Terri Whitehouse November 15th, 2007

Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer’s Owen Covington reports the following (no link; subscription only):

When state Sen. David Boswell wanted to test the waters this summer for a possible run for Congress, he distributed 1,000 bumper stickers with “Boswell ‘08″ around Kentucky’s 2nd District.

Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat who serves in the Kentucky Senate, was looking to “kick up the dust,” and some of the stickers made their way to bumpers as voters voiced their support for his potential candidacy.

…

But in recent weeks, “Boswell ‘08″ bumper stickers of a different breed have been appearing in Daviess County.

Yellow and black stickers containing eight different messages questioning Boswell’s possible candidacy have been sent by mail to local elected officials, business leaders and the Messenger-Inquirer.

The bumper stickers have arrived in a plain white envelope with no return address and no indication from where or by whom they have been sent.

The mock campaign stickers peg Boswell as a frequent candidate for different offices despite the fact Boswell has not run for any other office since joining the state Senate in 1991.

…

Boswell said he has not seen the bumper stickers but has heard about them and has decided that someone must be trying to scare him away from running for Congress next year.

“That is an underhanded campaign tactic,” Boswell said. “Apparently someone’s afraid of what I’m looking at doing here.”

…

If Boswell puts his hat in the ring with a congressional run next spring, he would be challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, a Cecilia Republican first elected to Congress in 1994.

Daniel London, the congressman’s chief of staff, said Lewis had nothing to do with the bumper stickers being made or circulated but had heard about them.

The Kentucky Republican Party is not behind the bumper stickers, according to state party President Steve Robertson, who said he hadn’t heard about the stickers until he was contacted by a reporter.

Joe Lowe, chairman of the Daviess County Republican Party, also said the stickers were not produced or distributed by the county party.

The fact that the stickers were sent without any indication of who sent them or where they were coming from makes it “kind of a chicken way to do things,” Lowe said.

…

The stickers appear to have been sent primarily to Daviess County residents, but Jeremy Edge, an Owensboro resident who is active in Democratic politics, said he had heard they were sent to people in Bowling Green, too.

Seriously. Don’t people have better things to do, like pass notes in study hall or something?

• 2008 Second CD Race , David Boswell
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