that he had intended to sit out this election until Democrats and 
Republicans called and "drafted" him to run for attorney general after the 
May 20 primary.

"Elected officials from both of those parties were so dissatisfied with 
their candidates," he said, noting that both the nominees won their 
primaries with less than 40 percent of the vote.

Because each of the major party candidates carry personal and political 
baggage, Galbraith said this race provides his best chance to win an election.

Greg Stumbo, the Democratic House leader, has been involved in a paternity 
case over a child he fathered out of wedlock. He also pleaded guilty to 
public intoxication in 1991.

The Republican candidate, Jack D. Wood of Valley Station in Jefferson 
County, had been suspended by the judicial-discipline commission twice 
while serving as a southern Kentucky district judge in the 1980s.

"The chemistry of this race is just phenomenal. I could not pass it up," 
Galbraith said.

Galbraith ran for governor in 1991 and 1995 as a Democrat and ran for 
Congress in Central Kentucky's 6th Congressional District in 2000 as a 
Reform Party candidate. Most recently, he ran for Congress in 2002 as an 
independent. He garnered 27 percent of the vote last year.

Galbraith said raising campaign funds has been his biggest barrier. But 
already he has fielded donation offers from Republicans and Democrats and 
expects to raise six figures, he said.

While he said he would make fighting corruption his main stance, he added 
that a key component of his campaign will be to tout his independence.

The attorney general is supposed to be non-partisan, and both his opponents 
have exhibited "extreme partisanship," he said.

Galbraith, who is perhaps most known for his public support of legalizing 
marijuana, said he still uses the drug for medicinal purposes and has a 
prescription from a doctor in Berkeley, Calif.

He said he does not support legalizing recreational uses of marijuana at 
this time. But he added that, if elected, he would push for the state to 
provide more treatment for drug addicts rather than jail time.

Meanwhile, the other two candidates say they hope the "Gatewood factor" 
helps their chances.

Before the Fancy Farm picnic a week ago, Wood told reporters Galbraith 
would take votes from Stumbo. "I'm a conservative. Both of them are 
liberals," he said.

Stumbo, meanwhile, said the Gatewood factor would hurt Wood most because 
those two will split the anti-Stumbo votes. "When you've been in the 
legislature as long as I have, you make some enemies," Stumbo said at a 
Murray fund-raiser two weeks ago. "So naturally some of those votes Wood 
might have gotten would be 'no votes' against me."

Galbraith said he expects to get 50 percent of the vote from both parties' 
voters. "This is a three-way race, folks," he said. "Thirty-four percent 
wins it."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart