Ken Lucas
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Kenneth Ray Lucas (born August 22 1933), is an American politician. Lucas, a Democrat, was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky's fourth congressional district from 1999 until 2005.
He did not run for reelection in 2004, honoring a promise to serve only three terms. However, he intends to make a bid for his old congressional seat in 2006 against Geoff Davis, the Republican who won the seat in 2004. Lucas narrowly defeated Davis in 2002, even as popular Republican Senator Mitch McConnell breezed to a fourth term in a big midterm cycle for Republicans.
Biography
Lucas was born in Covington, Kentucky; just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. He grew up on a dairy and tobacco farm in Grant County. He attended the University of Kentucky, graduating in 1955. Lucas received his MBA from Xavier University in 1970. He served for 12 years in the Air Force, later serving in the Air National Guard and retiring as a Major. He then became a certified financial planner.From 1967-74, he was a city councilman in Florence; after this, he became a county commissioner in Boone County until 1982. In 1992, he was elected county judge-executive of Boone County, and in 1998 he ran successfully for the House.
Lucas' 1998 victory came as something of a surprise even though Democrats have a substantial majority in registration. The influence of the heavily Republican Cincinnati suburbs kept the district in Republican hands for 32 years, and it is widely considered to be the most Republican district in Kentucky. His victory was even more remarkable since six-term incumbent Jim Bunning made a successful run for the Senate in 1998, winning largely by winning his old district by a margin that Democrat Scotty Baesler couldn't make up in the rest of the state.
Lucas was reelected in 2000 even as the district gave George W. Bush his largest victory margin in the state (the territory currently in the district has not supported a Democrat for president since 1964).
He was one of the most conservative Democrats in the House, as reflected by National Journal rankings. He also had a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 72, the highest of any Democrat in the 108th Congress. However, he shared most Democrats' wariness about privatizing Social Security. He was asked several times to switch parties and become a Republican.
Lucas heavily recruited Cincinnati television personality Nick Clooney to run against Davis in his stead in 2004, but Davis defeated Clooney fairly easily.
Run for Congress 2006
Local and national Democratic Party leaders recruited Lucas to make a run for his old seat. He formally announced his candidacy on January 30. He had been leaning toward running for some time, and Davis had reportedly been acting as if Lucas would be his opponent. Even though many of the backers of the "Draft Ken Lucas" effort were considerably more liberal than Lucas had been in Congress, they felt that Lucas had a realistic chance of putting the seat back in Democratic hands.
In a press release, Lucas slammed Davis for being too loyal to the Republican leadership at the 4th District's expense. He also charged that Davis "has done nothing" to distance himself from the scandals that currently surround House Republicans.
Most pundits had written off the 4th as a Republican lock for 2006, but Lucas' entry into the race prompted Congressional Quarterly to change its rating of the district from "Safe Republican" to "Lean Republican," meaning that a Lucas victory would not be considered an upset. Recently, CQ updated its rating again, this time to "Toss-Up," meaning the race could go either way.
A \"Blue-Dog\" Democrat
Though the 4th congressional district in Kentucky is arguably the most conservative district in the state, Lucas won his three terms by stressing his moderate social views. He is pro-life, pro-gun and against gay marriage. He supported President Bush's tax cuts while in Congress and also voted in favor of going to war in Iraq. Moderate views such as these make him a threat to take back his seat. Along with other Democrats in Washington, he is vocal about being a "blue-dog Democrat." This comes from the old (Southern) phrase of yellow-dog Democrats -- people who would vote Democrat even if a yellow dog was the nominee. To distance themselves from attacks (such as being too liberal), they formed the coalition.
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External links
- [Entry in the Congressional Biographical Dictionary]
- [Official campaign site]
- [AP story on Lucas' entry in 2006 race] (from the Lexington Herald-Leader)
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