Joseph Gerth

Opinion Columnist | Louisville Courier Journal

If the Democratic frontrunner for U.S. Senate wants to compete with Rand Paul on the debate stage leading up to the November election, he’d better hone his skills.

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray hemmed and hawed and “jobs, jobs, jobs” his way through a debate on WHAS-11 on Tuesday but didn’t give any real insight as to who he is or what he stands for.

He arguably finished third in the debate behind former Frankfort City Commissioner Sellus Wilder, who is by far the smoothest of any of the candidates running, and former Green Beret Ron Leach, who oozes authenticity.

Gray got the frontrunner status because he has won past elections and because he has money. Not a little money. A lot of it.

He’s raised more than $700,000 for his campaign and he’s loaned his campaign a cool $1 million. There’s more where that came from.

Wilder, as of March 31, hadn’t cracked $40,000 and Leach had barely crossed $10,000.

None of the other three candidates – Rory Houlihan, Jeff Kender and Tom Recktenwald – have raised any money, according to the Federal Election Commission website.

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Gray went up on the air Friday with a biographical ad that explains how he and his brothers grew the family business from a relatively small construction firm to one with over a billion dollars in revenue in a year. The company builds huge industrial plants around the country and really got its break when it was hired to build the Toyota Manufacturing facility in Georgetown.

The idea behind Gray's first ad is that he’ll take that business approach to Washington.

His message in last week’s debate was all about that also. When asked for one word to describe the most important issue in the campaign, he said, “Jobs, jobs and jobs.”

Opening statement? Jobs.

Why can you beat Rand Paul? Jobs.

How do you differentiate yourself from national Democrats? Jobs.

You get the picture.

One friend sent me a couple of texts saying, “Jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs … One-trick pony.”

Why are you running? Jobs.

How do you address the debt? Jobs.

How will you get things done? Jobs.

Successful politicians try to stay on message. We get that. But if a candidate defaults to the same answer every time he’s asked a question, folks might start to wonder about abilities beyond that.

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The debate format – an hour long and with six candidates on stage – didn't give an opportunity for long, drawn out discussions, but Leach found a way to mention that he believes that he is the only candidate who can compete with Paul on issues that deal with the military and foreign affairs.

Wilder shoe-horned in that he believes there are ways to cut the nation's military budget while not harming the county's readiness and also made an argument for the party to choose a true progressive candidate to challenge Paul, noting that Democrats who have been afraid to embrace the party's base have fared poorly.

Paul, who was a good debater when he won the election in 2010 and could talk on a variety of issues, has only improved his skills in the nationally-televised GOP presidential debates he took part in before dropping out of that race in February.

If Gray wants to stand toe-to-toe with Paul, he’s going to have to improve his rhetorical skills and show he’s got the chops to talk about a variety of issues.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or jgerth@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Gerth.