The campaign of Senate candidate Bruce Lunsford (D-Louisville) dispatched a press release today accusing primary opponent Greg Fischer (D-Louisville) of "hypocrisy" for his investment in mutual funds with holdings in successor companies to Lunsford's own oft-maligned Vencor nursing home chain.

The jab from the Lunsford camp comes after Fischer announced his record was an "open book" at a Friday press conference. At that same event, he also said he would continue hitting Lunsford on Vencor-related charges.

"The fact that all the while, Fischer has investments in the very companies he claims Bruce ran into the ground makes Fischer's actions the ultimate hypocrisy," said Lunsford spokesperson Allison Haley in a release today.

The Lunsford camp hit Fischer today for his investments in five mutual funds with holdings in Vencor's successor companies - Kindred Healthcare and Ventas. Those funds have a combined total investment in Ventas and Kindred of over $26 million.

See the Lunsford press release here (right click, save as).

Total holdings in all businesses for those five funds combined to amount to over $43.6 billion.

The Lunsford campaign also charges Fischer's Personal Financial Disclosure (PFD) - in which these investments appeared - was eleven days late.

"If I were Greg Fischer, I wouldn't want the public to know I had been investing in the same companies I was openly criticizing either. Maybe that's why he waited so long to file his PFD," Haley said. "What else is he hiding?"

The path to these attacks is a long one that has absorbed the attention of both campaigns for several weeks.

Fischer released an April 25 attack ad resurrecting allegations of financial improprieties at Vencor as well as allegations of patient abuse at some Vencor facilities. Those charges referenced the $104.5 million settlement with the Federal Government agreed to by Vencor in 2001 over charges of "overbilling" and "failure of care claims."

Lunsford's campaign says the settlement entailed no admission of wrong-doing.

Prior to this settlement, Vencor split in two in 1998, becoming Vencor and Ventas. Lunsford resigned as CEO of Vencor shortly thereafter in January of 1999, yet stayed on with Ventas until 2003. Vencor declared bankruptcy in September of 1999. Amid re-organization and the settlement, it assumed the Kindred name in 2001.

The Lunsford response to the attack ad of Fischer's included a series of back-and-forths documented on this site. The attacks on the attacks culminated in a letter from four prominent Kentucky Democrats asking Fischer to cease the aggression against Lunsford. The Lunsford campaign also released a response ad defending their candidate and lauding his business record.

Fischer subsequently said at Friday's press event that he would continue his campaign's arc of "shining a light" on Lunsford's past, and then blasted Lunsford's response ad as "false and misleading" - a charge earlier leveled at Fischer's own attack advertisements.

The Lunsford ad displayed text reading "Vencor ‘one of the greatest successes in the history of business in Kentucky,'" citing a 2007 article, while a voice announced that "Lunsford's company survived" amid Medicare cuts.

On Friday, Fischer bashed that portion of the ad, arguing that "Mr. Lunsford had no role in the leadership or management of Kindred Healthcare" - the incarnation of Vencor at the time of the cited article's publication.

Today, it was his own financial connections to Kindred and Ventas that led to the new charges against Fischer.

The Lunsford campaign cites Fischer's PFD, which documents his current holdings, to show he is invested in those five mutual funds with some holdings in Vencor's successors.

No evidence is provided by the Lunsford campaign that Fischer had investments in Vencor during Lunsford's tenure as CEO of the company nor during the period in which Vencor settled with the Federal Government.

The direct attack on Fischer is the first from the Lunsford campaign. Lunsford's camp previously responded to Fischer's attacks by circulating letters of denunciation from other Kentucky Democrats, but never before with a direct reference to Fischer's own record.

Lunsford was one of six signees in the Democratic Senate Primary field to the "Oath of Honorable Campaigning" circulated by the Kentucky Democratic Party. In that document, candidates agreed not to launch personal attacks against each other.

Fischer was the only candidate to not sign the pledge.