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Tuesday afternoon campaign members for all three candidates in
the 4th Congressional District, which includes Owen County, predicted
high voter turnout— and all three men applauded the loftily
forecasted numbers.
“The motivated voters are people who want change,”
Jim Creevy, campaign manager for Democratic candidate Ken Lucas,
said just after 1 p.m.
But, despite those early predictions of high voter turnout, change
was apparently not on the agenda in Northern Kentucky.
Republican Geoff Davis’ staff began preparing to declare
victory by 9:30 p.m., despite claims by the Lucas camp that the
race was not over.
After 10 p.m. results showed Davis with a 7-point lead and more
than four-fifths of the ballot counted.
Justin Brasell, Davis’ campaign manager, credited footwork
in the final days as giving them what seemed to be a final push
to victory.
“We had an amazing volunteer effort in the last four or
five days of the campaign,” he said. “Our volunteers
made all of the difference in the world.”
Earlier in the day, before polls closed, volunteers for both Davis
and Lucas went on door-to-door drives to seek last-minute votes.
They employed a number of other 11th-hour methods to win approval
in the ballot booths.
Brasell said Davis’ supporters focused on getting votes
in Kenton and Campbell counties, which he said makes up about
half the population in the 4th District, by waving signs at busy
intersections and having Davis meeting potential voters at shopping
centers.
Meanwhile, Lucas supporters drove through neighborhoods with megaphones
urging voters to turn out.
Libertarian candidate Brian Houllion took a grassroots, albeit
21st Century-style, approach to targeting voters by sending e-mails
to supporters and relying on word of mouth.
He said his campaign could not compete with the two major parties
in fund raising.
But Houillion, who garnered about 5 percent of the vote, called
his campaign successful.
“I definitely see it as a victory,” he said, noting
that the total was three times higher than a third-party candidate
had collected in the district in at least the past decade. “That’s
sending a message that people are tired and it’s going to
keep on growing.”
In the race for the 61st District state House seat, incumbent
Democrat Royce Adams, seeking his eighth term in Frankfort, led
Republican challenger Pamela Ervin Mann by nearly 40 percentage
points with most of the voted counted by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night.
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