An open letter to Denise Harper Angel: Drop the lawsuit and give the money back.

Dear Ms. Angel,

Republican John Albers is effectively out of the race following his arrest, and now you have filed a lawsuit seeking to disqualify my candidacy which is the only other choice on the ballot. I'm certain the people of the Louisville neighborhoods you represent would not define "democracy" as an election with only one candidate to choose from.

As an incumbent Democrat in a district registered nearly 70% Democratic, this election should be a cakewalk for you. Yet not only are you suing to remove another candidate from the ballot, your campaign has been funded by thousands of dollars in contributions from corporations and special interest groups whose goals conflict with those of ordinary Kentuckians.

There is simply no need for an incumbent Democratic state senator to run a campaign with this kind of money. Corporate, PAC, and special interest money comes with a lot of baggage. At the very least, it creates an appearance of impropriety when the interests of your corporate contributors do not sync with the interests of the people in our district. Some of your contributors' objectives even conflict with your own stated positions on important issues such as health care.

Many of the groups fueling your campaign are connected to giant pharmaceutical, insurance, energy, and banking companies. These power brokers have Americans locked into a system of paying outrageously higher fees for levels of service that pale in comparison to what our friends in other countries receive. What's even more mind-boggling is that I know you're in favor of removing the limits on how much these corruptive special interest groups can give campaigns.

My campaign is not taking a single cent of this dirty money. To my knowledge, Mr. Albers has not accepted any of these contributions. Even Barack Obama is making a point in his campaign for the presidency and setting an example by not touching it. With these dirty funds in your pocket, your campaign has managed to raise nearly ten times that of my campaign, which like Obama's, is supported only by individual voters.

So Ms. Angel, since our district's voters are registered overwhelmingly Democrat, like yourself; and since your Republican challenger is no longer a factor; and since the leading Democrat in America is advocating against participating in this money train; I'd like to invite you to prove that these corporate, PAC, and special interest contributions have no affect on your work in Frankfort. I'd like to invite you to return these contributions.

If you cannot, do not, or will not give back the thousands of surplus dollars these big-money interests have given you, then I'd like to invite you to drop the lawsuit against my candidacy. You told the Courier-Journal you're not concerned about losing to me, right? Let's see if the voters really care about corporate and special interest money by ensuring they have a choice on the ballot between a candidate who takes it and one who doesn't.

Corporate money and lawyers may be able to secure the election for you, but what good is that if you get it without our respect?

Sincerely,

Scott Ritcher