Fischer faces uphill climb for Senate - Newcomer to Elections Shows “A kind of quiet strength”
Fischer faces uphill climb for Senate
NEWCOMER TO ELECTIONS SHOWS ‘A KIND OF QUIET STRENGTH’
By Greg Kocher
Herald-Leader
Louisville businessman Greg Fischer had to make a sensitive decision.
At the conclusion of the Christian County Democratic Women’s Club meeting Monday night, the candidate for U.S. Senate was asked to judge a Derby hat contest. About a half-dozen women had worn fancy hats to the meeting, including one sporting a Fischer campaign sticker.
Fischer was somewhat taken aback about being put in what he called “a tight spot.” After all, this was a crowd whose support he needed, and the relatively unknown, first-time candidate couldn’t afford to offend with a poor choice that would be embarrassing or, at worst, could cost votes.
But thinking on his feet, Fischer enlisted the crowd to help in his selections. He put his hand above each contestant, and judged from the audience applause who should receive recognition. Everyone seemed pleased by his adroitness, including the third-place winner whose chapeau had the campaign sticker.
A bigger audience on May 20 will decide whether Fischer, Louisville businessman Bruce Lunsford, or one of five other candidates should be the Democratic nominee for U.S. senator. The winner will face Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who is seeking his fifth six-year term, in the November general election.
Those who attended the chicken dinner in Hopkinsville said they were impressed by Fischer’s command of words and issues.
He said U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq; expressed support for universal health care; and wondered why the federal government hasn’t done more to wean the country off foreign oil. Listeners liked what they saw and heard.
“I think he has a kind of quiet strength,” said Gary McIntyre, superintendent of Hopkinsville Parks & Recreation. “He came across as very measured, knew what he wanted to say, and he said it well.”
Fischer has never run for elected office before, and he has an uphill battle in the race with Lunsford, who has name recognition from his 2003 and 2007 primary races for governor. Earlier this week, a SurveyUSA Poll showed Fischer with 22 percent of likely voters, compared to 41 percent for Lunsford.
But even if he were to defeat Lunsford in the primary, some wonder: Does Fischer have the stamina and political skill to fend off McConnell’s anticipated attacks?
“That’s yet to be seen. I would like to see him be more aggressive,” said Fischer supporter Walter “Dee” Huddleston of Elizabethtown, the former U.S. senator whom McConnell defeated in 1984. “But who knows? Different styles sometimes work better than the old styles.”
Fischer deflects this line of inquiry. The question to ask, he said, is whether people are happy with the way the country is headed, and he sees McConnell and President Bush as “Velcroed together.”
“The majority of Kentuckians that I speak to are not happy with the way things are going,” Fischer said. “I’m troubled by how we’ve drifted off course from what I see the real America being.”
Most prominent Democrats agree with Fischer’s assessment of McConnell, but many also think Fischer’s campaign has veered off track.
Congressman John Yarmuth, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo and others took issue with a Fischer campaign ad that brought up past problems of companies founded by Lunsford. The ad specifically mentions improper billing to Medicare and Medicaid by Lunsford’s nursing home companies.
Fischer refused to stop running the ad, despite pleas that attacking a fellow Democrat only helps McConnell in the fall.
The ad also drew criticism from former Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. Fischer’s father, George Fischer, was Executive Cabinet Secretary in the Brown administration, and Lunsford was Brown’s Commerce Secretary.
Brown said he isn’t taking a position in the race between Fischer and Lunsford (although the former governor’s son, former Kentucky Secretary of State John Y. Brown III, endorses Lunsford). But former governor Brown said he was disappointed in the ad, which he said “was in bad taste.”
“So many people take the approach, well, do what you have to do to win. That’s not the way to get along in life,” Brown said.
Fischer said he approved the ad because the campaign was “having a hard time engaging Lunsford in any type of debate. ... He was running as if he did not have a past. ... So we felt like it was necessary to make that an issue in the campaign.”
Fischer, 50, was born in Louisville and graduated from Trinity High School in 1976. Four years later, he graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he majored in economics. He paid for college by tarring roofs and, following his sophomore year, he operated a crane unloading salmon boats in Kodiak, Alaska.
“A short week was 80 hours a week,” Fischer told a gathering of Madisonville Democrats. “That was preparation to run for political office.”
When he was 25, he co-invented the combination ice-beverage dispenser. From that invention he created a small business, SerVend, that eventually became an international company. SerVend was sold to Manitowoc Co. Inc. for $73 million in 1997.
Today, Fischer is chief executive officer of Dant Clayton Corp., which designs, manufactures and installs outdoor stadium bleachers. For example, the company made the end-zone bleachers for the University of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Stadium.
Dant Clayton pays Fischer $171,786 a year, according to his Senate financial disclosure statement. The same documents show Fischer having total assets of between $7 million and about $25 million.
Fischer lent his campaign more than $510,000 and had total receipts of more than $1 million, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission for the period ending March 31.
He wouldn’t say how much of his own money he’s willing to spend.
“To me, this is not about writing a big check,” he said. “… I don’t believe one big check is going to win a race anyway. You’ve got to have a lot of people behind you.”
Greg Fischer
Party: Democrat
Born: Jan. 14, 1958
Residence: Louisville
Occupation: Chief executive officer of Dant Clayton Corp., which designs, manufactures and installs aluminum bleachers, stadiums and grandstands; founder and chairman of Iceberg Ventures, a Louisville investment firm.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University.
Family: Wife, Alexandra; four children.
Public office: None.
Web site: http://www.gregfischer.com.
Why he says he’s the best candidate: “I’m not a pontificator. I’m a doer. I’ve never needed the limelight to say ‘Hey, I’m a great guy.’ I watch actions, not lips.”
