 The 31st District State Senate race is contentious, and it's also very expensive. According to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, as of the 15-day reporting deadline for campaign contributions and disbursements, Democratic challenger Glenn Martin Hammond and incumbent Democrat Ray Jones have collectively received nearly $600,000 in the campaign and have made disbursements totaling nearly $485,000. Jones has out-collected Hammond by more than two and a half times, and he's outspent Hammond, despite Hammond's critical campaign against Jones by more than five times. Hammond's political spokesperson, Kim Javidin, said an expensive campaign was expected. You can't be the 16-year-entrenched career politician like Ray Jones on the cheek. Jones has spent years climbing the political ladder in Frankford, developing relationships with wealthy liberals from Louisville, doling out cold severance money to his political allies. All of those favors add up in the form of political contributions, and to compete with that little money, you know, it takes money. Jones said his large amount of spending has largely been to defend his character and his record against attacks by Hammond's campaign. I wish that this race had been focused on issues instead of, you know, mud-slinging and just downright dirty politics. You know, when you take commercials and distort what I say, take a joke and distort what I say to try to make your campaign look better, there's something wrong with that. And I'm proud of what we've done, and I'm proud to have the support of so many people throughout the 31st district. As of the 32-day campaign finance filing deadline, the race was the most expensive of any political race for state or local office, and with just a few days remaining until the May 17th primary election, the spending is not done. We'll have a strong presence, and, you know, on the ground, Glenn has been working relentlessly, campaigning on the ground throughout the district in all five counties. We'll have a major presence on radio and television, and we really feel good about going into these last few days. I would think that most of the advertising and that type of thing has already been done. So now it's getting your votes out, talking to your friends, talking to your supporters, making sure you're getting people out to vote. None of us can predict what the turnout's going to be in this democratic primary, but I think there's a lot of enthusiasm for our campaign. The primary election is next Tuesday, May 17th, reporting in Pike County for EKB News. I'm Chris Anderson.