Clooney Running on Star Power

MAYSVILLE, Ky. —  With more than a little help from Hollywood, Nick Clooney -- the father of actor George Clooney -- has emerged as an unexpected political force in his home state.

The longtime TV newsman is looking to succeed retiring Rep. Ken Lucas, Kentucky’s lone Democratic congressman. He is running against Geoff Davis, the GOP nominee who lost to Lucas in 2002.

Clooney said that he hadn’t considered politics until Lucas contacted him last year. After discussing the matter with his family and meeting with Lucas several times, Clooney, 70, agreed to run.

“I looked into my heart and decided that it was time for me to give back to my home state and my hometown,” Clooney said during a recent campaign stop here.

The former Los Angeles anchorman and onetime host of American Movie Classics grew up in Maysville -- part of the 4th Congressional District, which stretches along the Ohio River from the border with West Virginia to the Louisville suburbs. Clooney, who had returned to his home state about 30 years ago, was writing a column for the Cincinnati Post and working for a cable channel aimed at older viewers when he agreed to run.

Davis, a 45-year-old business consultant, was raised in Pittsburgh and served in the Army as an assault helicopter flight commander and Ranger. He has lived in the district for about 10 years.

“My 5-year-old son’s been telling everyone: ‘My daddy’s gonna beat Batman’s daddy,’ ” Davis said. “It’d be easier to do so if Clooney wasn’t so well known and didn’t have all that Hollywood money to help him.”

Clooney’s son -- and his own connections -- have helped pull in 120 contributors from the entertainment industry. As of June 30, Clooney had raised about $827,000, with a good chunk coming from the movie industry: Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito and Paul Newman, as well as studio moguls from DreamWorks, Miramax Films, HBO and Universal Studios, have given a total of $170,000 to Clooney’s campaign.

In Maysville, where the Clooney family goes back five generations, the candidate is known as “Nick.” Locals remember the charismatic young man who attended a local Catholic school and left the cheerleaders swooning.

Clooney lives in Augusta, about 20 miles away, but is a regular fixture in the brick-faced shops along Maysville’s four-block downtown.

Women pull out photo albums with pictures of themselves and Clooney’s son. Men talk wistfully of his sister, singing legend Rosemary Clooney.

“The Clooneys are Maysville,” said Mary Ethel Campbell, 75, owner of a small gift shop. “We trust them because they’re one of us.”

Few polls on the race have been published. According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, internal polling done by each side showed Clooney in the lead as of September. Campaign officials for both sides declined to discuss such polls.

Each campaign said its candidate was scrambling to woo undecided voters.

The Republican Party is intent on recapturing the 4th District -- which the GOP had held for more than 30 years until Lucas won the seat in 1998.

Davis has raised more than Clooney, about $1.3 million. Vice President Dick Cheney attended a fundraiser for Davis in June and spent time with donors promoting the businessman’s appeal and the party’s desire to pick up another congressional seat.

“This is a region that’s changing, in part because Cincinnati suburbs are expanding into northern Kentucky. But it’s still a fairly conservative part of the country,” said Laurie Rhodebeck, a professor of political science at the University of Louisville.

The key problems facing the state are ones shared nationwide: skyrocketing healthcare costs, too little money for schools and a painfully high unemployment rate.

Davis’ campaign has been promoting his support of programs that help companies grow and his fight against gun control laws. Clooney has been discussing his effort to preserve veterans’ benefits and ways to create “affordable healthcare for every man, woman and child.”

For undecided voters such as Mary Margaret Weller, healthcare is the issue that will sway her decision at the polls. Her husband, Earl, ran a small company that repaired and built batteries in Covington, Ky., for more than three decades. The firm’s financial health suffered, she said, in part from the rising cost of health insurance.

The 67-year-old retiree had come to Holmes High School to hear the candidates debate. Then word came that Clooney, who was attending a community meeting about 50 miles away, couldn’t make the debate.

The small gathering of local voters grumbled, but Davis and independent candidate Michael Slider carried on, outlining their ideas to cut medical costs. Weller leaned forward, listening intently.

“I know how I’m going to vote now,” Weller said after the debate.

She declined to say who she supported.