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Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009

Another tape of Mongiardo surfaces

FRANKFORT — Another anonymous audio taping of Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo has popped up on YouTube, the third since last month in which Mongiardo speaks ill of his boss, Gov. Steve Beshear.

On the latest taping, Mongiardo said people he calls around the state first want to "yell" about Beshear.

He said his relationship with the governor is like "being married to a whore. What can you do?"

Mongiardo's campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2010 has said the anonymous tapings have been heavily edited, but has not denied their veracity.

Beshear has dismissed the tapings as "political shenanigans," and said he thinks editing took Mongiardo's words out of context. The governor maintains his support for Mongiardo in the U.S. Senate race.

In the latest taping, Mongiardo also mentions the work of Dick Prelopski as his campaign's director of field operations.

Prelopski resigned as an executive director in the Beshear administration's Department for Local Government on June 30 to join the Mongiardo campaign.

The Courier-Journal reported last week that Prelopski was involved in asking Mongiardo supporters for names of candidates for board appointments by Beshear. Prelopski said he was helping the administration find applicants for jobs that can be hard to fill.

The campaign of Jack Conway, Mongiardo's chief rival in next May's Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate, said the request by Prelopski was troubling.

In an earlier taping, Mongiardo voiced concern about Beshear's efforts to raise money for his 2011 re-election campaign while Mongiardo tries to raise money for his bid for the U.S. Senate.

In another, Mongiardo said he was concerned about the Beshear administration's decision to get someone else beside Mongiardo to focus on e-health efforts.

The tapings first appeared on a blog that favors Republican Rand Paul's Senate campaign.

The Paul campaign has said it has nothing to do with the tapings.