News Roundup

The change, it had to come for Yarmuth campaign

LEO founder John Yarmuth’s congressional campaign for the 3rd District U.S. House seat currently held by Anne Northup has a new captain — almost. Yarmuth said Monday that a replacement for Dan Borsch, who managed the congressional hopeful’s successful primary bid, has been selected, but his name won’t be revealed until later this week, after he ensures a smooth transition from another campaign he is currently running.
Yarmuth said Borsch’s departure was expected.
“Basically, we had talked for a while prior to the end of the primary, or before the primary, about going forward and how I thought we needed a more experienced campaign manager for the general election, somebody who had run congressional campaigns before, and he had not done it,” he said.
Yarmuth said he and Borsch talked recently, and remain on good terms. Borsch has practiced law in Louisville and made an unsuccessful bid to unseat George Unseld in the Metro Council’s 6th District in 2004. He could not be reached for comment Monday. —Stephen George

Northup challenges Yarmuth ads
If you were worried you’d have to wait through the summer for some real election season action, calm your nerves.
Last Friday, Northup campaign chairman Ted Jackson filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, charging that two radio advertisements Yarmuth’s campaign ran before the May 16 primary improperly indicated who paid for them, as required by federal law.
One ad, featuring former state Rep. Eleanor Jordan, who lost to Northup in 2000, was criticized because at the end, Yarmuth says only that he approves the message, but fails to indicate who paid for it. That version is on the Yarmuth for Congress Web site, but was changed the day after it was completed because local radio stations notified the campaign it failed to meet election law requirements, according to Yarmuth. He said he re-recorded the ending to include the necessary information for radio play, and that the ad never ran, although Northup’s campaign manager, Patrick Neely, contends that it did.
The other spot features Georgia Powers, a Civil Rights activist and the first African American and first woman elected to the Kentucky Senate. At the end, Yarmuth says he “approved and paid for this message,” which Northup’s campaign contends violates the law because it implies Yarmuth paid for the ad himself, not his campaign committee.
“It’s just a matter of fairness,” Neely said in a phone interview Monday. “Every candidate for office has to abide by these rules. We think that John has to abide by the rules too. It appears that he did not.”
Yarmuth said the campaign has spoken with a Washington-based attorney, who called the complaint “super-technical.”
“ complies with the spirit of the law, which says the campaign paid for it as opposed to an independent, unrelated party, which is the intent of the law,” he said Monday.
Two days before the complaint was filed, Yarmuth’s campaign released a poll it commissioned that puts him within one percentage point of Northup. Neely said the Northup campaign has not done any polling yet, and although it plans to, will not comment on or release polls to the public. —Stephen George

Unwanted porn shop update
It was Thanksgiving weekend 2003 when the adult bookstore opened its doors at 8209 Preston Hwy. That’s in Metro Council District 24, represented by Democrat Madonna Flood, who doesn’t particularly care for porn.
Just a month or so after it opened, Cam I, the company that operates the store, was slapped with a Land Development Code violation for running an adult business within 500 feet of a residential zone. It appealed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment, and after a protracted legal battle that lasted more than three years, was ordered to cease operation in a decision that Circuit Court Judge Ann O’Malley Shake handed down last Thursday.
“They’re operating a business in improper zoning,” Flood said Monday, although she conceded she’s ideologically opposed to the concept as well. “My whole issue is that government has a responsibility to protect neighborhoods from secondary effects of the adult entertainment industry.” —Stephen George

LEO scores in SPJ
LEO won 10 awards in the recent Metro Louisville Journalism Awards, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. The awards were for work done in 2005.
First-place awards went to John Yarmuth for column-writing; Stephen George for criticism; Tom Peterson for news feature; Ricky L. Jones for minority affairs; and Paul Kopasz for editorial writing.
Second-place awards went to Yarmuth for editorial writing, Scott Schroering for page design and Bill Doolittle for sportswriting. Third-place awards went to George for feature writing and Geoff Oliver Bugbee for photography. —Staff