US Senate candidate takes aim at oil companies' profits
By BRUCE SCHREINER
Associated Press Writer
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) - Democrat Bruce Lunsford, a one-time corporate executive, touted a blue-collar message Friday by criticizing massive oil company profits in front of a sympathetic pro-union crowd.
Warming up for his first face-to-face campaign confrontation with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell today, Lunsford promised a fiesty challenge to the incumbent. Lunsford criticized oil companies for scooping up gargantuan profits while many people struggle to afford gasoline.
“We have never had a time in this country where more of the wealth of the country ... transferred from the middle class of this country to one industry,” Lunsford said in speaking to a few hundred people at the West Kentucky Building and Construction Trades luncheon.
Lunsford's criticism follows a McConnell attack claiming the wealthy Democratic businessman has personally profited from investing in oil and has sought campaign money from oil interests.
McConnell also has run ads claiming Lunsford had a hand years ago in helping pass a state law that has led to periodic increases in the state fuel tax.
“If Bruce were truly interested in helping Kentucky's working families, he would alter his position of support for higher gas taxes,” McConnell campaign manager Justin Brasell said.
Lunsford's campaign fired back by claiming McConnell invested in a mutual fund that includes oil stock and has taken huge sums in campaign donations from oil interests. Lunsford said gas prices have risen $2.50 per gallon since McConnell started his fourth term nearly six years ago.
To read more of this article, pick up a copy of Saturday's Murray Ledger & Times.
Story created Aug 02, 2008 - 00:09:32 EDT.
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