Lunsford takes aim at oil companies' profits

PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) _ Democrat Bruce Lunsford, a one-time corporate executive, touted a blue-collar message Friday by criticizing massive oil company profits in front of a sympathetic pro-union crowd.

Warming up for his first face-to-face campaign confrontation with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday, Lunsford promised a fiesty challenge to the incumbent. Lunsford criticized oil companies for scooping up gargantuan profits while many people struggle to afford gasoline.

"We have never had a time in this country where more of the wealth of the country ... transferred from the middle class of this country to one industry," Lunsford said in speaking to a few hundred people at the West Kentucky Building and Construction Trades luncheon.

Lunsford's criticism follows a McConnell attack claiming the wealthy Democratic businessman has personally profited from investing in oil and has sought campaign money from oil interests.

McConnell also has run ads claiming Lunsford had a hand years ago in helping pass a state law that has led to periodic increases in the state fuel tax.

"If Bruce were truly interested in helping Kentucky's working families, he would alter his position of support for higher gas taxes," McConnell campaign manager Justin Brasell said.

Lunsford's campaign fired back by claiming McConnell invested in a mutual fund that includes oil stock and has taken huge sums in campaign donations from oil interests. Lunsford said gas prices have risen $2.50 per gallon since McConnell started his fourth term nearly six years ago.

Taking note of Lunsford's audience, Brasell also accused the challenger of siding with "labor union bosses" to try to take away workers' right to secret ballots in union elections. Brasell said such a proposal would "go against one of the fundamentals of our democracy."

McConnell has led efforts to block legislation that would have allowed labor organizations to unionize workplaces without secret ballot elections.

The back-and-forth jousting was leads up to the candidates' first face-off Saturday at the annual Fancy Farm picnic, the traditional kickoff of Kentucky's fall campaign.

Republicans planned a rally Friday evening as a warm up to the picnic.

Several prominent Democrats took turns swiping at McConnell at the labor luncheon, saying the Kentucky senator has been a chief congressional supporter to President Bush.

Gov. Steve Beshear said that Bush and McConnell, along with other Republicans, have "made a miserable mess" for the country. He said they were to blame for high fuel prices by failing to develop a comprehensive energy policy to make the country more energy self-sufficient.

"They've allowed us to become captive to the Middle East," he said.

Lunsford, who made a fortune running a nursing home and hospital company, reminded the pro-labor audience of his hardscrabble youth that included time without indoor plumbing.

"I love it when the odds are against me," he said. "I'll be a scrapper my entire life, and I'm going to be a scrapper in this campaign."