Stumbo is old milk? Cameron’s a child? Attorney general candidates swap insults at Fancy Farm
In their first head-to-head encounter in what is shaping up to be an ugly race, the two candidates for Kentucky’s attorney general used their Fancy Farm political speeches Saturday to add more accusations and insults to it.
Republican Daniel Cameron, a Louisville attorney who was making his first speech at the annual political picnic in Graves County that kicks off the fall’s campaign season, said his Democratic challenger, former attorney general and House speaker Greg Stumbo of Floyd County, represents the “old, Frankfort liberal guard.”
He said Stumbo, who turns 68 Aug. 14, is like milk in a refrigerator for a long time.
“It’s been spoiling for 30 years, and when you open it up, it smells terrible.”
Stumbo told the 33-year-old Cameron, who is seeking his first public office, that the attorney general’s office should always be open to children.
“But, Daniel, we don’t let children run the thing.”
Cameron said after the speeches that he is legally qualified “and old enough” to run for attorney general.
Cameron, if successful in the Nov. 5 general election, would be the first African-American to be Kentucky’s chief law-enforcement official and the first Republican since the 1940s to hold the office.
Backed by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Louisville, who is well-known for tough attacks on political opponents, Cameron claimed Stumbo is for “sanctuary cities” to harbor illegal immigrants and repeatedly blocked pro-life legislation when he was in the House.
Stumbo has said he backed legislation to allow illegal immigrants to get drivers’ licenses as a “law-enforcement tool” to get personal information on such people for police purposes.
He also has said he does not agree with abortion but simply is following the law that allows them.
Cameron noted that he has the support of President Trump, who is popular in Kentucky.
He also referred to Stumbo’s “personal record” that he has been talking about in recent weeks. They include accusations that Stumbo did no pay child support and was charged with drunken driving.
“If Greg Stumbo won’t stand up and be responsible for his own decision,” he should not be elected attorney general, Cameron said.
Stumbo has said no court has ever said he was delinquent in paying child support and that a drunken driving charge was reduced to public intoxication because he was not the driver in the arrest.
Cameron said he wants to warn every “deadbeat dad” and “drunken driver” that “the next attorney general wants a word with you.”
Stumbo reminded the raucous crowd at Fancy Farm that he promised in a speech there 16 years ago that he would fight Kentucky’s opioid problem.
He said he was the first attorney general in the nation to sue drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma.
He also noted that as attorney general he even proved no governor is above the law. He was referring to his leading a grand jury indictment of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher for misusing the state’s Merit System to keep rank-and-file state workers sheltered from politics.
This story was originally published August 3, 2019 at 7:05 PM.