By Dan Modlin/AP
Bowling Green, KY – Republican Congressman Ernie Fletcher defeated
Democratic Attorney General Ben Chandler to become
the first Republican governor in Kentucky since
the early 1970s. Fletcher will leave his sixth district
seat in the U-S House of Representatives to
become governor.
It was a race marked by contrasting strategies.
The Fletcher campaign tried to link Chandler to
the scandals of the Patton administration, while
Democrats tried to link Fletcher to Bush administration
economic policies. Fletcher embraced administration
policies and invited President Bush to campaign on
his behalf.
Fletcher won the race by more than one hundred
thousand votes.