Clay official escapes attempt on life; 3 men linked to election fired on (KY)

HEADLINE: Clay official escapes attempt on life; 3 men linked to election fired on

BODY: Clay County Clerk Jennings White said he narrowly avoided death Sunday night as he leaped out of his van, which was shot some 33 times, and tumbled down a 50-foot embankment in what the sheriff in Manchester called an assassination attempt.

White's reported brush with death was accompanied by two other shootings involving a pair of men also connected to the county clerk's race, all within two hours. It was unclear last night whether the incidents were linked.

The alleged attack on White was "an ambush-style attempted murder," said Clay County Sheriff Edd Jordan. "There's no doubt about it, it was politically motivated," he said yesterday. The gunshots came during a bloody primary election season in rural Kentucky. Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron was shot to death at a fish fry last month, and Harlan County sheriff's candidate Paul Browning's body was found in late March, shot in the head and burned beyond recognition.

"I feel good that I can talk to you," White said in an interview yesterday. Other than some bruises he sustained during the fall, he was unharmed, he said.

White, a Republican, said he was late into a night of campaigning Sunday when he turned off Ky. 1524 toward the community of Ashers Fork about 9:30 p.m.

White said he came to a bend in the road where a car was stopped with only its brake lights on. As he slowed to a halt, someone in a vehicle behind him opened fire, he said. He could see only the headlights.

"All I heard was shots. I didn't bother looking to see who was firing," White said.

The gunfire most likely came from at least one high-powered gun, probably an old 7.62-caliber military rifle, Jordan, the sheriff, said.

While there are no suspects yet, Jordan said he has ruled out White's only competition in the clerk's race, Freddy Thompson, also a Republican.

"But I can't say that about his supporters," Jordan said. "It could very well be someone supporting him."

At almost the same time White was allegedly attacked, another man, Bill Phillips, was shot several times on Ky. 80 outside Manchester when he had pulled off the road to turn around, state police said.

Phillips, who was treated at University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington and released, said he is doing investigative work for Thompson's campaign. He said he had recently returned from out of town with evidence that he said could damage White.

Phillips was hit five or six times in the back, shoulder, arm and buttocks, he said. Phillips said he thought, based on sound, that the shooter used an SKS or AK-47 semi-automatic rifle.

Just after Phillips was shot, his friend Harvey Lewis came up the road and the assailant's car left, Phillips said. Lewis took Phillips to the Manchester hospital, which sent him on to UK.

Also, less than an hour later, someone shot into the vehicle of Martin Lawson, a friend of White, state police said.

Lawson's truck was parked in his yard at the time, said state police Sgt. Barry Engle, who described Lawson as a campaign worker for White. White, however, called Lawson "a friend of mine" who was not working for the campaign. Lawson declined to comment last night.

The political climate in Clay County has been tense since Jordan, the sheriff, temporarily shut down absentee voting May 7 because of what he characterized as a rowdy crowd of 250 to 300 people lined up at White's office want-ing to cast ballots.

The state attorney general's office is investigating "voting irregularities" in the county. Traditionally, state officials have interpreted large numbers of absentee ballots as an indication of vote buying.

Jordan said he wasn't sure whether the scene at the clerk's office had anything to do with Sunday night's shooting.

The general unrest since then, though, made Jordan think something bad might happen, he said. "I knew this was coming from talk on the street," he said. "I knew somebody was going to get hurt."

After hitting the ground when he jumped from his Ford Astro van, White said, he "was hiding, crawling and hiding" for about an hour before circling back to the vehicle.

All along he kept trying to use his cell phone but couldn't get a signal, White said.

When he got back to the van, it was still running, he said. He tried driving. The vehicle, riddled with bullet holes and pouring smoke from its hood, moved about 50 feet before stalling, he said.

White then hiked to the top of a nearby mountain and was able to get enough of a cell phone signal to call a friend, Todd Roberts, Manchester's assistant chief of police, White said. Roberts could not be reached for comment last night.

Clay County Attorney Clay Bishop Jr. said he was shocked to hear the news late yesterday afternoon. No one had mentioned the attempt on White's life, he said.

"I haven't heard anything," said Bishop, who's also chair of the county's Republican Party. "It seems like I should have."

Bill Warren got the news firsthand. The sheriff's department needed someone to tow White's van and Warren, owner of Warren's Body Shop, was called to the scene about 11:15 p.m. The van was sitting in his garage last night. Warren said the bullet holes were scattered from front to back: across the windshield, seats, hood, back window, side panels, front grille and doors.

"I didn't know what to think," Warren said. "I just wondered how he got out of it."

