Post-debate details: Lunsford joined by five Governors, more on recorder incident

GILBERTSVILLE - Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford came into the site of his morning debate with U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) backed by four former Kentucky Governors and current Gov. Steve Beshear (D-Lexington). The five joined Lunsford for a post-debate press briefing and fired off praise for the Democrat and condemnation for McConnell.

"I think this whole debate made one thing very clear," said Beshear. "This is an election between the past, represented by Mitch McConnell, and the future, represented by Bruce Lunsford."

Beshear was joined by former Democratic Govs. John Y Brown, Jr., Martha Layne Collins, Paul Patton and Julian Carroll, who currently serves as a state Sen. from Paducah.

Brown was pulled into the Senate race's narrative early, when Lunsford was targeted in a McConnell ad for his association with the Brown administration's work in the early 1980s on changing the state gas tax structure. Lunsford served as a legislative liaison and Secretary of Commerce in Brown's administration.

Brown today said the gas tax attack on Lunsford was a distortion.

"It was a total lie and distortion about the gas tax," said Brown.

 "I hardly knew him," he added of Lunsford. "But, he got a million and a half dollars worth of credit for raising the gas tax in Kentucky. That's the style and tactics of Mitch McConnell."

In the aftermath of today's final Senate debate, Brown also targeted McConnell for not participating in any debates that would be televised statewide.

"He's not a man if he cannot stand up and debate on statewide television," charged Brown.

The event today in Gilbertsville occurred at a conference center in a state park in the rural western reaches of the Commonwealth. Tickets to the event were sold by the Paducah Sun newspaper, for $20 per person.

After McConnell's campaign declined an invitation to participate in televised debates sponsored by Kentucky Educational Television and the League of Women Voters, KET rejected a request from the McConnell camp to broadcast today's event. A spokesperson from the network said it only aired debates it produced.

"This is a closed-in house party," said Brown of this morning's event.

Carroll also chimed in later, adding some words for voters in western Kentucky, which he said was one of the swing areas of the state in the race.

Concerning McConnell, the former Governor said "My west Kentucky friends need to understand he has, in these 24 years, lost his vision as being a representative in Kentucky."

"His vision now is one as a money raiser for the Republican Party, to elect Republicans all over the United States as well as Kentucky," Carroll told PolitickerKY.com. "That's his primary role. His role is no longer representing west Kentucky and Kentucky. He's now worthless to Kentucky as a representative."

Lunsford got in some of his own post-debate spin as well, pointing to his powerful entourage and comparing it to McConnell's.

Calling himself a "consensus builder" and noting his business and government experience, Lunsford said "You don't see a cadre of people in the state in leadership here today with Senator McConnell because he doesn't work with people like I do."

Digital recorder details

McConnell did have one powerful ally with him in state Sen. President David Williams (R-Burkesville). Williams made the biggest post-debate headlines today after he held an impromptu press briefing concerning an incident with a digital recorder.

A recorder left on stage by an NRSC staffer was picked up by Lunsford and given to a staffer on his own campaign, according to the Lunsford camp.

The NRSC staffer, Richard St. Onge, said he asked for the device back from the Democrat's camp but was turned down.

When the device was retrieved by a member of the Marshall County Police Department shortly thereafter, the McConnell campaign and St. Onge said recordings on the device were deleted.

Several new details have emerged since PolitickerKY.com initially ran this story.

St. Onge is said to have subsequently filed charges against Lunsford and his consultant, Achim Bergmann, on charges of petty larceny and destruction of property, related to the deletion of the recordings.

Bergmann told Polwatchers he never touched the recorder and the charges against he and Lunsford were "ludicrous" and a "distraction."

While Bergmann initially said he did not know anything was erased from the device, he reportedly said he had since learned someone on Lunsford's staff erased the recording of the debate. Bergmann said this occurred as the device had been placed on Lunsford's podium, claiming this was a violation of debate rules.

The McConnell campaign earlier stated they were unsure of the location of the recorder during the debate. There had been some suggestion it was left on the moderator's podium, but the moderator said this was not the case, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.