Republicans Say Erased Audio is Lunsford

By Carrie Pond

Gilbertsville, KY – A Republican campaign group says erased audio recovered from a digital recorder reveals Bruce Lunsford telling a staff member to keep the recorder. After Thursday's debate in Kentucky Dam Village, a Lunsford campaign member took a GOP staffer's recorder after he left it on Lunsford's podium during the debate. Lunsford's campaign has acknowledged it erased the recording because it thought the staffer had tried to "bug" Lunsford's podium. A McConnell spokesman says the man placed the recorder on the podium in an attempt to get a good recording of the debate. A Lunsford spokeswoman says the disagreement over the recorder is an attempt to distract voters from important issues in the race. Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars tells the Courier-Journal authorities probably won't use the recovered audio in the investigation because it was recovered by someone hired by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and not an official investigator. He adds he'd tried since Thursday to obtain the recorder from the group.