A proponent of expanded drilling in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, incumbent U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) trotted out a unique defense while speaking to a meeting of Lexington area business and civic leaders.

"As you all probably know in Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas, they think oil rigs are pretty," McConnell said, according to Lexington television station WTVQ.

Those states - all with borders touching the Gulf of Mexico - are most likely to be home to offshore oil exploration, should a federal moratorium on the practice be lifted.

Lifting that ban is a principle plank of many Republicans' plans to lower gas prices this campaign season.

At the Commerce Lexington Public Affairs Luncheon on Tuesday, McConnell called gas prices the most important issue of the election season. The four-term incumbent said he supports allowing states to decide on drilling off their shores - an option currently barred by the moratorium.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee and Senator, John McCain (R-Ariz.), also supports lifting that moratorium and offering states a share of oil revenues for allowing offshore drilling.

Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist, recently switched his position on offshore drilling to align with McCain's position, amid objections from some in the state over potential environmental damage from offshore exploration.

McConnell recently formalized his own pro-drilling position in legislation that stalled in the U.S. Senate. He has since criticized his Democratic opponent, Louisville businessman Bruce Lunsford, for not supporting the tenents of that legislation.

Instead, Lunsford termed the Republican-touted advantages of expanded drilling offshore and in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge as a "hoax."

"All the drilling we could possibly do cannot offset that deficit. We have got to get away from oil as our only source of energy," said Lunsford in Murray on Monday.