All Entries in the "Mike Templeman" Category

Voter’s Guide 2010: Compare the candidates on the issues

• U.S. SENATE: Democrats Candidates were asked to answer each question in 40 words or fewer. Compiled by Jack Brammer.

• U.S. SENATE: Republicans Candidates were asked to answer each question in 40 words or fewer. Compiled by Jack Brammer.

• STATE HOUSE (Fayette County) There are three competitive primaries for state House districts that cover portions of Fayette County. Compiled by Beth Musgrave.

• ON THE BALLOT These are the candidates in state and federal primary races. Also listed are candidates in county and city races in Fayette, Bourbon, Clark, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott and Woodford counties.

• URBAN COUNTY COUNCIL: Council At Large Voters may cast a ballot for three council-at-large candidates. The top six vote-getters will advance. Compiled by Beverly Fortune.

• 6th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Republicans Candidates were asked to answer each question in 40 words or fewer. Compiled by John Cheves.

• LEXINGTON MAYOR Candidates were asked to answer each question in 40 words or fewer. Compiled by Andy Mead. Also: State Senate (Fayette County) can be found at the bottom of the PDF.

6th District GOP candidates debate from same playbook

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

Six Republicans running for Congress in Central Kentucky agreed during a live televised forum Monday that government needs to shrink and get out of the way so entrepreneurs can create jobs.

Candidates for the 6th Congressional District seat talked amiably on Kentucky Tonight on Kentucky Educational Television. The GOP primary is May 18; the winner will face U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, on Nov. 2.

The men criticized President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress for expanding government’s reach and cost through bailouts of failed corporations and the recent health-care reform law.

Garland Hale “Andy” Barr IV, 36, a Lexington lawyer, said Congress could enact market-based health-care improvements, such as promoting high-deductible health-savings accounts.

Mike Templeman, 63, a retired coal executive in Frankfort, said the federal government shouldn’t play any role in health care, given the poor record of Medicare and Medicaid. The states can decide how to provide better access to health care for their residents, he said.

“We have turned so many things over to our government, and they have sent so many unfunded mandates back to us,” Templeman said.

Barr releases his first ad in race for 6th district seat

Republican Andy Barr’s campaign for the 6th Congressional District released its first television ad of the campaign on Wednesday.

In the 30-second spot, Barr proclaims his intention to trim government spending.

“Career politicians in Washington are bankrupting our country with runaway government spending, trillion dollar bailouts and mountains of debt,” Barr says in the ad. “I’ll stop the career politicians from wasting money we don’t have on government programs we don’t need.”

Barr does not say what specific programs he would eliminate if elected.

Andy Barr leads among GOP in 6th district

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Lexington lawyer Garland Hale “Andy” Barr IV is the leader in campaign fund-raising among six Central Kentucky Republicans seeking to replace U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, this fall.

The Republican primary is May 18.

Barr raised $411,659 as of March 31, according to the finance report he filed this week with the Federal Election Commission. He had $350,367 cash in hand. Most of that came from individual contributors, 91 percent of whom are Kentuckians, according to the Barr campaign.

“While there are many other important elements of a campaign, a political donation is a strong demonstration of support for a candidate,” Barr said in a statement.

Next in line is Mike Templeman, a retired coal executive in Frankfort, who reported $150,398 raised so far and $72,599 cash in hand. But most of Templeman’s money — $103,500 — comes from contributions and loans from the candidate himself, according to his report. Other individuals and political action committees have given him $46,898.

Andy Barr walking a fine line for Congress

RELATED STORY: Templeman aims to tap voters’ anger

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

Garland Hale Barr IV walks several fine lines as he runs for Congress.

Barr is proud of his work as attorney for former Gov. Ernie Fletcher. He’s also quick to note he wasn’t among the Fletcher aides indicted in an investigation of the administration’s merit-hiring practices, and he counseled ethics.

“I was a voice of compliance within the administration,” Barr, 36, a Republican candidate in the 6th Congressional District, said last week in an interview.

Barr, known as “Andy” to friends, is a lawyer/lobbyist and past congressional staffer but says he would represent a break from the “career politicians” found in Washington.

Barr tells anti-government Tea Party activists he wants 12-year term limits and a ban on “pork barrel projects” to dislodge entrenched congressmen. But he said he wouldn’t hold Kentucky’s senior Republican lawmakers, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, with 54 years in Congress and billions of dollars in earmarked spending between them, to those standards.

Based on his political support and campaign fund-raising reported so far ($305,422, with new finance reports due next week), Barr arguably leads the six 6th District candidates in the May 18 GOP primary. The winner faces U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, on Nov. 2.

