‘Fear-mongering.’ Cameron says Stumbo would help ‘illegals’ sell ‘Mexican meth’ in KY
In a scathing new television ad, Republican nominee for attorney general Daniel Cameron accuses Greg Stumbo, his Democratic opponent, of supporting “criminals and drugs pouring over the border” so that “illegals” can peddle “Mexican meth” in Kentucky, a charge Stumbo says is both racist and inaccurate.
Cameron’s 30-second spot, titled “Mexican Meth,” debuted this week, his second successive attack ad hitting Stumbo. With stark black-and-white imagery, it warns about Mexican drug cartels selling their illegal product in the United States, and then it flashes a picture of the Democratic presidential candidates on stage.
“National Democrats scream, ‘Let them in!’ And Greg Stumbo agrees, sponsoring legislation to give illegals a Kentucky driver’s license,” the narrator says in the ad. “We can’t let Stumbo turn Kentucky into a sanctuary state.”
The election is Nov. 5.
In response to the ad, Stumbo said this week that he has never agreed with anyone screaming “Let them in!” when referring to either drug dealers or undocumented immigrants.
“This is one of several lies packed into Mr Cameron’s ad,” said Stumbo, a former attorney general and Kentucky House speaker. “I oppose ‘open border’ policies, and we challenge Mr. Cameron to provide evidence to the contrary. Also, it’s typical Republican fear-mongering. Kentucky is not a sanctuary state, and we have no sanctuary cities. Period.”
Stumbo said he’s offended by the allegation that he would help anyone sell illegal drugs in Kentucky.
“I have been a leader in the fight against drugs at every level,” he said. “As a legislator, I helped lead the effort to stop the spread of meth labs and toughened laws against fentanyl. As attorney general, I was the first A.G. in the nation to sue Purdue Pharma.”
The legislation to which the ad refers is House Bill 396, which Stumbo co-sponsored in the 2013 General Assembly.
It would have created a new “certificate for driving” for adults who lived in Kentucky at least three years and could not prove U.S. citizenship. The certificate would have looked different than a Kentucky driver’s license and, unlike a driver’s license, it could not have been used to prove identification. Applicants would have been required to pass the state driving test and maintain car insurance.
The bill’s supporters said it would get thousands of undocumented immigrants already driving in Kentucky to learn the rules of the road and insure their vehicles for liability in case of crashes. It also would have created a database of immigrants’ names and addresses for local and state police, although that could not be used for immigration enforcement. The House Transportation Committee passed the bill, but it never was called for a vote on the House floor.
On the subject of immigration, Stumbo for years led a push in Frankfort by House Democrats to require employers to confirm the legal status of their workers through the E-Verify web-based system. Those measures died in the Republican-led Senate, where business groups lobbied against it. The Senate preferred immigration bills targeting individuals with penalties rather than their employers.
Cameron’s ad is an attempt to play on racial prejudices among Kentuckians who fear people different from them, said Al Cross, a University of Kentucky journalism professor and political commentator.
“It’s a classic use of scare tactics to mislead voters,” Cross said.
“I suspect it’s going to be useful for Daniel Cameron because the anti-immigration message appears to have been successful this year for (Gov. Matt) Bevin in his campaign,” Cross said. “It’s because hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky don’t know a person of color. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion breeds hate.”
Asked to explain the ad, Cameron campaign manager Nicholas Weinstein on Wednesday said: “Stumbo wants to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses. Daniel Cameron doesn’t.”
“The state is awash in illegal drugs being trafficked in from Mexico,” Weinstein said. “These are facts, not conjecture. Ask the State FOP (Fraternal Order of Police), who has endorsed Daniel over Stumbo.”
A protégé of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is a master of brutal political tactics, Cameron has run a relentlessly negative campaign against his opponents this year.
Cameron and an outside group allied with McConnell repeatedly attacked his Republican primary opponent, state Sen. Wil Schroder, in a series of ads, mailers and phone calls that accused Schroder of being a phony Republican who is untrustworthy and only pretended to care about conservative causes.
For the general election, Cameron and another outside GOP group simply shifted their fire to the left and began pummeling Stumbo — or “Scumbo,” as some ads refer to him. A TV spot released last week, called “Dirty Bird,” mocked Stumbo for having a “secret million dollar pension” while the Teachers’ Retirement System of Kentucky was under-funded by legislators.
As previously reported in the Herald-Leader, Stumbo collects an annual state pension of $77,196 based on his time in the Kentucky House and the attorney general’s office.
This story was originally published October 23, 2019 at 11:32 AM.
