Stumbo battling 'Moscow Mitch's' handpicked candidate

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1350 

Kentucky State AFL-CIO-endorsed Democrat Greg Stumbo says his opponent for attorney general was handpicked by "Moscow Mitch" McConnell. 

In a fund-raising email, Stumbo added that Republican Daniel Cameron is "a Washington lobbyist whose law firm represents the big drug companies, and who will not be constitutionally qualified to hold this office until just weeks before the election."

Stumbo said that the Senate majority leader is all for Cameron, McConnell's former legal counsel, "because he knows that [Cameron] won’t take on his Big Pharma friends." Cameron beat state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville, in the May Republican primary.

In 2015, Andy Beshear defeated Westerfield for attorney general. Also labor endorsed, Beshear is challenging GOP Gov. Matt Bevin.

Before he was House speaker from 2009-2017, Stumbo was attorney general, the latter a post "critically important to protect Kentucky’s children, seniors, veterans and hard-working families," according to the email. 

"As your elected Attorney General fifteen years ago, I led that charge by intervening when utility companies were ripping off our citizens and saved them $143 million, by conducting child predator stings that rounded up and locked away criminals, by establishing the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation that virtually eradicated the illegal online sales of controlled substances, and by being the first Attorney General in the nation to sue a major drug company for causing our devastating opioid crisis," Stumbo said in the email.

"That last note is personal for me because I’ve had to bury members of my own family who fell victim to this opioid crisis. That’s why I started the fight with them when I was first Attorney General, when everyone said it couldn’t be done. It’s why I’ve spent the last several years fighting them in the courtrooms of Kentucky in private law practice. And it’s why I’m back in this fight to be your next Attorney General – to finish what I started.

"We’ve got to win this race for all those families who have been devastated by this crisis. And we can only do that with your help."

Anybody wishing to donate to Stumbo's campaign can click on https://secure.actblue.com/donate/greg-stumbo-for-attorney-general-1. Click here to visit Stumbo's website.