Governor Carroll and Benny Brown - old friends and supporters were in the labor rally crowd.

(October 11, 2014) - Former Kentucky governor and current Kentucky state Senator Julian Carroll returned home on Saturday and couldn't stop grinnin'. The Paducah native, now in his mid eighties, was the last speaker of the day at the labor union rally that featured younger stars of the Democratic Party.

For many old timers, a Julian Carroll "chat" was the bow on a package of Democratic chocolates. Youngsters who had never heard the former governor sat transfixed as he marched up and down the concrete concourse, clutching his microphone, bringing his Sunday preachin' skills to a Saturday political rally.

Carroll asked the crowd if they knew he is a preacher. "Well" he said, "I am and a damned good one, I think." The crowd roared.

The former governor pointed out kinfolk and old friends in the crowd. He asked one man sitting in the crowd if he knew him. J. R. Gray pointed to himself and said, "Me?" The crowd all knew Gray as the former Kentucky Secretary of Labor, the first to serve in the cabinet position created by Steve Beshear.

Carroll reminded the crowd that when Wendell Ford won his race for Kentucky lieutenant governor, he did so with fewer than 700 votes. "That was 1/5 of a vote per precinct at that time. That's how close it was."

His advice to several thousand union members - "Get your ass out and do something."

Before he relinquished the microphone, Senator Carroll, the octogenarian politician, made an announcement that surprised no one.

He's going to run again.