The campaign of physician Michael Kelley (D-Lagrange) thinks the unveiling of a new website attacking him is a sign that U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis' (R-Ft. Mitchell) lead in the 4th Congressional District race may be shrinking.

"The negative attacks only draw attention to Davis' many wrong-headed votes, and make Davis look like he is
running scared of the little guy," read a statement. "Davis must have some internal numbers showing his massive polling lead is evaporating, because when a politician has a massive lead, they tend to pretend their opponent has never been born."

The last public polling in the race between Kelley and Davis was released on Oct. 2, showing Davis up 22 points over Kelley.

"It's pretty shocking he's taken to abandon plan A, which was to ignore my existence," Kelley told PolitickerKY.com.

Davis declined invitations to debate Kelley, with the Republican's campaign claiming Kelley was not taking the race seriously, citing the Democrat's low fundraising haul as evidence. Kelley subsequently participated in a debate on Kentucky Educational Television alone, calling Davis' significant collection of contributions from "lobbyists" a "shameful" practice while noting he was not focusing on fundraising.

Davis had over $565,000 in cash-on-hand at the close of third quarter books while Kelley showed just over $7,000.

Many of Kelley's other comments from that "debate" on KET as well as sentiments listed in a Kentucky Enquirer editorial endorsing Davis formed the bulk of the critique against Kelley on a Davis campaign website unveiled yesterday, located at therealmichaelkelley.com.

Kelley's camp suggested the unveiling of the site was related to threats seen in the potentially rocky electoral climate for Republicans, suggesting the Davis' camp may be trying to prevent the same tightening in the race that U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Louisville) campaign has seen in recent months..

"Why is Davis attacking an opponent who has raised approximately one percent of Davis' fundraising total?  Because Mitch McConnell is going to lose, and Davis is afraid the voters will flush Davis down the toilet along with Mitch," read the Kelley camp's statement. "Michael Kelley is delighted that Mitch - who has utterly failed Kentucky - will be replaced by Lunsford."

Kelley suggested the impact of a recent story in the Lexington Herald-Leader targeting Davis for collecting contributions from financial services companies may be resonating with voters.

"Instead of being the watchdog, keeping Wall Street on the straight-and-narrow, he's a lapdog, begging for treats," Kelley said.

A release from the Kelley camp also refuted the Davis site point-by-point. The release argues the assertion that Kelley want to "rely on foreign sources of energy" is "a complete lie," charging that Kelley supports renewable energies but has never committed to voting against expanded drilling.

The Kelley camp also rejected the assertion that Kelley owned any property upon which it had not paid taxes. The release from the Democrat also brushed off the charge that Kelley wanted to "add 20 million new smokers" to pay for "healthcare reforms."

"Please don't make us laugh.  When was the last time your doctor tried to get you to START smoking?  Michael Kelley is doing a lousy job of adding new smokers, because Dr. Kelley spends hours each day trying to get his patients to stop smoking," read the release.