And with fewer than eight weeks left until the primary election, the two front runners for the Democratic nomination have not set foot in Logan County since... well, who knows when?
In the old days, the 18 months before a primary election the streets of Russellville and beyond were filled with candidates wanting every possible vote available from the Land of Logan.
Now it seems they could care less.
Candidates want the mass votes of the masses in Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Bowling Green, Owensboro and Paducah. They'll settle for a split from a county that will produce fewer than 10,000 votes.
Instead they'll spend their time and their money for television adds on WHAS, WLEX and maybe WBKO.
Former News-Democrat & Leader assistant managing editor Al Cross, now the chief political writer of The Courier-Journal, has annointed Attorney General Ben Chandler as the Democratic nominee for governor.
He assumes-- and so does Chandler-- that Logan Countians will vote for him even though he's hardly averaged coming to Logan County once every two years in his two terms in Frankfort and even though his granddaddy once threatened to build a fence around Logan County.
If the candidate adjudged to be Chandler's most serious challenger-- big business bag man Bruce Lunsford-- has even been here, I'm not aware of it.
And the guy who has every right to expect Logan Countians to vote for him, Speaker of the House Jody Richards of Warren County-- a man who knows most of the backroads of Logan County because he grew up visiting Adairville and Russellville-- gets very little consideration here and around the state.
That's appropriate, since Richards-- who did great things for teachers while serving as the chairman of the House Education Committee-- was ignored by the Kentucky Education Association because Chandler said what the state's most powerful organized labor group wanted to hear.
At least Chandler talks to them.
* Republican candidates have shown more interest in currying the favor of Logan's voters than have the Democrats. Perceived front runner Ernie Fletcher, a U.S. Congressman, came to meet and greet us last year. Jefferson County Judge/Executive Rebecca Jackson has made a couple of appearances in Logan County.
And Steve Nunn of nearby Barren County, who joins Richards in having a right to believe we would be predisposed to support his candidacy, has been here frequently. He's well aware of what life is like in Logan County and doesn't need a map to find us.
When Nunn's not here, his dad is. Former Gov. Louie Nunn represented his son during the Tobacco Festival. He was back here last week, riminiscing with his old friend Russell Porter of Lewisburg about what they were able to do for Logan County while he was governor.
Louie Nunn is from the old school of politics. He believes you have to press the flesh with a handshake, a pat on the back, a hug.
Today's politicians press the remote control instead of the flesh, searching for their slickly produced TV sound bites on the big stations.
State Senator Virgil Moore was here meeting with the GOP women this week, but his own running mate has quit the campaign.
Now the Republicans, who seemed to have the best chance of winning the statehouse since Louie Nunn was there 1968 through 1971, appear on the verge of becoming suicide bombers.
Fletcher picked a virtually unknown running mate for most of us. Turns out we didn't know him because he wasn't a Kentuckian.
But Nunn and his running mate, former state representative Bob Heleringer, are so intent on getting Fletcher kicked off the ballot that they're hurting their own images.
This is remiscent of 1979, my favorite gubernatorial year. Another young, handsome auditor was running well for governor. Instead of running his own campaign, however, George Atkins devoted his energy to uncovering and pointing out what he considered corruption in the office of Gov. Julian Carroll.
Atkins was successful in foiling the candidacy of Carroll's chosen successor, Terry McBrayer, but in the process he so damaged his own image and campaign that he finally withdrew from the race in favor of John Y. Brown Jr.
Steve Nunn could likewise bring down Ernie Fletcher but kill his own candidacy in the process, helping elect a stranger to Logan County in the process.
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