TheTimesTribune.com, Corbin, KY

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May 16, 2012

Stepp or Ackerman to face Hal Rogers

The Times-Tribune

CORBIN — By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

Either Democrat Kenneth S. Stepp or Michael Ackerman will face Republican Harold “Hal” Rogers in the November general election in the Fifth Congressional District.

Rogers has been in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past 32 years. The Fifth District is the southeast part of Kentucky.

Counties in the district are: the upper part of Bath, Rowan, Menifee, Morgan, Lawrence, Johnson, Martin, Magoffin, Wolfe, Lee, Breathitt, Floyd, Pike, Knott, Perry, Letcher, Owsley, Leslie, Harlan, Clay, Jackson, Rockcastle, Laurel, Knox, Bell, Whitley, Pulaski, McCreary and Wayne.

Manchester lawyer Stepp, 64, in 2006 won the Democratic primary for the House and lost to Rogers in the general election.

Morehead lawyer Ackerman failed to return several phone calls.

In a telephone interview, Stepp said his first priority after taking office will be, “I’d be voting to go ahead and bring the American troops home.”

There is still an ongoing budget dispute in Congress. He said, “Hopefully we are able to work out some kind of agreement on the budget and I think the Republicans tend to improve the budget by reducing Medicaid and SSI payments. But I would look toward, first of all, to bring our troops home from the wars. That would be a substantial reduction in government payments.”

Finally, he said the government should improve education.

“Education is the best way to fight poverty as far as government is concerned.”

According to printed information, Ackerman and his wife, Katrina, also a lawyer, have one son.

Ackerman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and earned his law degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2007.

Stepp earned his law degree at the University of Georgia in 1976.

His wife is Wilma and they have three sons.

Having practiced in the south for a while, he came to Manchester because he married “a Clay County girl,” he said.

In the county, he’s a member of the Macedonia Baptist Church in Burning Springs, the Clay County Bar Association and the American Legion.

The primary election is Tuesday, May 22.

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