for the entire campaign compared to Wilkinson's $8 million. This left him unable to purchase enough media time to solidify any of the ethical questions about Wilkinson in the voters' minds. Wilkinson's campaign also delved into Harper's personal life, admitting that it tipped off the media about Harper's son, who had been shot to death in an attempted burglary. In the general election, Wilkinson defeated Harper by a vote of 504,674 to 273,141. By capturing 65% of the vote, he broke Julian Carroll's record of 62.8%. Low voter turnout prohibited him from setting the record for most votes received by a candidate in a Kentucky gubernatorial election, and he received several thousand fewer votes than Brereton Jones, the victorious Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. He carried 115 of Kentucky's 120 counties – besting Carroll's old record of 99 – but lost in Fayette, his county of residence. A poll conducted by a Louisville television station after the election showed that 76% of voters wished they had another candidate to vote for. Legislative session of 1988 Even before he officially took office, some of Wilkinson's public comments set up an adversarial relationship with the General Assembly. Just two days after his election, he told reporters that he would exert the "full power" of his office toward getting his agenda approved by the legislature and that he "conceive of a situation" where he would use his political action committee (PAC), Kentuckians for a Better Future, to help defeat legislators who opposed him. Under governors Brown and Collins, the legislature had become increasingly independent of the governor, and Lexington Herald-Leader reporters opined that House Speaker Don Blandford and Senate President Pro Tem John "Eck" Rose would be reluctant to cede power back to the chief executive. During the 1988 legislative session, Rose introduced a bill setting a limit of $4,000 on the amount PACs could contribute to an individual's campaigns during a single election and a limit of $2,000 on the amount any individual could contribute to a single PAC in a given election. A month later, Wilkinson recanted, saying he "misspoke" and only intended to use his PAC to promote passage of the lottery amendment. Despite the governor's promise, the legislature passed Rose's bill. Tensions also developed between Wilkinson and Lieutenant Governor-Elect Jones soon after the election. During the campaign, Jones was quoted as saying that he had talked with Wilkinson about