Rep. Ben Chandler (D)

The congressman from the 6th District is Ben Chandler, a Democrat who won a special election in February 2004. He grew up in Versailles, in the horse country west of Lexington, the grandson of A.B. “Happy” Chandler, the former governor and senator who for five years was baseball commissioner. His father owned a local newspaper. Ben Chandler got his bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Kentucky and practiced law for five years. In 1991, he was elected state auditor and in 1995 attorney general. In that job, he made a name for himself by prosecuting corrupt politicians. In 2003, Chandler ran for the Democratic nomination for governor and beat Speaker Jody Richards in the primary 50%-47%. But he lost the general election to 6th District Rep. Ernie Fletcher, 55%-45%. Chandler decided that if he could not defeat Fletcher, he would try to succeed him. He won the Democratic nomination for Fletcher’s House seat without opposition and faced low-profile Republican state Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr in the general election. Both candidates supported the Iraq War and a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and opposed amnesty for illegal aliens. National Democrats strongly backed Chandler, who carefully kept his distance from Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi, a liberal from California. Chandler scored an unexpectedly easy victory, 55%-43%, marking the first time since 1991 that Democrats captured a Republican seat in a special election. “It was a big, big deal,” said Chandler. “I couldn’t believe the enthusiasm I was greeted with on my arrival in Washington. My election was hailed at the time as a turning of the tide.” In the next regularly scheduled election, in November 2004, Chandler defeated state Sen. Tom Buford, 59%-40%. His victories in 2004 kept alive Kentucky’s record of electing at least one Democrat to Congress every year since Andrew Jackson founded the party in 1828, and since then, Chandler has become entrenched in what had been a safe Republican seat.

In the House, Chandler has a moderate voting record, though it is a bit more liberal on economic issues. In 2006, he proposed spending up to $32 billion over five years for grants and loans to fix the nation’s schools, but the bill died without a hearing. From his seat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee in 2006, Chandler hounded Federal Aviation Administration officials about the adequacy of air traffic control staffing at Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport and nationally after the crash of Comair Flight 5191, which killed 49 people in August of that year. He criticized the National Transportation Safety Board for not holding hearings after the crash, and filed a bill to create an independent panel to review the FAA’s safety-related programs.

After Democrats won the majority in 2006, he secured a plum seat on the House Appropriations Committee. Despite opposition from Republicans complaining about the loss of local authority for school districts, the House in June 2008 passed his bill to build more environmentally friendly public schools.

Some Kentucky political pundits thought Chandler would serve several years in Congress, then challenge Fletcher to a rematch in the 2007 gubernatorial race. But he decided he liked serving in the House. “If you can maintain yourself here, if you can keep your nose clean, you will increase in your seniority and power,” he told the Lexington Herald Leader. Chandler was his party’s consensus favorite to run for governor in 2007, but after winning reelection with 85% in 2006 and after Democrats won control of the House, Chandler turned down another chance to seek the seat once held by his grandfather. He is frequently mentioned as a possible challenger to Republican Sen. Jim Bunning in 2010, but his endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama prior to the Kentucky primary as the candidate with “the best chance of bridging all of the divides that we face in this country” generated considerable local opposition.