The congressman from the 1st District is Ed Whitfield, a Republican elected in 1994. Whitfield grew up in Hopkinsville and Madisonville, in a family with Pennyrile roots going back to before 1800. He served in the Army Reserve, practiced law in Hopkinsville, and was elected to the state legislature in 1973 as a Democrat. After one term in Frankfort, Whitfield ran an oil distributorship in the west Kentucky coalfields, and then in 1979, moved to Washington, D.C., to become an executive for the Seaboard and CSX railroads. He was legal counsel to the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1991 to 1993, and then returned to west Kentucky to run for Congress. The district had been represented by quiet, long-serving, conservative Democrats. But the one-term incumbent, Tom Barlow, was a free-spirited supporter of the Clinton administration. Encouraged by Sen. Mitch McConnell, Whitfield ran as a Republican, turned aside criticism that he was a carpetbagger, and concentrated on attacking Barlow’s vote for Clinton’s first-term budget and tax increase. With help from the mountain counties and running strongly in the Pennyrile, Whitfield won 51%-49% in the big Republican sweep of 1994. Read More

The congressman from the 1st District is Ed Whitfield, a Republican elected in 1994. Whitfield grew up in Hopkinsville and Madisonville, in a family with Pennyrile roots going back to before 1800. He served in the Army Reserve, practiced law in Hopkinsville, and was elected to the state legislature in 1973 as a Democrat. After one term in Frankfort, Whitfield ran an oil distributorship in the west Kentucky coalfields, and then in 1979, moved to Washington, D.C., to become an executive for the Seaboard and CSX railroads. He was legal counsel to the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission from 1991 to 1993, and then returned to west Kentucky to run for Congress. The district had been represented by quiet, long-serving, conservative Democrats. But the one-term incumbent, Tom Barlow, was a free-spirited supporter of the Clinton administration. Encouraged by Sen. Mitch McConnell, Whitfield ran as a Republican, turned aside criticism that he was a carpetbagger, and concentrated on attacking Barlow’s vote for Clinton’s first-term budget and tax increase. With help from the mountain counties and running strongly in the Pennyrile, Whitfield won 51%-49% in the big Republican sweep of 1994.

In the House, Whitfield has a moderate-to-conservative voting record. He generally takes his party’s side on major votes, but occasionally shows his independence. He supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act extending the statute of limitations in equal pay lawsuits in 2009 and voted for the minimum wage hike two years earlier.

With the Republicans assuming the majority in 2011, Whitfield became chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee of the main Energy and Commerce Committee. The job put him at the helm of Republican efforts to fight Obama administration environmental efforts, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate regulations, which took effect in January 2011 after legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions stalled in the Senate. Whitfield also vowed to reexamine the 1970 Clean Air Act, the first federal law to control lead, mercury and other pollutants that endanger human health. EPA determined in 2009 that carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is among those pollutants. “Ever since I’ve been in Congress, various groups on the business side—those entities that are creating jobs out there—have felt that the Clean Air Act (has) all sorts of presumptions in favor of the environmentalists,” Whitfield told National Journal in January 2011. In addition, he said he would scrutinize the rise in oil and gasoline prices and the need for offshore drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill disaster. He is a strong proponent of “clean coal” technology as well as sequestration research that some experts say could someday store underground carbon captured in the atmosphere.

On health issues before the committee, Whitfield authored a successful 2005 law to discourage “doctor shopping” by prescription-drugs addicts. It established an electronic database that states can use to monitor people who cross state lines to buy pharmaceuticals. He got a bill through the House in 2010 fostering the establishment of state-administered monitoring systems for dangerous drugs.

Whitfield has used his seat on the influential panel to tend to local concerns. He worked to secure federal aid for workers exposed to radiation at the uranium plant in Paducah. He overcame objections from the Bush administration to cleaning up the site, which is projected to cost more than $3 billion and last until around 2030. A thoroughbred owner, Whitfield co-sponsored legislation in 2006 to ban the killing of horses for meat. The House overwhelmingly passed the bill, but it died in the Senate. He also has encouraged industry leaders to restrict performance-enhancing drugs given to racehorses.

Whitfield has entrenched himself to the point that he is no longer much of a Democratic target. In 1996, when lawyer Dennis Null opposed him, Whitfield carried 18 of the district’s 31 counties and won re-election 54%-46%. In 1998, former Rep. Tom Barlow ran again, and Whitfield won 55%-45%. Since then, he has won easily. He defeated Barlow a third time in 2006, increasing his winning margin to 60%-40%. And in 2008, he beat anti-war protester Heather Ryan 64%-36%. There was speculation in 2009 that he would run for the Senate, but he decided instead to seek a ninth term. This longtime Democratic stronghold now seems to be a safe Republican seat.