Comer makes campaign stop in Williamsburg, addresses allegations as ‘dirty politics’

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, a Republican candidate for Kentucky governor, spoke last week to a group in Williamsburg.

Republican gubernatorial candidate James T. Comer told a group of Whitley County residents Friday afternoon that recent allegations of him assaulting a former girlfriend while in college are false and dirty politicing by one of his opponents that has backfired on them.

"We are trending in the right direction. The people of Kentucky are disgusted by the negative campaign tactics that have taken place by some of these campaigns," Comer told about 75 people, who turned out Friday afternoon at the Williamsburg Tourism and Convention Center for his campaign rally.

"I appreciate your attendance here today. It means more than you will ever know. Right now we are in crunch time," Comer said. "Over the last two days we have been in about 14 very important Republican counties and we have all the momentum."

During his address, Comer referenced a May 5 story in the Louisville Courier Journal that he called "the worst story that has ever been written in the history of Kentucky politics."

The story focused on allegations that Comer allegedly abused his former college girlfriend and drove her to a medical clinic for an abortion in 1991.

"Let me tell you that was not true. I think we have proven that over the past five days," Comer said. "There is nothing in that story other than the fact that I did know that person in college that was true."

On the afternoon of May 5, Comer and his wife held a 26-minute press conference to refute the story.

Comer called it a difficult day and said very few people would have felt like a politician could overcome a story like that but he has.

"After that press conference, we started getting calls and messages and e-mails from all over the state showing support," Comer said.

On May 6, the Republican gubernatorial candidates attended the Kentucky Sports Radio debate where Comer answered questions about the allegations.

Then the moderator directed questions toward one of Comer’s three opponents, Louisville businessman Hal Heiner, asking if his campaign was responsible for any of the allegations or spreading them, which Heiner denied.

The moderator then went to candidate Matt Beavin, who accused Heiner of lying and said Heiner personally told him before he got into the race that his campaign had stuff on Comer and planned to use it if Comer became a threat.

Since that debate, Comer said his campaign has surged because the "stunt" as he referred to it backfired, and he has been drawing big crowds with lots of locally elected officials in attendance since that time.

"The bad part of this election is negative ads work or they wouldn’t keep spending money on them. Negative ads suppress turnout and these stories in the news suppress turnout," Comer said.

Comer estimates that the voter turnout for the May 19 Primary Election next Tuesday will be 12 percent, which means that 55,000 votes should win the primary election.

"Whitley County can play a huge role for me in this election. Every person in this room and your circle of influence will have a significant impact on the outcome of Whitley County and surrounding counties," Comer said.

"Every member of your family, every person you go to church with, every person that you are friends with, if you can reach out to them and try to get them to the poll on May 19 that will have a significant impact on this election."

Comer, who is a Monroe County native, described his home county as being a lot like Whitley County only smaller.

"We are on the Tennessee state line. We are a Republican county. We are a rural county," Comer said. "We have a lot of agriculture and a lot of hard working blue collar people.

"The problems that we have in counties like Monroe and Whitley is we educate our young people. They go to college or technical school, but then they can’t ever come back home because we don’t have as many opportunities in a lot of these rural counties that they have in other states or bigger cities. I want to change that."

Comer is a Western Kentucky University graduate, who owns one of the biggest farming operations in south central Kentucky.
Comer, a former chamber of commerce president in his home town, served as state representative for 11 years before being elected as state agriculture commissioner four years ago.

During his years as a legislator Comer said he learned a lot about state government, such as things a governor needs to know to pass legislation through the Kentucky General Assembly.

Comer said some of his top priorities as governor will be to improve the business climate, improve public education and reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses, but he noted all of those things will have to be approved by the General Assembly.

"I have the relationships in the General Assembly to be able to pass a bold agenda to be able to move Kentucky forward, and to make government more competitive and to make our business climate more competitive," Comer said.

Comer said his administration will be focused on growing the middle class, which he calls the "backbone of Kentucky and the backbone of America."

While most of his opponents are financing their own campaigns, Comer noted his campaign has raised $2,250,000 so far in addition to over $1 million raised for a political action committee that is supporting his campaign.

Comer said this is significantly more than former Gov. Ernie Fletcher raised the first time he ran for governor and three times what incumbent Gov. Steve Beshear raised in his first primary eight years ago.

During Friday’s rally, Comer recognized the importance of local volunteer firefighters and pledged that as governor he would double the amount of annual state aid to volunteer fire departments, which is about $8,000 per department currently.

"That sounds like a big promise but it is not. The whole state aid for the entire state of Kentucky is just over $6 million. I will put that in my first budget," Comer said. "It is still nowhere near enough to run a volunteer fire department but it is going to significantly help."

Comer said he would pay for the increase by decreasing government spending

At the start of Friday’s rally, Comer was introduced by 82nd Rep. Regina Bunch (R-Williamsburg), who endorsed him for governor, noting Comer has a proven record and has showed us what he can do.

"It is a fact that James Comer has the ability to implement the concept of smaller government," Bunch said. "As Commissioner of Agriculture, he has proven he can cut costs and operate with less efficiently. It is a fact that James Comer gave $1.65 million back to our government and asked for $500,000 less last budget year to operate his department. I can assure you that is unheard of in Frankfort."

Bunch added that Comer is the only frontrunner who is a candidate from a rural area.

"He understands our needs and knows we have been woefully neglected by administration after administration," Bunch added.