When Ken Herndon lost his race for the Metro Council's 6th District race in the May 2008 primary, he felt that an anti-gay flyer distributed just before the election cost him the race.
He lost to George Unseld by 112 votes.
The flyer caused quite an uproar, including a meeting of the local Fairness organization to express outrage and figure out what to do about it.
Whoever distributed the flyer did so anonymously, and covered their tracks well enough that a 14-month investigation initiated by Herndon didn't turn up the gay-bashing culprit.
Herndon said he is dropping a defamation lawsuit he filed over a year ago. The purpose, he said at the time, was to find out who produced, paid for and distributed the flyer. The suit enabled Herndon to subpoena witnesses and conduct an investigation.
UPDATE: During the aftermath of the incident, fingers were pointed at then-Metro Council president Jim King (now a candidate for Mayor) as someone who may have been behind the mailings. King emphatically denied any involvement, and in fact took a lie-detector test and released the results to selected media.
Here's a statement he released today:
"I empathize with Ken's situation and have openly expressed to him my disapproval of the mailing and assured him that I was not involved in any way.
"I have been a long-time supporter of Councilman Unseld, whom I have supported regardless of his opponent.
"I've been on the receiving end of the destructive politics of personal attack, and I think the people of Louisville deserve better.”
"We have some compelling evidence but it's not conclusive," Herndon said today. "After 14 months we've done a thorough investigation. It came to the point where we need to put it bed and move on."
The flyer, which depicted Herndon's face imposed on a photo of two men kissing at a gay-pride parade, couldn't be traced.
"We've done as well as we could. There were printers we hoped would turn out, but they didn't turn out," he said.
Herndon is director of operations for the Louisville Downtown Management District.
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Gumbo in progress
When Ken Herndon lost his race for the Metro Council's 6th District race in the May 2008 primary, he felt that an anti-gay flyer distributed just before the election cost him the race.
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