Three men have been charged in Catron's killing, including one of his rivals for the sheriff's seat, and are in custody, but there have been no arrests in the Browning case.

"We've done lost two sheriff's candidates, and we almost lost a clerk," Jordan said. "As far as I'm concerned, the election's not worth this."

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

May 24, 2002, Friday, BC cycle

4:46 AM Eastern Time

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 826 words

HEADLINE: Political potshots the real thing in Kentucky this year

BYLINE: By ROGER ALFORD, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: MANCHESTER, Ky.

BODY:
Two candidates for sheriff were gunned down. Absentee voting has been suspended in one county after a sheriff suspected vote-buying, and an incumbent county clerk seeking re-election narrowly escaped a barrage of gunfire.

Running for office in eastern Kentucky has been a dangerous proposition this year.

"This makes Kentucky seem like some kind of banana republic," said Paul Blanchard, director of the Center for Kentucky History and Politics at Eastern Kentucky University. "Like a lot of the old-style politics, we tend to think we've gotten beyond this. Clearly that is not the case." When bullets started flying Sunday night, Jennings White jumped from his van over a 50-foot embankment, then crawled into thick brush and trees to escape uninjured.

The shooting was the climactic end of a day of campaigning for White, who is seeking re-election as Clay County clerk.

"I counted 33 bullet holes in his vehicle," Sheriff Edd Jordan said. "It was politically motivated. Someone was trying to kill the clerk."

In another shooting the same night, a private investigator working for another candidate was shot six times.

Those were only the latest incidents in what has been a bloody campaign season in Kentucky - one that has voters wondering whether it's safe to go to the polls.

A candidate for sheriff in Harlan County, Paul Browning Jr., disappeared in March while campaigning and was later found shot in the head and burned inside his pickup truck on a lonely mountain road. Browning had been sheriff in the early 1980s, before he was sent to prison on a 1982 conviction for conspiring to kill two local public officials.

In April, Sam Catron, an incumbent sheriff in Pulaski County, was campaigning at an outdoor political rally when he was killed in a sniper-style shooting.

Despite the shootings, Jordan said voters shouldn't be afraid on Election Day.

"I'm sure some people won't vote on account of this, but I can assure them that the election will be monitored by my department and other departments," he said. "If there's any trouble, we'll be on top of it."

Arlie Rhodes, of Manchester, said the violence won't prevent him from doing his civic duty.

"I plan to go and vote, but I know there will be a lot of people who won't because they will be expecting trouble," Rhodes said Thursday.

Barbara Hadley Smith, spokeswoman for the Office of Attorney General, said teams of investigators will be visiting polls throughout the day on Tuesday. She said the FBI and Kentucky State Police also will participate in monitoring the election.

"It's not new to us, checking to make sure there's no problems at the polls," said Trooper Craig Sutton, spokesman for the Kentucky State Police post in London. "Every election, we try to patrol the poll areas, have officers visible and present in all the areas."

Jordan had ordered absentee voting shut down earlier this month when long lines of rowdy voters showed up to cast ballots at the Clay County clerk's office.

"I was hearing comments about people carrying guns, and when I saw the crowd, I closed it down," he said. "I saw this stuff all coming to a head, and I knew somebody was going to get hurt."

Absentee voting was again halted for about 30 minutes Wednesday after a crowd waiting to vote became unruly in front of a polling station.

On Thursday, Manchester resident Deborah Cox, who was voting absentee, said she was glad to see the deputies and police at the courthouse. She said the police presence made her feel safe.

Police believe Catron's killing and the shootings in Clay County are related to the primary election. No motive has been released in the Browning case.

One of Catron's challengers, Jeff Morris, 34, of Somerset, was charged with conspiracy in the murder, as was Kenneth White, 54, of Burnside. Another Morris supporter, Danny Shelley, 30, of Eubank, is charged with Catron's murder. All three face the death penalty.

Billy Rowland Phillips, a private investigator working for Freddy Thompson, another candidate for Clay County clerk, was shot six times on Kentucky 80 near Manchester, state police said. The shootings occurred shortly after 9 p.m. EDT on Sunday.

Phillips was the only one injured in the attacks. He was treated and released from the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.

"If I sat here and told you I'm not concerned about my safety, I'd be lying to you," Jordan said. "I am concerned. But I have a job to do."

Blanchard, a political science professor, said shootings were not uncommon in Kentucky elections in the 1800s, even the early 1900s.

"Kentucky has a reputation for political corruption that has always been difficult to accept, and my hopes have been that that kind of political culture was fading away as Kentucky became more modernized," he said. "This is an earlier and even more intolerable type of politics. If it continues, it's just extremely disappointing."

LOAD-DATE: May 24, 2002

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