Mark BradfordCommission candidate

Two candidates for Bowling Green City Commission have already taken the position that the city’s anti-smoking ordinance needs to be revised.

“I am so mad over the smoking ban, the law itself,” said candidate Bill Goodwin.

Goodwin is interested in adjusting the smoking ban to exempt clubs such as the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

“It’s very upsetting that our commissioners are picking on veterans. The law is written so wrong,” Goodwin said.

Candidate Mark Bradford also said he believes it would be a good idea to see some revisions and exemptions.

So far, the city has issued two smoking ban citations. Malcolm Cherry, quartermaster for VFW Post 1298, was cited Sunday. James Manley, an officer for American Legion Post 23, also was cited.

“I got so upset when I found out they fined Malcolm Cherry,” Goodwin said.

The citywide smoking ban went into effect in April, after a 3-2 vote in January.

However, Brandon Peay, a mayoral candidate, said he’s all for the smoking ban.

“Healthy, clean air should be available to everyone,” said Peay, a virtual unknown in the race. The 25-year-old Western Kentucky University student said he told his mother, Angela Peay, that he always wanted to run for public office. Peay is a lifelong resident of the city.

His mother died in 2007 of breast cancer.

“If she knew I was doing this right now, she’d be so proud of me,” Peay said.

Peay said he plans to tap fellow WKU students for support and recognizes he has an uphill climb against fellow candidates, Commissioner Bruce Wilkerson and Mayor Joe Denning.

“It would be a huge upset,” Peay said. “My slogan will be to vote for the new future of Bowling Green. I will be the new future.”

Peay added that he believes the college population would be able to see him as a conduit for their views and opinions in the city.

“I will be for everyone equally,” Peay said. “I will view everyone’s views equally. The college students may just find me more approachable because I’m so down to earth.”

Beyond the debate over the smoking ban, Goodwin said his priorities include eliminating local government’s unnecessary and repeated overspending.

“We have excessive expenditures,” Goodwin said, “government expenditures that I just don’t understand.”

Goodwin used the traffic lights in town as an example. He said he was disappointed the city spent money to study the traffic lights, then once new ones were installed, they still were not synchronized.

Bradford said his priorities would be looking at the traffic problems at the Greenwood interchange. Also, he says the city needs to create other areas that Bowling Green consumers and the shopping public will flock to.

He added that he’d like to see some work done around Exit 28 off Interstate 65, making it a regular “diamond exit.”

Peay said he’s interested in cutting costs for the city, while still keeping basic city services available.