David Williams, John Kemper And Todd P'Pool Campaigned In Bowling Green Yesterday, Stayed And Watched As WKU Hilltoppers Beat FIU 10 To 9!

GOP's Williams thanks supporters
By ROBYN L. MINOR

Eliminating the personal and corporate income tax and regulations that Republicans say overburden businesses are all part of state Sen. David Williams’ plans for the future of Kentucky.

The Burkesville Republican and gubernatorial candidate was in Bowling Green on Saturday to thank those college and high school students who have been working to get out the vote for the Republican ticket.

One of those was Greenwood High School senior Ryan Warren. Warren said he began working on the get-out-the-vote effort after a high school teacher suggested it. Warren and others were making phone calls in GOP headquarters across from the Warren County Courthouse.

“I’m politically minded and very opinionated,” said Warren, a registered Republican who will vote in the election.

He said he has learned a lot about politics while volunteering and is interested in what the candidates have to say.

Williams said he would be laying out more about his plans to move to a consumption tax in the hours leading up to the election. Those plans, he said, are much more than what has been offered by his Democratic opponent, Gov. Steve Beshear. Williams said the governor has spent $10 million on misleading advertising to disparage him.

“He doesn’t have a plan,” Williams said of Beshear.

When asked about his criticism of Beshear participating in a Hindu blessing ceremony for an Elizabethtown business project, Williams said he stood by his comments.

Participating in the ceremony was hypocritical on the part of Beshear, who has not been supportive of public prayer or displays of the 10 Commandments, he said.

“I had no problem with him attending the ceremony ... but participating in something that is contrary to his own beliefs ... was clearly political,” Williams said, noting that he has since talked to Hindu leaders and has no intention of discriminating against any religion while in political office.

Despite criticism Friday from Beshear that Williams was campaigning alone and holding rallies in a “phone booth,” Williams said others on the GOP ticket have joined him throughout the campaign. Nearly all were at campaign events earlier in the day, and attorney general candidate Todd P’Pool and auditor candidate John T. Kemper were with him in Bowling Green.

“We’ve been out there running around together,” Kemper said.

Kentucky needs an independent auditor, not one who might be for “rent,” Kemper said of his opponent, Adam Edelen, without mentioning him by name.

P’Pool said that if he is elected, Kentucky will be the 30th state to join the fight against the enactment of Obamacare. He also said the attorney general’s office is in a position to push the Environmental Protection Agency back into Washington as it tries to squash Kentucky’s coal industry.

U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, said states that have previously suffered job losses are changing their ways and becoming more business friendly.

“We can’t wait another four years to catch up with what other states are doing,” he said.

Williams said he wants to enact changes now that will make Kentucky more attractive to business. Before speaking to supporters, he mentioned making Kentucky a right-to-work state and eliminating the personal income tax as a way to make it more competitive with Tennessee.

“This place will blossom with those changes,” Williams said, pointing to the attributes Bowling Green already has, including the Kentucky Transpark and Western Kentucky University.

Williams said Bowling Green is important enough to him that he will end his swing around the state Monday in Bowling Green with a 4:45 p.m. stop at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport. His campaign actually lists a 7 p.m. stop at Cumberland Veterans Community Center in his hometown of Burkesville.

Williams said the race for auditor and attorney general is neck-in-neck, and even his race “is close enough that turnout will make a difference.”

The Courier Journal-Bluegrass Poll last week had Williams trailing Beshear by 25 percentage points, with independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith a distant third.