Templeman aims to tap voters’ anger

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Retired coal executive Mike Templeman is running for Congress with no apologies for a career that includes bankruptcies, debt lawsuits, unpaid taxes and environmental messes left by his strip-mining companies in Appalachia.

Until this month, there was a pending criminal summons for Templeman in Franklin District Court. He faced a contempt-of-court charge for skipping a 2009 hearing about an old, boarded-up house he’s allowing to deteriorate, to the dismay of Frankfort officials who want him to repair it.

After the Herald-Leader asked him about the summons, his attorney arranged for it to be recalled. A new hearing is set for March 30.

Templeman, 62, says voters this year are angry enough to elect someone like him who fights the government.

“You send me to Congress and I’ve had all these life experiences,” said Templeman, one of six Republicans competing in the May 18 primary to challenge U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, in November. Chandler has no Democratic opponent.

“I’ve had some successes and I’ve had some failures,” Templeman said in a recent interview at his hilltop farm overlooking the state Capitol. “I think that’s what we need in Washington. I think your failures can educate you more than your successes.”

GOP House candidates rally in Lexington

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

Ahead in recent polls, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul came to Lexington Friday to share the spotlight with five men who want to replace U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles.

Paul and the GOP congressional candidates staged a lunchtime “Take Back the House” rally outside Chandler’s district office on Beaumont Centre Circle.

Paul, who faces Secretary of State Trey Grayson in the May 18 Republican primary, told a crowd of about 100 people that the Tea Party movement is a tidal wave that will sweep incumbents out of Congress in November.

“We want to spread the love to all the Republican candidates running against Ben Chandler,” Paul said.

Each GOP candidate for the 6th Congressional District spoke for a few minutes. The only candidate who didn’t attend was Andy Barr of Lexington.

Mike Templeman of Frankfort said Congress has spent the country so deeply into debt that the next two generations of Americans will be hobbled. A career politician, Chandler is part of the problem, Templeman said.

“It is time for him to come home. He has never had a job. He has never got his hands dirty,” Templeman said.

Paul plans ‘Take Back the House’ rally in Lexington

FRANKFORT — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul will hold a rally at noon Friday in front of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler’s Lexington office to encourage Kentuckians to elect GOP candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The “Take Back the House” rally will be held at 1010 Monarch St. in Lexington, said Paul campaign manager David Adams.

Adams said Paul will attend the rally but will not be endorsing any specific Republican candidate in the May 18 primary election.

Six Republicans have filed to run against Democratic incumbent Chandler. They are Perry Wilson Barnes, Andy Barr, John T. Kemper III, Matt Lockert, George Pendergrass and Mike Templeman.

–Jack Brammer

Kentuckians defend Toyota, blast Congressional hearings

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — Members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation and candidates seeking election this year strongly defended Toyota Wednesday – the second day of hearings focused on the company’s handling of safety issues.

Some of the Kentucky candidates were highly critical of the U.S. House hearings in the wake of Toyota’s massive recall and increased federal scrutiny following widespread consumer complaints about acceleration problems.

Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, whose 6th Congressional District includes Toyota’s largest assembly plant in North America, defended workers at the Georgetown plant, which employs 7,000.

“Just last week I spent the afternoon at the Georgetown plant meeting with a large group of Toyota employees, the people making the actual repairs, and the managers to hear their thoughts and concerns about the recall,” Chandler said.

“The people who work there are my friends and neighbors, and I am proud of the work they do. I’ll do what I can to advocate for Georgetown’s Toyota employees, and I look forward to Toyota’s strong presence in Central Kentucky far into the future.”

But Republican Andy Barr, who is seeking Chandler’s seat, was highly critical of Chandler and other Democrats in Congress.

Templeman launches first ad in 6th Congressional District race

Republican Mike Templeman is kicking off his advertising campaign to capture Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District seat with a TV spot that that promises “our best days lay ahead.”

The 30-second spot will begin airing Thursday, said campaign manager Jonathan Barger. He declined to say how much the campaign is spending to air the ad, what TV stations it will appear on or how long it will run.

The ad, which Templeman narrates, starts by declaring that Washington is broken and that politicians “stand in the way of progress.”

“People are sending a message to Washington that they want change,” he says. “They want the government to stop spending and they want the number one priority to be to get our people back to work.”

Templeman, who retired last September as chief executive officer of Energy Coal Resources and now owns a farm in Franklin County, does not identify himself as a Republican but promises “conservative leadership.”