Joe Imel/Daily NewsSupporters of Gov. Ernie Fletcher listen to him speak Monday during a campaign stop at the Bowling Green/Warren County Airport.

Hustling through the final hours before the election, both candidates for governor flew in to the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport on Monday for last-minute rallies of the party faithful.

Former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear and State Sen. Daniel Mongiardo were joined by most of the Democratic slate for state offices, while Gov. Ernie Fletcher appeared with his running mate, Executive Cabinet Secretary Robbie Rudolph.

At 10 a.m., a United Auto Workers flag few beside Beshear/Mongiardo signs at the airport, and about 50 people greeted the candidates inside. Warren County Democratic Party Chairman Shannon Morgan pointed out notable local figures in the crowd: House Speaker Jody Richards, District 4 Magistrate Tommy Hunt, District 2 Magistrate Richard Morgan, former State Sen. Nick Kafoglis, former State Rep. Roger Thomas, UAW Local 2164 president and former Mayor Eldon Renaud, former Property Valuation Administrator Bill Carter, Sheriff Jerry “Peanuts” Gaines, former Mayor Patsy Sloan, Oakland City Commissioner Tim Hunt and former State Auditor Ed Hatchett. Many in the crowd wore “I’m an education voter” stickers from the National Education Association.

“What a great day it is to be a Democrat in Kentucky!” Morgan said to cheers and applause before he introduced the candidates. Bruce Hendrickson probably faces the toughest fight, against incumbent Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson, Morgan said.

Todd Hollenback, running for state treasurer against Melinda Wheeler – who wants to abolish the office – said today’s election is “as much about integrity as it is ideas.”

State Auditor Crit Luallen said she’s aggressively pursued corruption and waste, and wants to do so again under Beshear and Mongiardo. Like many at the rally, she called for a last push to get out the vote. Her opponent is Republican Linda Greenwell.

Jack Conway seeks the attorney general’s seat now held by Greg Stumbo. His Republican opponent is Stan Lee.

“I’m running for an awfully doggone important office,” Conway said. “If you don’t think the attorney general’s office is important, just ask Ernie Fletcher.”

He was alluding to the state merit job hiring scandal pursued by Stumbo which has dogged Fletcher since 2005. The governor was indicted last year on charges that he rewarded politically connected Republicans with government jobs at the expense of Democrats. At least 14 people were indicted, including the governor himself, who was charged with scheming to violate state hiring laws. Fletcher issued pardons to everyone but himself.

Prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charges against Fletcher in a deal, in which he acknowledged that the evidence “strongly indicates wrongdoing” by his administration and that the actions “were inappropriate.”

Beshear and Mongiardo touted their local connections, with Mongiardo saying that a doctor from Bowling Green, W.G. Begley, got him into his field of medicine. Mongiardo is an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Beshear said his wife, Jane, grew up in Bowling Green, and he is from Hopkins County, 90 miles west of Warren.

He noted that Fletcher was scheduled to appear at the same spot in about five hours.

“I think that it sets the right tone,” Beshear said. “He is second to us today, and he will be second to us tomorrow.”

At 2:45 p.m., Fletcher and Rudolph drew a slightly smaller crowd of about 40. Local Republican leaders crowded the airport terminal lobby, including State Rep. Jim DeCesare, District 1 Magistrate James “Doc” Kaelin, Warren County Republican Party Chairman Tommy Adams, representatives from U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis and U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s offices, Deputy Judge-Executive Marie Smith, former City Commissioner Jim Bullington, Warren County Treasurer Jerry Pearson, Barren County Judge-Executive Davie Greer, Hart County Judge-Executive Terry Martin, Butler County Judge-Executive David Fields and Barren River Area Development District Executive Director Rodney Kirtley. Many in this crowd wore “No Casinos” stickers, a theme of Fletcher’s campaign for several months.

“This election is about you,” Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon told the crowd. It will choose who makes decisions about Kentucky families, jobs and social issues for the next four years, he said.

“Is it going to be someone who says he’s going to do it, or someone who’s been doing it?” Buchanon said. “Gov. Fletcher and Robbie Rudolph have done more in the last four years for southcentral Kentucky than the previous four governors combined.”

Democrats avoided direct attacks on Fletcher, but Rudolph lunged at Beshear in his statements.

“This governor is about Kentucky values,” he said. “Our opponent wants to take God out of the public square. Our opponent is pro-abortion. He’s for local gun control.”

Rudolph said Beshear wants to give benefits to same-sex partners employed by Kentucky universities.

Taking his turn, Fletcher called Beshear a product of an old Democratic political machine, which he said has been out to get him since his 2003 election. He asked for four more years to make headway against that opposition.

“It’s going to take awhile to change decades and decades of mediocrity,” Fletcher said.

In response to a question about numerous polls that show him trailing Beshear by 20 points, Fletcher said a poll of about 10,000 high school students showed him beating Beshear 54 percent to 46 percent.

Local precincts showed a steady flow of voters this morning, with 34 votes cast in one location, 80 in another and 90 in a third, in the first four hours of polling, Warren County Clerk Dot Owens said. Before the election, she predicted turnout at 42 percent of registered voters, perhaps a little lower.

In other developments Monday, Fletcher ordered the Ten Commandments displayed in the state Capitol, and no one claimed responsibility for automated phone calls made to Kentucky households purporting to be an endorsement of Beshear by the “homosexual lobby.”

The Ten Commandments, along with other historical documents mounted on easels, went on display in the Rotunda following a ruling from a federal judge earlier Monday. U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood ruled that a previous injunction that prohibited a different monument displaying the biblical directives did not apply.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Fletcher was playing to his political base of social conservatives.

“Fletcher’s only remaining hope is that somehow evangelicals come out in record numbers and that other people don’t,” Sabato said. “This is an attempt to pop off his base.”

The calls from the “homosexual lobby” don’t identify who paid for the message, a potential violation of state election laws. The calls direct people to visit the Web site of the Fairness Campaign, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. The call does not mention Fletcher.

Although the Fairness Campaign’s political action committee has endorsed Beshear, the group said in a statement that it had nothing to do with the calls.

“For the first time in 20 years, the homosexual lobby proudly endorses a candidate for governor, Steve Beshear,” the male voice on the calls says. “Beshear is receiving major support from out-of-state gay activists.”

Fletcher, during a campaign stop in Louisville on Monday, told reporters he wasn’t aware of any such calls.

The message says Beshear is “publicly committed to same-gender relationships; employment of more homosexuals in state government, including teachers; and support for homosexual adoption of children.

“If you believe these rights are fair, vote for Steve Beshear for governor,” the ad says.

Beshear’s campaign said it welcomes support from all Kentuckians and said the calls were a sign of desperation by the Fletcher campaign.

Beshear said he made no promises to the Fairness Campaign’s political action committee.

“I told them like I’ve told everybody in Kentucky, that my faith teaches me that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this article.