HAZARD – Following a two-day Internet money bomb that raised $10,000 for his campaign, Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffett was in eastern Kentucky on Wednesday, hoping to pick up support for his Tea Party-backed campaign.

A Louisville businessman, Moffett has made state sovereignty, job creation, education and fiscal responsibility the backbone of his campaign, and despite so far falling well short of his fundraising goal of $200,000, he said recent polling shows he has a “good chance of winning” the three-way race for the Republican nomination. Also running in the May 17 primary are Kentucky Senate President David Williams and Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw.

“We’ve had some great polling numbers come out in the past couple of weeks, and we’re excited about the primary,” Moffett said during a stop at the Perry County Public Library in Hazard.

A straw poll conducted in late March by the Northern Kentucky Tea Party showed Moffett with a narrow lead over Williams, while he also picked up an endorsement from the Southern Kentucky Tea Party. Moffett said he hopes to continue that momentum into the last six weeks of the campaign, and he expects the Tea Party to help him along the way.

“Kentucky is the epicenter of the Tea Party, so I’m confident that they’re behind me,” he said. “They have told me as much, and I think it’s going to help us a great deal in the primary.”

Moffett also talked job creation again while in Hazard, saying his jobs plan will aggressively work to bring new employment to Kentucky.

During an interview with the Herald in December, Moffett said Kentucky needs a better business environment to help hold on to the jobs already in the state, but also create new ones. He also proposed a single rate consumer sales tax on goods and services that could replace a multitude of different state taxes and fees and still bring in the revenue needed to run state government.

“Our tax plan is about bringing companies to Kentucky and about creating jobs and creating prosperity,” he said. “We have the best plan for doing that over any of my competitors.”

Following his Internet money bomb earlier this week, several media outlets noted Moffett has thus far come up short in his fundraising goals. Moffett, however, said he expects to continue to get the word out until the primary, and if he wins on May 17 his fundraising totals will increase.

“Once we get past this primary and a lot the national groups that can’t get involved in the race because they don't play in primaries, they’ll get involved and we’ll have plenty of money to go against Gov. Beshear, and we’ll be able to beat him in the fall.” Moffett said.

He also touched on the Medicaid debate in Frankfort, saying state legislators should have proposed fixes to the $166 million Medicaid shortfall well before the end of the 2011 regular session, and the fixes that were proposed were only short term solutions.

Gov. Beshear’s plan to move money from next year’s budget to plug this year's shortfall amounted to an “accounting trick,” Moffett added, while Sen. Williams’ plan in the state Senate simply relied on small cuts but failed to address the overall problems of state spending.

“Senate President Williams’ response was just as parochial,” he said. “It was basically take percentage cuts out of certain areas, but it didn’t do anything to solve the problems of over spending in any of those areas.”

Lawmakers need to look closer at state spending for long term solutions, he added.

“The problems that we have are systemic spending problems in Frankfort, and what we need to do – and we had the time to do it – was to take a look at how we’re spending money and wasting money on a day-to-day basis, and make cuts that way so we could keep those savings year-to-year,” he said.

From Hazard, Moffett planned to travel to Harlan County.