Clooney courts Kentucky voters

BEDFORD, Ky. -- Political newcomer Nick Clooney needed no introduction as he shook hands with people hunched over steaming breakfast plates at the Farmhouse restaurant.

The 69-year-old congressional candidate has instant recognition in northern Kentucky from his days as a Cincinnati television news anchor.

It doesn't hurt that he's also the father of actor George Clooney, the brother of the late singer-actress Rosemary Clooney, a columnist for The Cincinnati Post for 15 years and a former host on the cable network American Movie Classics. The silver-haired candidate greeted people with his smooth, baritone voice at the small cafe.

His wife, Nina, also chatted up customers.

"I've been doing this all my life," Clooney said later. "You start off talking to make them feel a little more comfortable. And then you shut up. And then they start really telling you stuff."

They told him about health care, the decline of tobacco and an Ohio River bridge up the road that they want replaced.

Clooney is so far the only Democrat in the race for the seat held by Kentucky's lone Democratic congressman, Ken Lucas, who is retiring and recruited Clooney.

But Clooney faces a tough fight. Lucas was the first Democrat in three decades to represent the conservative district that snakes along the Ohio River from the West Virginia line nearly to Louisville and takes in much of the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati.

Two Republicans are running -- Geoff Davis, a Boone County business consultant who lost to Lucas in 2002, and Kevin Murphy, an Erlanger attorney.

President Bush is popular in the district, and Republicans are expected to pour money into the race.

Clooney's inexperience also could play a role, said Michael Baranowski, a Northern Kentucky University political science professor, who considers Davis the front-runner.

"Like all first-time candidates in a race that's going to be high profile, he's going to make some mistakes," Baranowski said. "And he doesn't have much margin for error."

Clooney calls himself a "common sense Democrat" and stresses health care, jobs, veterans issues and a proposed buyout of farmers' federal tobacco growing quotas.

He believes the Bush tax cuts just created a huge deficit and says he would focus tax cuts on those in need. "Why are we continuing to empower those who don't need our help, and not empower, more, those who do?" Clooney said.

He was an early critic of the war in Iraq, though he says the Bush administration must now finish the job and establish democracy. "I didn't think we had reason enough to send 300,000 kids over there in harm's way without enough evidence of the weapons of mass destruction being there," Clooney said.

Clooney said his son's role in the campaign would likely consist of limited public appearances, but said George would "win by acclamation" if his name were on the ballot.

Murphy thinks otherwise.

"If Mr. Clooney decides to make his son an issue in the campaign, he will have to live with the positions and the statements of his son, who has succumbed to the Hollywood liberalism that is very far removed from Midwest values," Murphy said.

Davis, who has campaigned almost nonstop since losing to Lucas, discounts his opponent's connections to the entertainment world.

"I think the celebrity candidacies can be overplayed," he said.