By Stu Johnson/KPR
Lexington, KY – Lexington attorney Gatewood Galbraith is making his fifth attempt at the state's highest office. Although never a true contender in the past, the independent candidate thinks this year is different. Galbraith's confident of moving ahead of Republican David Williams. Williams and incumbent Democrat Steve Beshear are establishment candidate, so , Galbraith hopes to win support from voters who still want to kick out the political establishment.'
"We own social media. Facebook and e-mail, we're all over that. Between Dea and I, we have probably about 20 thousand friends on facebook, on all the pages we have up there," said Galbraith.
Dea Riley, who's a marketer, is Galbraith's running mate. The Galbraith-Riley ticket has no plans to air television advertisements this fall. Some polls show Governor Beshear with a double digit leads over his opponents.
The independent candidate says educational subsidies would help to get more Kentuckians into jobs. Galbraith has long promoted a plan to issue five thousand dollar vouchers to students for books, tuition, and fees.
"It's time we starting talking about further education for everybody, not just higher education for a few. We need to train our c and d students into employability too, or else they're gonna be a drag on us all," explained Galbraith.
Galbraith doesn't view his admission of using and promoting marijuana as a medicine as a political liability. The Lexington lawyer and five-time gubernatorial candidate says any connection to pot may well have been a factor in years past, but not today. Galbraith believes it's just not a make or break issue in 2011.
"I have people come up to me all the time and say, you know Gatewood, I don't agree with you on that marijuana thing, but you got my vote. We disagree on the marijuana thing, but you got my vote. I bet you can't guess what I disagree with you Gatewood, but you got my vote," added Galbraith.
Galbraith expects the race to tighten significantly in the last few weeks of the campaign.
