Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jun 2011
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2011 The Evansville Courier Company
Contact:  http://www.courierpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138
Author: Frank Boyett
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Gatewood+Galbraith

GATEWOOD GALBRAITH RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR AGAIN

Gatewood Galbraith is once again running for governor -- and he's 
quit smoking marijuana to prove he's serious.

"I gave up smoking pot about two months ago after 40 years," he said 
Monday during an interview with The Gleaner. "I want people to trust 
that I'm going to be as clearheaded as I can possibly be."

This is the fifth time the Lexington defense attorney has run for 
governor; the first time he made headlines with his outspoken 
advocacy for legalizing marijuana. He's not pushing that issue as 
hard as he once did, but it's still in his platform.

"We were the world's largest producer of cannabis for over 100 
years," he said. "I want it licensed and regulated in all of its 
aspects as an industrial textile crop."

Medical marijuana could save the state between $500 million and $1 
billion a year in health-care costs, he said, asserting that it cured 
him of asthma. But the real gold mine is in hemp's prospects as an 
alternative fuel. "Rudolph Diesel originally patented the diesel 
engine to run on seed oil so farmers could create their own fuel."

Galbraith has usually run as a Democrat, although one year he ran 
under the Reform Party banner, but this time he's running as an 
independent "because neither party can produce a candidate who can 
disengage from the partisanship long enough to work with the other 
side and get the job done.

"I'm courting the voters who identify themselves as the Tea Party," 
but that doesn't mean he's allied with that loosely affiliated 
movement. He and running mate Dea Riley of Frankfort "don't want any 
party affiliation. I don't have a party affiliation and don't want 
one. We don't want any dogma. We don't want any baggage. We don't 
want to be beholden to anybody."

Some have noted that Galbraith holds key Tea Party positions, such as 
smaller government and less taxes, as well as a fierce "don't tread 
on me" attitude. But when people accuse him of trying to hop on the 
Tea Party bandwagon, his response is:

"I've been out here 30 years talking this stuff. Where the hell have 
you been?" He likes to refer to himself as "a Barry Goldwater 
conservative" and considers founding fathers George Washington, 
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin as his guiding lights.

Galbraith said his main goal is re-stoking people's fire for 
participation in government, which has smothered by "the bickering 
and the vituperation."

He agreed he's been called a perennial candidate before, but 
"Kentucky's got perennial problems. If the people who beat me the 
first time had solved the problems I wouldn't have had to run again. 
But they didn't, and they haven't and they can't.

"Because neither party can produce a candidate who can disengage from 
the partisanship long enough to work with the other side and get the job done.

"I don't have all the answers, but there are a lot of smart and 
intelligent people out there who do. If we can attract them into the 
process I'm going to get out of the way and let them do it. I'm not 
going to get in their way because of an ego thing."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom