Denham named Business Woman of the Year

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Trudy Denham was named 2006 Business Woman of the Year by the Somerset Business and Profess-ional Women’sClub.

October 5, 2006

By BILL MARDIS Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Thu Oct 05, 2006, 08:28 AM EDT

“I was shocked. I didn’t have a clue.”

Trudy Denham, clerk of Pulaski County, was reacting to being named 2006 Business Woman of the Year. The award presentation Tuesday was a highlight leading to National Business Women’s Week, observed October 15-21.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” said Denham. “When they read all of that stuff, I didn’t dream they were talking about me.” She was referring to introductory remarks by Judith Smith, National Business Week chairperson for the Somerset BPW Club.

“When they said the birthday (of the honoree) was in August and that she graduated from Nancy High School I looked toward the podium and my knees got weak,” Denham said.

Denham, the first woman elected to a major Pulaski County governmental office, emotionally walked to the front of the convention hall at The Center and accepted the BPW award. The ceremony was during the October meeting of the Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce.

“(She has) executed the duties of her office with integrity, honesty, and fairness,” Smith extolled. “She always has a willingness to serve the needs of each person who enters her office, never favoring a person by their dress, be it a pair of bib overall, a dress made from a feed sack, or a three-piece suit. Each person is treated with the same service.”

Denham said she is honored that the BPW club selected her as business woman of the year. “I had the greatest day!” she exclaimed.

She remembers when she started working in the county clerk’s office in 1973 “I have grown up in this office; this has been my life. I feel I have been blessed to have been in the clerk’s office for 33 years.

Denham was elected four years ago as county clerk, succeeding Willard Hansford. She did not file for re-election and will retire at the end of her first term the last of December.

A member of the advisory board for Cumberland Valley National Bank, Denham is married to Bernie Denham, owner of a lawn-care service. She says she has no specific plans for her retirement years.

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Pulaski carries Girdler to win

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, it was impossible to miss the colorful signs dotting nearly every Pulaski roadway. The names in the race for the 15th State Senatorial District seat popped out: A.C. Donahue. Chris Girdler. Mark Polston.

Once citizens hit the ballots, however, the results mirrored the dimensions of the signs themselves: Chris Girdler stood the tallest.

Girdler, deputy district director for Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers, ran away with the votes inside Pulaski County’s borders, earning 3,926 votes for 62.05 percent of the total number cast.

That number more than doubled the next highest vote-getter, businessman Mark Polston, who raked in 1,624 votes for 25.67 percent.

However, Polston — who owns Classic Carpet, a home-flooring business located just off the southern 914 bypass — can claim a moral victory ... three of them, in fact. In all three counties in the district other than Pulaski — those being Adair, Casey, and Russell Counties — Polston actually edged out Girdler.

In Adair, Polston beat Girdler 629 to 394. In Casey County, it was 538 to 417, and in Russell, it was 1,862 to 1,038.

Polston said he just “couldn’t pull it out with the numbers” and that “the machine worked for” Girdler in Pulaski County.

“I think that was their strategy — I think they had a Pulaski County strategy all along,” said Polston. “They played the political game well.”

Polston said the difference between his and Girdler’s campaigns was that “mine was a very, very grass roots campaign,” he said. “I did not have a political machine behind me. I understand how this process works, and in this instance, he prevailed.”

As for why Girdler didn’t take three of four counties, the winning candidate — since there are no Democrats in the race, winning the Republican primary was effectively a final victory for Girdler — said he didn’t have an answer for that.

However, “I believe things happen for a reason and I hope the long and strenuous campaign will only heighten my desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past,” said Girdler.

“Regionalism is a goal of mine, and I look forward to helping all four counties,” he added, noting that he campaigned heavily in each of them.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, the long-time state senator whose seat the candidates were vying for, actually supported Polston after Liberty’s Todd Hoskins dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Donahue, a local attorney, got 556 votes in Pulaski County, 8.79 percent of the vote. He only received 145 votes in Russell County, 74 in Adair County, and 75 in Casey County, where hometown candidate Hoskins almost matched him with 71 votes despite no longer being officially in the race.

Polston said he’s “still digesting” what happened, and though “the process has been a very good experience for me,” he wouldn’t commit to running again in the future. “I wouldn’t shut the door to anything, but I’m not opening any doors either.”

Still, “I think I got a lot of people involved in the process that had not been involved before and would not have been otherwise,” he said. “A lot of people got out and worked really hard, got motivated to talk to friends and neighbors. I think a lot of people became involved through this campaign that are going to be involved for a long time.”

Girdler stressed his “positive message” and said that Rogers is a “mentor and good friend” that he would turn to for advice in dealing with a frequently combative legislative body in Frankfort, one for which Girdler hopes to help change the culture.

Girdler said that he was “confident and optimistic” during the day Tuesday because he’d “worked extremely hard.” Nevertheless, the realization that he’d won gave him “chill bumps,” he said.

“I’m absolutely honored,” said Girdler. “The position of state senator is more than an honor, more than an office. It’s a charge to keep, and I will give it my all.

“I pledge to be the people’s state senator,” he added. “I look forward to working with everyone to move this region forward.”

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